Would upgrading to an SSE3 processor speed things up?

[whizkid515]

I've been using a hackintosh as my primary computer for about a year and a half now, and ever since I did it the right way (Chameleon retail on EFI partition), it's been rock solid. The only thing I have an issue with is that flash seems to really slow down my computer. My specs are as follows: 2.6 Pentium 4 (non-SSE3), 1GB DDR400 RAM, and a GeForce 5200. I do not notice this flash slow down in Windows (XP and Vista) or Linux (Ubuntu 8.10-10.04). Since I don't have SSE3, the kernel I use has to emulate that, which could be giving a huge speed decrease. If I were to upgrade this computer (at this point, I could build a super fast computer for about $350), I'd only really consider doing either the processor, RAM, or video card. What would you, the insanelymac community, suggest I do? Upgrade one of those 3, or just build a new computer and put this one as a backup computer?

 

Thanks for all of the help!

 

whizkid515

[NickMiller]

I suggest building a new computer

[3.14r2]

Go the upgrade path. It should be much better machine for the same money.

[whizkid515]

Yeah, I was leaning pretty far toward that. This computer will always have a soft spot in my heart for being my first hackintosh. Surprisingly, for just piddly stuff, it runs faster than my macbook, even when it's booted to a 1:1 copy of my macbook's partition. It's just not enough for flash and what my intended use for this computer was, Logic. For recording, it's fine, but when you start playing a lot of tracks and sequencing simultaneously, it can't keep up.

[Shannon]

I'd start with a new computer as you can't really gain anymore speed using your P4 socket, and also none of the parts will be compatible with each other in your new pc except the hard drive.