Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H F11
Intel Core i3 530 @ 2.93GHz
4GB RAM (3.74GB Usable)
Dell U2212HM
Hi. I used to keep up with PC HW developments but not for a long time now so I'm in need of some advice. I'm looking for the best/cheapest way to give my PC a little processing boost. I mainly use it for browsing and as a media server but sometimes it can struggle while multi-tasking and/or when viewing HD video on the monitor. CPU ends up near 100% even with other apps closed. The following options occured to me:
Buy a CPU upgrade. An i5/i7 would simply increase the processing power, job done. Presumably I would need to change the cooler too though and mess about with thermal paste, etc?
Buy a GPU. Buying a GPU and thereby deactivating the use of the CPU for graphics would decrease the load on the CPU obviously. However it would also free up a quarter gig of memory, right? GPUs are also easier to swap out than CPUs.
Any opinions on the relative merits welcome. Also any suggestions on what kind of CPU/GPU would be most cost effective, considering it's all pretty ancient kit.
Intel Core i3 530 @ 2.93GHz
4GB RAM (3.74GB Usable)
Dell U2212HM
Hi. I used to keep up with PC HW developments but not for a long time now so I'm in need of some advice. I'm looking for the best/cheapest way to give my PC a little processing boost. I mainly use it for browsing and as a media server but sometimes it can struggle while multi-tasking and/or when viewing HD video on the monitor. CPU ends up near 100% even with other apps closed. The following options occured to me:
Buy a CPU upgrade. An i5/i7 would simply increase the processing power, job done. Presumably I would need to change the cooler too though and mess about with thermal paste, etc?
Buy a GPU. Buying a GPU and thereby deactivating the use of the CPU for graphics would decrease the load on the CPU obviously. However it would also free up a quarter gig of memory, right? GPUs are also easier to swap out than CPUs.
Any opinions on the relative merits welcome. Also any suggestions on what kind of CPU/GPU would be most cost effective, considering it's all pretty ancient kit.