One for the PC gurus.. (Page 2): Perfectly adequate for internet use. For photo editing, it will have some limitations regarding speed. Increasing the RAM to at least 8GB would be the...

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Perfectly adequate for internet use. For photo editing, it will have some limitations regarding speed. Increasing the RAM to at least 8GB would be the most cost-effective upgrade. Too little RAM can cause paging to disk (the machine is constantly moving data from RAM to disk and back because of a lack of memory), and paging REALLY kills performance.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

How you judge these suggestions will depend on your goals. So are you 1) trying to save money or 2) developing a rationale for buying a new system? I fall into the second group.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Modern versions of Windows, include Win7, provides "virtual memory"; if software needs more RAM than the system has, it will set aside some disk space and {fuzzing the details here} uses that disk space to make up for the lack of RAM. This process is very slow - so there is a strong possibility that this computer will struggle running the desired software, but it will get the job done.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

dsmeltz wrote:

How you judge these suggestions will depend on your goals. So are you 1) trying to save money or 2) developing a rationale for buy a new system? I fall into the second group.

Or 3) Saving money so that you can be in the second group!

Retired fat guy with a camera Loc: Colorado

The system you have right now, would work as a boat anchor. It is time to bust out some bucks, and join the 21st century.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

rmalarz wrote:

I lost interest when I read two things. AMD and Radeon.
--Bob

. . . . and HP

mflowe Loc: Port Deposit, MD

I love UHH. Half the respondents will have you buying a $10,000 gaming computer. The computer you have is just fine for the internet and basic photo editing. It'll be slow if you're running PS, but will work. The only upgrade that would be cost effective would be more ram. You don't even need to upgrade Windows. Seven is their best OS ever.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

mflowe wrote:

I love UHH. Half the respondents will have you buying a $10,000 gaming computer. The computer you have is just fine for the internet and basic photo editing. It'll be slow if you're running PS, but will work. The only upgrade that would be cost effective would be more ram. You don't even need to upgrade Windows. Seven is their best OS ever.

I don't agree about W7. W7 was very good, but W10 is regarded as even better by many - certainly by myself - but not worth paying money for on this machine. Many of us have done extensive W10 testing, on machines quite a bit older than the OP's.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Peterff wrote:

I don't agree about W7. W7 was very good, but W10 is regarded as even better by many - certainly by myself - but not worth paying money for on this machine. Many of us have done extensive W10 testing, on machines quite a bit older than the OP's.

The problem is that routine updates to W10 on older machines get a little wonky. And MS is not a lot of help when it does happen.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

dsmeltz wrote:

The problem is that routine updates to W10 on older machines get a little wonky. And MS is not a lot of help when it does happen.

I agree. Which is why I suggest not upgrading to W10 for this machine. My main machine (self built and with upgrades, SSD, USB3, SATA III) dates from 2010 and is just fine. The only machines that I retired date from 2005 or earlier, and they did upgrade to W10 and performed better than on W7, it just wasn't worth it. I just recycled some of the parts. It does depend upon your skill and patience level. I've never contacted Murkysoft, but internet research usually comes through. I have some older peripherals, long since abandoned which work better with W10 than they did with W7.

I'm looking at when to rip out the guts and replace the Mobo, processor, memory, but probably don't need to do that for a year or two yet, but the incremental upgrades that I have done (I/O, SSD, USB3, Power supply, Blu-ray R/W) plus external drives have inexpensively doubled the life of the system, and W10 is definitely superior. I use dual 22" monitors, extended workspace, and have about 24 TB of disk hanging off the machine. That's asking a lot from the machine, but it is still working.

bthomas42 Loc: North Ridgeville Ohio

I am using a Dell with 4G ram windows 7 64bit with Photoshop elements 14. My storage is 2 1tb hard drives (one is internal the other is external)

htbrown Loc: San Francisco Bay Area

A lot depends on how big a file you wish to edit. What you have will work. As others have said, it would greatly benefit from more RAM. A big swap space will do in a pinch, but things will be slow.

Upgrading CPU, motherboard, etc. (essentially, the whole shooting match) will get you faster execution but not particularly greater capability. The video card that came built into that computer was fairly middling when the computer was new, but it will do the job.

rcdovala

My desktop computer has 16 GB of ram but my laptop only has 4 GB of ram and runs Photoshop just fine. More ram is helpful but 4 GB is workable. I think the upgrades that you are suggesting are a bit of an overkill. My suggestion to the OP is that it will become apparent to you after a short time if you need to upgrade your computer. My suggestion is to try it and see if it satisfies your requirements.

JR45 wrote:

It may work, but it needs more ram. I would suggest a major up grade with a new
mother board. new processor, 1 TB SSD drive, 16 gb ram at minimum.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

rcdovala wrote:

My desktop computer has 16 GB of ram but my laptop only has 4 GB of ram and runs Photoshop just fine. More ram is helpful but 4 GB is workable. I think the upgrades that you are suggesting are a bit of an overkill. My suggestion to the OP is that it will become apparent to you after a short time if you need to upgrade your computer. My suggestion is to try it and see if it satisfies your requirements.

I agree.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

htbrown wrote:

A lot depends on how big a file you wish to edit. What you have will work. As others have said, it would greatly benefit from more RAM. A big swap space will do in a pinch, but things will be slow.

Upgrading CPU, motherboard, etc. (essentially, the whole shooting match) will get you faster execution but not particularly greater capability. The video card that came built into that computer was fairly middling when the computer was new, but it will do the job.

I also agree, to put it plainly, the current system will work, and will be better with a few inexpensive upgrades, but will require a fork lift upgrade before long. Treat it as a learning system, and get ready to replace it within a year or so. If money is not an object, get it working, don't spend money on it, and focus on what you want (or preferably need) for the next 5 or so years.