can i up my ram

[BOGANV8]

When it comes to computer i pretty dumb minded so be gentle

Just a basic ? what the easiest way i can i make my computer faster... I have just had the computer re hashed after a virus got in and coruppted everything so yeah it all fresh as it can be i guess. Is it the RAM i have to up to make it faster. if so what can i put it up too IE 4gb or 5gb or 6gb ram...

spec are below

Intel(R) core(TM) 2 Duo CPU
E6750 @ 2.66GHZ
2.66GHZ 3.00 RAM
Physical Address Extension

The way i understand it (in mechanical terms) the ram is like fuel. the cpu is the engine. If i up the ram to much.IE too much NOS with a small CPU. IE old 4cyl magna motor it wont last long. YES

[pow3rslave]

you're kind of on the right track with the analogy, but it's more like ram is how much your computer can temporarily remember, the cpu is how fast it can think about it. there's a couple of other things too like the ram speed which is how fast it can read/write to the ram.
don't suppose you know what socket the cpu is or what the motherboard is? if you bought the pc as a whole even just the model of that.
i'm asking because i don't think you need more ram, i think a faster processor would be helpful.
also 3gig of ram. never dealt with something like that before. is there a chance you're using windows virtual memory?

[DanVN]

Max ram to use is 4gb, anything above that you wont see noticeable gains, 2gb should be enough for your CPU to run with as long as you aren't doing video editing or anything like that.

Oh! and CPU is how your brain thinks Ram is remembering it temporarily, i know alot of times i think of something and then forget again... need a ram upgrade myself :P

[DanVN]

you're kind of on the right track with the analogy, but it's more like ram is how much your computer can temporarily remember, the cpu is how fast it can think about it. there's a couple of other things too like the ram speed which is how fast it can read/write to the ram.
don't suppose you know what socket the cpu is or what the motherboard is? if you bought the pc as a whole even just the model of that.
i'm asking because i don't think you need more ram, i think a faster processor would be helpful.
also 3gig of ram. never dealt with something like that before. is there a chance you're using windows virtual memory?

Core 2 DUO's are LGA775 Processors, its plenty powerful enough for most things.

[BOGANV8]

you're kind of on the right track with the analogy, but it's more like ram is how much your computer can temporarily remember, the cpu is how fast it can think about it. there's a couple of other things too like the ram speed which is how fast it can read/write to the ram.
don't suppose you know what socket the cpu is or what the motherboard is? if you bought the pc as a whole even just the model of that.
i'm asking because i don't think you need more ram, i think a faster processor would be helpful.
also 3gig of ram. never dealt with something like that before. is there a chance you're using windows virtual memory?

Not sure on the above all i know is it a DELL insprion 530. been a good computer so far does all i want to do but would like it a bit faster...

Not sure on the WINDOWS VIRTUAL MEMORY thing. Ijust a simple mechanic HEHEHEHE!!

Ok so is it worth replacing the CPU if so DO i lose everything i have on he ie programs, pics etc etc.. Is it something i could do ie unplug old one plug in new one then turn on computer and away we go or is beter left to the pros....

[BOGANV8]

THe reason why i mentioned this was while i was burning some musci and doing a virus scan and using J.C the CPU usage in task manager was up around 40-60% normally at 5-10% but would spike up to the 50 or 60 every now and then.

So hence my ?

[pow3rslave]

dunno about music, but virus scanning can be kinda intensive on the old cpu. to be honest i wouldn't be really concerned with that kinda reading.
did you just do a fresh install of windows?
if not it might be cool to look at some registry cleaning apps, i dunno what's good for that and i always see ones advertised that look like scams so maybe someone can give feedback for that.
they'll just look at what's running that doesn't need to be or what isn't installed anymore that still has entries. clearing out this old stuff will get your box running faster. some defrag too (move stuff round on the hard disk so instead of having a file broken up all over the disk it's in one place, makes it faster to read.)

[BOGANV8]

^^^^^^
Yeah ok cool yeah it was fresh install of windows start from scratch.. My hard rive was so infected something like 45 trojans when my mate plugged my hard drive into his computer to try and save my pics and stuff!!! it crashed his computer......

yeah i do the defrag once a week or month..

[pow3rslave]

you don't go in for stuff like google toolbar and all that crap do you?

[levymetal]

i've got an analogy for you

think of your computer as a taxi. the cpu is the engine, the ram is the amount of seats in the car, and your applications are the passengers. so, for example, say your taxi has 5 seats but only ever has 3 passengers. would you get all your passengers to their destination any quicker if you upgraded to 7 seats? the answer is no. but if you had 10 passengers with still only 5 seats, your trip would take twice as long because you'd have to go back and pick up all those passengers you couldn't take the first time! in reality the computer doesn't work quite like this, it would actually pick up some passengers, drop them off a few metres down the road, then go back and pick up the other passengers, drop them off at the same spot, then take the first ones a little bit further etc etc but you get the picture.

what i'm trying to say is that it depends on the type and amount of applications you run as to how much ram you need. if you only ever have a couple of small applications open at a time, then you probably don't need more ram. in this case it is simply the cpu, and only the cpu, that dictates how fast those applications run. the only time ram affects the speed of your computer is when you start running more applications than you have ram, and suddenly your cpu is spending most of it's time switching these applications from virtual memory to ram and back again rather than actually running the programs.

what operating system are you running? remember if it's 32bit (even vista), you can only ever addresses about 4gb (and that's including video ram, and anything that's addressable), so realistically you can only use about 3gb. you're pretty much on the money anyway.

[Bob12345]

Pow3rslave, while I don't mean any disrespect, you have a basic textbook idea of what you're talking about, but honestly nothing applies here.

OP: your computer has great specs, 50-60% CPU usage is fine, your CPU is good and can't really be upgraded. I wouldnt bother upgrading unless you're seeing 100% a lot of the time.

[Ozzie]

get yourself one of these and you shouldnt have any problems

Its a small price to pay for the speed they put out.