Purchase help!!

[JE78]

Ok, for christmas my mom said I can order $150 worth of stuff from Newegg or any other online store. Unfortunatly I want to order $220 worth of stuff so i'm trying to decide which would be the better purchase.

Here are the 2 things I want.

1gig of PC3200 Corsair Value Select: Corsair RAM $142.27

ENERMAX 460W Whisper II Power Supply: ENERMAX $76.50

Remember I can only spend $150.

Right now I have a Generic 350 watt PSU in my computer. Its running everything ok but I know I need an upgrade. Its running my Radeon 9800 pro, P4 2.53, 60gb HDD, 200gb HDD, Sound Blaster Live 5.1, NEC 3500 DVD-RW, DVD-ROM, and 4 case fans.

I also have 1 sick of 512mb PC2700.

I'm thinking of getting the PSU and one more stick of 512 PC2700, that would bring the price to right around $150. But i'm a gamer and would liek the PC3200. Anyways, help me out. Thanks.

 

[JBDan]

If it were me I would go with the PSU you picked and 1 more stick of pc2700. You have a gig of mem then and if you oc you can get that ram to perform close to pc3200 as far as bandwidth.

 

[nick1985]

power supply. IMO, the power supply is the most important component in a system.

 

[Thegonagle]

If you want a difference you'll notice, get the RAM.

If your PSU is holding up, there's no need to be so urgent about it.

Your 9800 Pro and Northwood P4 aren't pulling anything major compared to a Prescott, A64, or next-gen video card.

 

[imported_Darthan]

If your PSU is working now then you don't need to upgrade it. Assuming 15 watts per drive (both optical and hd), 60 watts for the 9800Pro (X-Bit labs examined this, that is what they draw), 80 watts for the P4 (an overestimate, I believe) 15 watts for fans, and 30 watts for motherboard, RAM and PCI cards your system should be using 245 watts at maximum power consumption. I'm almost certainly overestimating some of those numbers and your system will rarely have maximum power draw from processor, graphics card, both optical drives, and (except when spinning up at boot) never from the hds.

Of course, if you're running a p4 2.53 you're running it on a 533MHz frontside bus and you won't see any advantage from the PC3200 because even though it is faster your processor won't see the speed (unless you overclock it significantly).

Overall, getting the bettter PSU is not a bad idea, especially because it leaves you with a spare in the closet just in case. Get that with the PC2700 stick and you should be doing good. Of course, if you find something else you want you should go for it because the PSU upgrade probably isn't going to affect your system (even no name PSUs aren't likely to die after all, they're just less reliable than quality ones).

 

[JE78]

Thanks guys. Yes Darthan I am running the p4 2.53 and 533MHz FSB. I'm in the process of doing an upgrade. The next step is going to be my motherboard and processor and i'm planning on going with a AMD setup but I won't be doing that for a while but once I do get to that I'm going to need a better PSU correct? So right now it would be good to go with the PSU and another stick of 512 pc2700? Also, would it be better to just get a stick of PC2700 or a stick of PC3200 and mix it with the PC2700? Here are the 2 sticks i'm looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/app/view...=20-146-532&DEPA=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=20-144-202&depa=0

 

[JE78]

Anyone?

 

[imported_Darthan]

Well, if you're planning to upgrade to AMD you probably do not need to upgrade your PSU any more (or any less) than you do now. None of the current AMD processors use hugely more power than your 2.53 and the new 90nm ones almost certainly use less. Getting a single stick of PC3200 isn't going to help you too much when you upgrade because you will still be limited by the speed of the slower stick. Of course, it means you can also buy only one new stick of RAM when you upgrade your mobo. Also, I've definitely seen PC3200 selling cheaper than 2700 at some times because more 3200 is being produced because it is more popular. Getting quality PC3200 like that Crucial stick is almost certainly going to work great for you now and in the future (unless you have some funktified weird brand incompatible PC2700 now...).

 

[RussianSensation]

If you buy ram, get PC3200. Later you can reuse it. Now you can run it slightly downclocked.

I woudn't get a PSU unless you have issues with instability. Only upgrade when you get performance increase or you need to (for say stability issues). Chances are better power supplies will come out. If you arent overclocking, I dont see a need to replace your current PSU. When you get A64, then get a new PSU for cheaper and it'll probably be more up-to-date (ie. BTX form factor, PCIe connectors, SATA connectors, etc.).

 

[JE78]

Ok guys. Its funny you bring up an unstable system. I got my 9800 Pro a few months ago and could never get it to run on 8x APG. My MoBo supports it but when I was playing a game it would play for 10-15 mins and the system would lock up. Once I turned it back to 4x everything was fine. I upgraded the BIOS and the drivers on the Mobo. Also tried different ATI drivers but could never get it to work. Everyone said it was the PSU. Anyway I went ahead and placed an order for the PSU and 1 stick of the crucial 512 PC3200. I hope the speed conflict doesn't give me problems. Thanks for everyone help.

 

[amdskip]

Everyone who says his power supply is ok is just plain stupid. Don't come complaining here when your $25 power supplies fry your $200+ video cards. It's just common sense.

 

[JE78]

wow, 16000 posts. Thanks for the help, glad I ordered it.

 

[Mem]

I`ll go with the PSU,it`ll hold you well for the present & future upgrades and also ensure maximum stability,get the ram later when you have the extra funds.

 

[Edward Lee]

sell your current RAM for $50 and get both the PSU and the 2 stix of 3200 for $200