Vista Media Center Slow

[skitznmat]

Hi i Have a p4 3ghz 1gig ram pc running vista but it has always been slow, what can i do how to i fix do i need to upgrade or check compatibility or what? please help!

[alan6xg]

Vista is RAM hungry. 1GB of ram will just let it tick over, I suggest minimum 2 gb. If you are looking at more than 2gb, I think 32bit only supports 3GB and the Vista 64bit supports way more.

But in my opinion you need ram

Cheers

Alan

[noonz]

Hey
I had a friend that had the same problem, and he is a big whinger anyways, never happy.
He had Abit fatality MB, P4 D930 CPU (3Ghz) and 2Gb Ram, 2x 250Gb HDD's.
Tried everything to increase performance, fresh Install, Minimal Apps, More Ram, Diferent MB's & still sluggish. Couldnt figure it out as I have built hundrends of PC's and at least 50 Media Centers XPMCE & VMCE's.

SO, I decided that i would rebuild the whole system, to a similar spec than my own VMCE.
AM2 5000 CPU, 2GB RAM, AM2 MB onboard HDMI.
WOW, he said, he's never been happier, fast navigation, stable, quite, works a charm.

OK, IMHO after using Intel & AMD CPU's, (Talking about Media Centres) AMD CPU's seem to be a better option for being cheaper, quieter better performance (Remember we are talking about VMCE enviroments) & we are talking about Dual Core Processors here.

Also I have found that there seems to be a performance hit, slow video folder navigation if you are running RAID.

My mate has the following spec, hooked up to a Yamaha HDMI Amp & Panasonic HD Plasma.

AM2 X2 5000, stock cooler
J&W JW-RS780UVD-AM2+ M/Board - AMD 780G (Cheap, great performing MB's and stable as all *&%$)
4GB Value Select RAM. 2GB was fine, but what the heck as RAM is cheap
1x 500GB Seagate Drive & 1x 250GB Samsung
NovaT500 Dual Digital Tuner
XBox 360 HD DVD, Works great, still disapointed in the demise of the HD DVD Format
All inside a Silverstone LC16M case, not the XBox drive though.

I hope my little rant helps, but my thoughts are if you want better performance from your VMCE, then ditch the Intel P4 CPU and go for .... at least a Dual Core Processor
good luck
Noonz

[kiffies]

I'm running a Penitum 4 3.0Ghz HT with 2 gig or ram and it's rock solid. Not sure how much difference the HT makes but the extra RAM definately helps (used to run 1 Gig) make sure you have a decent gfx card (mine's a Radeon HD2600XT) to help free up your CPU and make sure all your drivers and codecs are up to spec. Old drivers and inefficient codecs can cause more performance problems than old hardware. Optimise your bios if you're brave enough.

Depending on how computer savvy you are, you could always oveclock your CPU, but make sure you get a decent cooler.

Failing that, just buy a new Motherboard, CPU & RAM combo. Entry level dual core Pentiums are dirt cheap now, under $100.