help me choose ram and HD

[zCypher]

so far i am thinking along the lines of

intel E7500
corsair 750tx power supply
asus P5Q
4GB DDR2 (maybe 1066?)
MSI GTX275
1TB seagate or WD sata

i have been out of the loop for a while... so i'm just getting back into this stuff now.

i just bought a 23" samsung lcd which im happy with so far.. now the system has gotta be upgraded. havent decided on a case yet but i want to build it all up choosing each piece carefully.

it's not going to be a hardcore gaming system but i want it to be as fast as possible for a reasonable price. from my experience, MSI and Asus are both very good...

I'm really not sure for the RAM, I know there are a lot of good ones out there but is it worth it to spend more on lower latency RAM, how much of a difference to expect?

anything in this build that you would do differently?

also... i might consider SSD in the future ... but for now i think a 1TB sata will do more than enough, at the moment im using an old 80GB + 8GB.

i prefer spending a little more to get good quality and a bit faster, as opposed to cheaping out to save a few bucks but sacrifice quality and speed.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: zCypher
help me choose ram and HD

i prefer spending a little more to get good quality and a bit faster, as opposed to cheaping out to save a few bucks but sacrifice quality and speed.

That's easy...
G.Skill PI Black 4GB and the WD 1TB Black :thumbsup::laugh:

 

[zCypher]

Hi Blain,

Thank you for the quick input. Nice ram - but I'm wondering if there's a tangible difference between DDR2-800 and let's say 1066 or 1200? Would the latency be a more important factor for the performance?

I used shopbot.ca to find a WD 1TB/32M for $79.99 but when I clicked on the link it said $88 (NCIX), hmm... either way still good deal, plenty of space for now.

is it best if the ram speed matches the CPU FSB? or does that not matter..

 

[Blain]

You'll have to OC the E7500 up to 3.66GHz to get to the rated speed of the PC2-6400 memory.
I think that gives you plenty of headroom.

Latency isn't going to make a difference, but it does indicate the quality of the memory, since it's rated at the JEDEC DDR2 voltage standard of 1.8-1.9v

 

[zCypher]

I won't be overclocking -> but I want to make sure I get the right parts to work with each other. Even a stock E7500 will be much better than my Athlon XP2600 no?

Is it worth getting 1066 or 1200 DDR2 instead of 800 or will that be pointless?

I always thought that lower latency made a significant difference, guess I was wrong.

so I'm better off getting a lot of 800MHz DDR2 then.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: zCypher
I won't be overclocking -> but I want to make sure I get the right parts to work with each other. Even a stock E7500 will be much better than my Athlon XP2600 no?

Is it worth getting 1066 or 1200 DDR2 instead of 800 or will that be pointless?

I always thought that lower latency made a significant difference, guess I was wrong.

so I'm better off getting a lot of 800MHz DDR2 then.

* It will perform much better, if you use any CPU heavy apps at all.
* No, it would be pointless to go higher than 800.
* Lower latency doesn't mean as much these days as it once did.
I use latency, voltage at a speed rating as an indicator of memory quality.
* A 4GB 800 kit is fine.
If you're running a 32-bit Windows OS, there's no point in going over 4GB.
If you're running a 64-bit Windows OS with memory heavy apps, you might want to go with more.

 

[zCypher]

Thanks Blain, that helps clear it up a bit. The g.skill 4GB kit looks like the best deal, I can find it for $51 through shopbot.ca, I haven't been able to find that much RAM for less anywhere else yet. Sounds like a pretty good deal.

I will most likely go 64 bit to leave myself some room to get more RAM later on, start with 4 now and add more later if I need it.

So now I just have to pick the right MB/CPU.

do you think the E5300 is still significantly better than an XP2600 or should I go for E7500?

I don't really play games, it's mostly for multi tasking, web and office aps, multimedia etc.

 

[Blain]

If you want to cheap out on a CPU, go for the E6300.
It's cheap... defaults at close to 3GHz... runs on a 1066MHz FSB (E5300 is only 800MHz)

Of course is much faster than your aged XP2600

 

[n7]

Why not AMD?

Especially as you are looking at more of a budget build, & you aren't wanting to OC, you could save some coin & end up with a decent system.

I see you are Canadian...where are you buying from?

NCIX sales & DirectCanada tend to be the best prices in my experience, though newegg.ca has occasional good prices.

As an example: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/P...2825342&name=Quad-Core

Combo deals from newegg.ca

I like Intel & all, but i'd say a triple or quad core AMD setup will be a better value by far.

 

[zCypher]

I ended up going even cheaper

E5200, MSI G31M3-L V2 and Corsair PC2-6400 2GB

It will be plenty for me and if I do decide to play any games there are a lot of cheap video cards that I can get later, which will more than do it for me. 2GB RAM really isn't much, but considering I'm using 1.5GB (not all the same kind or speed) of DDR1 right now, it's still an upgrade and I can always pop in another 2GB later if I really feel the need.

I decided to get that board cause, for one it's so damn cheap, I couldn't find anything bad about it anywhere online and it's mATX so if I end up going with one of those tiny cases which I very well might... then I'm all set there.

I actually ended up ordering it from NCIX, $6.99 shipping for all three items, worked out cheaper than getting it anywhere else and comparing it to one of my local shops here it's quite a bit cheaper from NCIX so pretty good deal.

Another good one for certain things is Canadacomputers.com

Thanks for everyone's help it is much appreciated!

edit: one thing that's cool about NCIX and Canadacomputers is that they offer interaconline payments, so you have a lot of payment options which is nice.

 

[n7]

No 2x2 GB & that mobo... :'(

But for value, looks good no doubt.

 

[zCypher]

Originally posted by: n7
No 2x2 GB & that mobo... :'(

But for value, looks good no doubt.

What do you mean? I can't stick two 2GB in there, won't work?

 

[Blain]

Your MB supports 4GB total.
2 x 2GB sticks = 4GB

 

[zCypher]

Originally posted by: Blain
Your MB supports 4GB total.
2 x 2GB sticks = 4GB

Yep, I know this. I know that sometimes motherboards don't live up to their specs 100% though.

I checked on the MSI forums and people have this board running 4GB, but it seems that it might be a bit quirky about what combination of memory you use. So I guess so long as I stick to the same memory I should be good.

 

[Blain]

Will you be using a 32-bit or 64-bit Windows version?

 

[zCypher]

Definitely 64, I don't think 32-bit will see large amounts of memory?

 

[Blain]

With 32 someone would see about 3.2-3.5GB out of a 4GB total.

 

[zCypher]

Alright.

About hard disks -> is there a notable difference between WD "green" and "black" 1TB drives? What about between WD and Seagate, any real difference or just go with which one is cheaper?

edit: Seagate ST31000528AS $79.99

Cavier Black $99.99

Is there really any difference?

 

[zCypher]

Hmmm, I looked at the comments for both and seagate has a lot of bad comments. Would it be better to go with WD despite the price difference?

 

[rlim111]

Originally posted by: zCypher
Alright.

About hard disks -> is there a notable difference between WD "green" and "black" 1TB drives? What about between WD and Seagate, any real difference or just go with which one is cheaper?

edit: Seagate ST31000528AS $79.99

Cavier Black $99.99

Is there really any difference?

Green is cooler than Black but Black is faster than Green.
Seagate drive price is not much different with WDC, it's better to choose WDC.

 

[zCypher]

I see. So I will go for the WD Black then. I remember how big 80GB seemed. I think 1TB will last me quite a while!