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More ram or faster hd?

aphex

aphex

Moderator<br>All Things Apple
Moderator
Ok, well as im sure some of you already know, i picked up a new Athlon 64 3200+ / Asus K8V SE Deluxe combo a few weeks ago....

I currently have it running on 512mb PC2100 Crucial Ram (256x2), and have what i believe to be a dying 80gb Western Digital (IDE) making a lovely noise like its turning on and off randomly....

I know i need to upgrade the ram, but which setup do you reccomend? Im not a huge gamer, i do pretty much everything on my rig....

Which should i go for?


1) 512mb PC3200 &amp; Raptor 74gb 10,000rpm SATA

or

2) 1gb PC3200 &amp; Seagate 120gb 7200rpm SATA
 
Go for number 1) then upgrade your RAM in a month or two when you have some more cash..

Those raptors are so freaking fast... omg...
 
Given that everything is of high quality: When the choice comes between more ram and more/bigger/faster anything else, always choose the ram.
 
Originally posted by: DaZ
Go for number 1) then upgrade your RAM in a month or two when you have some more cash..

Those raptors are so freaking fast... omg...
Click to expand...

I totally agree with DaZ. You're going to love the raptors, and the ram is better than your current PC2100. I can't wait to get my raptors. 😎
 
Originally posted by: Budman
2) 1gb PC3200 &amp; Seagate 120gb 7200rpm SATA
Click to expand...
:thumbsup:

Doom 3 is coming,you'll need the extra ram. 😉
Click to expand...

UT2K4 on my system freaks sometimes on assault and onslaught maps, I have 512MB. Borrowed a friend of mines's stick of 512MB and it was smooth sailing. On the raptors, refer to Anandtech's article. What I got was that the raptors were faster, it really wasn't worth the extra money.
 
Originally posted by: Budman
2) 1gb PC3200 &amp; Seagate 120gb 7200rpm SATA
Click to expand...
:thumbsup:

Doom 3 is coming,you'll need the extra ram. 😉
Click to expand...

Far Cry is here. Get the ram 🙂 Even if you don't play many games you should notice your system feels a little more crisp with a gb, at least I did when I upgraded.
 
I'm actually slightly surprised to hear that an AMD64 system will run on PC2100, I thought that most of them required PC2700 or PC3200 at a minimum. Interesting. I guess I didn't read closely enough about them the first time.

As for the HD "randomly restarting", have you tried a new cable? Have you manually, carefully, inspected the solder joints where the molex connects to the controller PCB? Those things are notorious for getting weak and causing intermittent connections. I had that problem with mine; I swapped out the cable, and also carefully plugged in the HD. No problems since. (Well, technically not true, I moved the cable to the secondary port, and a month later, that drive, a brand-new Maxtor 250GB, started doing the same thing. I thought that the drive was dying, at first, until I remembered that I swapped the cable. I have since pulled the cable from the machine, and so far, so good.)

The other possibility, is the PSU failing or external AC voltage fluctuations, of course.
 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
I'm actually slightly surprised to hear that an AMD64 system will run on PC2100, I thought that most of them required PC2700 or PC3200 at a minimum. Interesting. I guess I didn't read closely enough about them the first time.

As for the HD "randomly restarting", have you tried a new cable? Have you manually, carefully, inspected the solder joints where the molex connects to the controller PCB? Those things are notorious for getting weak and causing intermittent connections. I had that problem with mine; I swapped out the cable, and also carefully plugged in the HD. No problems since. (Well, technically not true, I moved the cable to the secondary port, and a month later, that drive, a brand-new Maxtor 250GB, started doing the same thing. I thought that the drive was dying, at first, until I remembered that I swapped the cable. I have since pulled the cable from the machine, and so far, so good.)

The other possibility, is the PSU failing or external AC voltage fluctuations, of course.
Click to expand...

Cable &amp; Joints look fine. PSU is only a year old, Antec True430....
 
Thanks for the opinions guys.....

Im 80% sure im gonna go for the 10,000rpm drive, 512 ram....

Ram is always something i can upgrade later, while i could upgrade the drive later, but this one lasted me 5 years, no need to.
 
1GB of RAM because games released nowadays (e.g Far Cry) needs 1GB to run smoothly. The Raptor won't help to eliminate the stutters and slowdowns in games due to inadequate amount of RAM in a 512MB system.
 
Consider getting 1GB of RAM in one module so 1.5GB or 2.0GB is within reach without giving up DDR400 speeds, if you should ever want to exceed 1GB. Do an advance RMA on your drive if it's under warranty and you have a credit card.
 
Originally posted by: mechBgon
Consider getting 1GB of RAM in one module so 1.5GB or 2.0GB is within reach without giving up DDR400 speeds, if you should ever want to exceed 1GB. Do an advance RMA on your drive if it's under warranty and you have a credit card.
Click to expand...

The hard drive is 4-5 years old 🙁
 
Just out of interest, have you tried ocing the ram? Mine runs happily at 333Mhz.

Having said that, 1GB of PC3200 would do wonders for u, especially if you're a gamer.
 
Originally posted by: chilled
Just out of interest, have you tried ocing the ram? Mine runs happily at 333Mhz.

Having said that, 1GB of PC3200 would do wonders for u, especially if you're a gamer.
Click to expand...

You think i can get PC2100 that high?
 
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