Anything I can buy for $50 to help my system out?

[Sniper82]

My rig:
Rig

Was wondering is there anything I can buy for $50 to help my system out? I have it sitting in paypal and was gonna transfer it to the bank if not. Only thing I can think of is another stick of 256mb DDR ram which prob won't do much considering I don't do any kind of high end editing.

 

[bjc112]

Ram is pretty much the only thing....

Your CPU, but to notice any difference, your looking to at least the 2600+ (and thats not out yet )

I say go for the ram, you will like have 512...

 

[Sniper82]

Would the extra ram really help any? Mainly in the new UT2003/Unreal II engines? Would I see a noticeable difference?

 

[spanky]

u can buy win xp look on hot deals for hot deals

 

[Sniper82]

Got XP guess I should update that on my rig. I guess I never thought it was important enough to update .

 

[Chadder007]

The system looks great man.....nothing really needs to be added. Is something about it bothering you?

 

[Sniper82]

Nah just had $50 in paypal and was curious if there was something I could add that was cool or something. Mainly would more ram really help? I could use a different case because my current one I have had for over 2 years now. Maybe I will shop ebay for a new case.

 

[Acanthus]

u could get a better HSF and bump up the multiplier a bit if its one of the factory unlocked Tbirds, 1466 or 1533 would be nice, and lower temps might increase the life of your CPU.

 

[Sniper82]

My temps stay under 50c no matter what I'm doing. They normaly stay under 45c and shoot up to 50c under load. So I think my temps are good. I am using a copper based Taisol with a Thermaltake 5000RPM 26cfm fan.

 

[RanDum72]

Definitely memory. 512mb is like the sweet spot nowadays, especially if you are going to use WinXP.
Another is the CPU, if just for lower heat and SSE instructions. You can still sell it and buy a 1600+ XP for $57 shipped at Newegg and you probably just lose a few bucks. Although the clock speed is the same (1.4ghz), the XP runs much cooler and has enhancements to boot such as SSE and data pre-fetch. You can also use fans that don't bleed your eardrums.

 

[drag]

I don't think adding memory will have any noticeable increase in performance. (hell it might so it down a bit because it'll take slightly longer for the cpu to go thru the memory and find what it needs)

Unless of course you are causing any paging onto the harddrive' virtual memory.... Then it could help out some.

Upgrading the OS to something newer will probably help out a bit (hehe try out gentoo linux if your brave). XP ought to have a much more evolved ways of interacting with memory and your hardrive, but you will notice a performance drop unless you turn off all the junk that XP as set up as default.

Anyways.. Having the more modern device drivers that hardware manufactures provide for XP ought to create enough of a performance boost that It would make it worth it. ('cause NT just sucks @#$ in that department)(make sure you use the latest from the manufactures website, too)

good luck.

 

[Mday]

MORE RAM!

 

[Freejack2]

More ram I would say. I don't find it too hard to eat through 256mb of ram which would cause lots of swapping. With 512 I pretty rarely eat through that.

 

[ParagonX]

If your happy with the overall speed of the system, maybe something different for your system? If you burn alot of CD's, you can get a 40x or 48x cd burner. Or maybe some stuff just to increase the "coolness factor" like some case mods, LCD in one of your drive bays.

just some thoughts..

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: ^Sniper^
Got XP guess I should update that on my rig. I guess I never thought it was important enough to update .

No excuse with XP, you should have 512mb

It would Looooooove you for it...

 

[mcveigh]

Surveyyyyyyy Sayssssssssssssssssss.......................








MORE RAM!

 

[CTho9305]

personally i'd hang on to the money. when UT2003 comes out (or some new app) and doesn't run well in 256, THEN buy 50 bucks more worth of ram (or whatever part ends up being the bottleneck)

 

[Sniper82]

I'll look into some ram. Or I might just keep it there incase something dies in my system and needs replaced? I don't burn enough CD's to bother upgrading it 24x wright is plenty for me.