Hi everyone,
I have a home theater PC currently running a C2D E6600 with 2gb DDR2 ram, running Win7 x64 Home Premium.
I use it mostly for browsing and as a DVR. It's connected to a Silicon Dust HDHR Prime which can record up to 3 HD digital feeds, as well as a HDHR original which can feed in 2 OTA feeds. When the DVR is busy running comskip in the background (a program that automagically finds commercial breaks) while I'm using the computer for other things is really the only time it starts to stutter a bit. CPU usage might hit 70% or so during these times.
As this is an older computer, I'm looking for a performance boost with a small upgrade.
Would I get the most boost from upgrading the E6600 to a quad-core, or swapping out a 1gb stick with a 4gb stick (thus making it 1gb+4gb ram)?
The CPU upgrade could be obtained for ~$50, the memory upgrade for $60-70.
I have a home theater PC currently running a C2D E6600 with 2gb DDR2 ram, running Win7 x64 Home Premium.
I use it mostly for browsing and as a DVR. It's connected to a Silicon Dust HDHR Prime which can record up to 3 HD digital feeds, as well as a HDHR original which can feed in 2 OTA feeds. When the DVR is busy running comskip in the background (a program that automagically finds commercial breaks) while I'm using the computer for other things is really the only time it starts to stutter a bit. CPU usage might hit 70% or so during these times.
As this is an older computer, I'm looking for a performance boost with a small upgrade.
Would I get the most boost from upgrading the E6600 to a quad-core, or swapping out a 1gb stick with a 4gb stick (thus making it 1gb+4gb ram)?
The CPU upgrade could be obtained for ~$50, the memory upgrade for $60-70.