Help me upgrade!

October 31, 2007 1:14 PM

Can a website or program benchmark my computer and advise updates?

I'm curious as to whether there exists a program or website that can pull up the specifications for my system and then advise upgrades to hardware or software?

If not, do I need to just visit an expert?c

posted by jefficator to computers & internet (13 comments total)

Why don't you tell us your computer's specs and what you're using it for... there's plenty of nerd here dishing out free advice ;)
Its hard to say whether hardware needs upgrading without knowing what the computer is being used for and what software is being run.
posted by missmagenta at 1:17 PM on October 31, 2007

That's just it. I'm so non-technical that I have no idea how to tell you what I have!
posted by jefficator at 1:19 PM on October 31, 2007

Download CPU-Z, and run it [installation is not necessary].

That should give you more information about your PC's specs than you would know what to do with.
posted by ijsbrand at 1:35 PM on October 31, 2007

The Vista upgrade advisor will give you a very basic idea of what's good and bad about your current PC.
posted by GuyZero at 1:39 PM on October 31, 2007

That's just what I've been hoping for!

I have a Dell Inspiron 1150 (please hold the groans). I use it as a student in university...so music and videos are the main things above and beyond essays.

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.80Ghz
Core Speed: 1598.8MHz
Multiplier: x12.0
Bus Speed: 133.2 MHz
Rated FSB: 532.9 MHz

L1D Cache: 8 KB
Trace Cache: 12 Kuops
L2 Cache 512 KBytes

Chipset: Intel i855GM/GME
Memory: DDR 512 MBytes

Timings: Frequency: 133.2 MHz

Does this help??
posted by jefficator at 1:44 PM on October 31, 2007

It all depends what you want to do. Is it slow in some way that bothers you? If not, don't do anything.

As a baseline though, I'd probably upgrade the memory. 512M isn't much anymore. But if you don't know about how to get machine specs, actually doing upgrades on your own is probably not a good idea.
posted by chairface at 2:11 PM on October 31, 2007

software: windowsupdate.com

hardware: here
posted by damn dirty ape at 2:12 PM on October 31, 2007

Your CPU seems perfectly adequate for your needs, more RAM wouldn't go amiss though. I have 1GB on my laptop - which I only really use for coding and web browsing and it can really lag up with some 'modern' websites - particularly because of Firefox's 'memory leak feature' - right now FF is using nearly half a gig of ram *groan*

I'm assuming you're asking this question because you're having some problems with your current hardware?
posted by missmagenta at 2:17 PM on October 31, 2007

I've just noticed it moves slowly...and Firefox is a particular instance. Multimedia DRAGS.
posted by jefficator at 2:30 PM on October 31, 2007

Be carefull with websites that advertise "scanning" your computer for fixes, upgrades, performace improvements and the like. Many are fronts for the nastier kind of malware.

Obviously not aimed at Passmark above, that's a well-known tool
posted by the number 17 at 2:35 PM on October 31, 2007

From digging around for info on your model, it seems that your graphics options are pretty limited, i.e. your graphics processor is built into your motherboard and cannot be replaced. This is bad because upgrading your vid card is the most obvious way to mprove video performance.

But that's not necessarily the last word on the subject.

Upgrade your RAM as much as you can afford. (Having at least 1 GB of it would be good.) It should then be safe to go into your BIOS and dedicated more of the system memory for use by the on-board graphics processor. That should get you improved overall performance and improved video performance.

This upgrade and memory reallocation is fairly easy for any techie; ask a friend. See also this, and this.
posted by oddman at 3:57 PM on October 31, 2007

Try changing browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers to 1 in firefox (type about:config into the address bar) this will fix the 'memory leak feature'
posted by missmagenta at 4:02 PM on October 31, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I've had good success with pcpitstop.
posted by TomMelee at 4:44 PM on October 31, 2007