Looking to upgrade my computer's hard drive and RAM...

[Garrettmania]

Hey there!
At the end of summer '08, I built a new computer after my Dell kicked the bucket and I must say I couldn't be happier with having built my own machine.

My specs:
Intel Core2Duo E8400 @ 3.0Ghz CPU
g.skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800 RAM
Asus P5Q Deluxe p45 motherboard
ATI Radeon HD4870 512MB graphics card
Wester Digital 320GB 3200AAKS hard drive
Antec 1200 case
PC Power And Cooling silencer 610Watt PSU
Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit

So I've been noticing a drastic slow down on load times (windows boot time as well) and applications crashing more frequently for not apparent reason. I check processes nothing unusual, nothing starting up that isn't necessary on boot, and the hard drive is defragmented.

I did some looking around and found a hard drive that seemed to be better than my AAKS, the WD 640GB 6401AALS with 32MB cache. I was wondering if I should go ahead and get that for my bootdrive/applications and use my 320 as my storage. At the moment I just have my 320 partitioned in half, one half for boot/apps and one half for storage, and both ends are filling up quickly. If I should get the 6401AALS, would it make any difference (speed wise) if I make a partition for Windows and a partition for my apps?

I also noticed the RAM I bought when I built my system was on sale on newegg and I was wondering if I should go ahead and buy it in case it suddenly disappears like many things do on newegg. I'd prefer to keep the RAM the same in my system (I'm just weird like that I guess...)

One last thing... Windows 7 beta x64. Should I use it instead of my Windows Vista 32 bit or is that a ridiculous idea and should never be mentioned again?

Thanks!
Garrett

 

[mindless1]

Fix boot problem and app crashing, THEN think about upgrading and changing hardware. Do the typical tests like memtest86+ for several hours, Prime95's Torture Test, and the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics as well as checking Event Viewer. Since you're running out of HDD space, yes a new drive would be handy, you could do a clean install of windows to it for testing purposes while leaving orig. install untouched for the time being and multiboot 'em.

I suggest ultimately leaving 2nd drive in system and putting apps on different drive than windows, and making windows partition much smaller.

Nothing wierd about running all the same memory when it doesn't cost a premium to do it, although sometimes same brand and model can change which chips it uses so not all seemingly same memory is actually identical. Memory is priced attractively now so if the sale is good you could go ahead and get it but you ought to wait till the other system problems are resolved before adding it to the system.

Should you run a beta OS for your primary OS/use? Of course not. That's why it's a beta. Make a separate partition on the new drive to multiboot and play with it till Win7 Sp1 comes out, then consider it for primary use.

 

[Garrettmania]

Originally posted by: mindless1
Fix boot problem and app crashing, THEN think about upgrading and changing hardware. Do the typical tests like memtest86+ for several hours, Prime95's Torture Test, and the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics as well as checking Event Viewer. Since you're running out of HDD space, yes a new drive would be handy, you could do a clean install of windows to it for testing purposes while leaving orig. install untouched for the time being and multiboot 'em.

I've done that multiple times, I'm not really getting any kind of fatal errors or anything like that. I haven't seen a BSoD in years! (knock on wood) So it's not that it's a hardware problem, but lack of room causing a slow down. I don't dare put Guild Wars on my computer (even though I really want to) because there isn't enough room and the system would slow down even more (less room = less speed, right?)

I suggest ultimately leaving 2nd drive in system and putting apps on different drive than windows, and making windows partition much smaller.

What I was thinking was I would make an 80 GB Windows partition on the 640GB drive and then the remainder for applications on a second partition. Then I would use the 320GB I already have for my photography, music, network admin schematics, research papers, etc.

Nothing wierd about running all the same memory when it doesn't cost a premium to do it, although sometimes same brand and model can change which chips it uses so not all seemingly same memory is actually identical. Memory is priced attractively now so if the sale is good you could go ahead and get it but you ought to wait till the other system problems are resolved before adding it to the system.

I was just curious because NewEgg (I only shop at newegg, spent a couple thousand with them and only have had one bad part :] knock on wood again) drops items a lot especially if they are older. I mean, it's not a ridiculously cheap price, but 10 bucks off is 10 bucks saved towards gas. I personally think 40 bucks for 4GB of DDR2 800 RAM is cheap compared to how much I paid half-a-year ago. But the issues still stands that I have a 32 bit OS and 8GB will most definitely not show up on the OS, let alone the 4GB I already have. So would it be worth it to buy an OEM x64 Vista when 7 is right around the corner (I personally don't think it'd be worth it but I don't know much)? If that's the case, I'll just watch the RAM closely and make sure they don't sell out. Who knows, maybe it will drop in price because of the DDR3 RAM becoming more abundant.

Should you run a beta OS for your primary OS/use? Of course not. That's why it's a beta. Make a separate partition on the new drive to multiboot and play with it till Win7 Sp1 comes out, then consider it for primary use.

I have it on my "cannibalized Dell" (used the working parts after the mobo took a dump on it's self, bought new case, mobo, psu, and cpu fan) I love how fast windows 7 runs on a Pentium 4 system! I guess all I can do is wait patiently for 7 to come out between July and the end of the year.

Thanks!