seeking expert views for a qn that's very difficult to quantify

[yandao87]

i have been to the pc fair recently.. saw the v-data 512mb pc2700 333Mhz ram from best bargain at $65.

my system has a 40gb 5400rpm hitachi harddisk and 256mb pc2700. if i were to choose an upgrade, which one should i go for first? the memory or a 7200rpm hard disk? i have a feeling that the bottleneck of my 2.53 celeron pc is the harddisk and not anything else..

please give me your expert views.. thanks in advance.

 

[biostud]

Uhm, it all depends on your needs. Personally I would buy some PC3200 ram so I could use it in my next upgrade for an Athlon 64 X2.

 

[ExpertNovice]

Knowing only what you have offered, I would go for the HDD.

 

[Arcanedeath]

I'd upgrade the HDD, you'll notice a bigger gain there than w/ the memory, and when you get more cash you could upgrade to 1GB for around $80

 

[leigh6]

Memory, memory, memory.

The increase of performance going from 256 to 512 (or768) memory is far greater than any performance gain you will get from upgrading your hard drive.

Going from 512 to 1024 is not as noticable.

Go on the f/s forums. You will be able to get some good value ram 512 3200 for almost half of what you want to pay for the adata. Might as well get pc3200. It is about the same price as pc2700 and it will run at the speed of your 256 chip.

 

[Ronin]

You did notice he's got a 5400 RPM drive, right?

HDD says me.

 

[leigh6]

Yup.

256 is a killer on a system. Having a 5400 drive is not. His "system" is runnning slow.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: leigh6
Yup.

256 is a killer on a system. Having a 5400 drive is not. His "system" is runnning slow.

Exactly, 256 MB RAM means using the dog-slow swapfile. The fact that the swapfile is a littel faster on the 7200 RPM drive is nothing compared to the speed gain from avoiding the use of it entirely by staying in RAM.

 

[Nick5324]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

Originally posted by: leigh6
Yup.

256 is a killer on a system. Having a 5400 drive is not. His "system" is runnning slow.

Exactly, 256 MB RAM means using the dog-slow swapfile. The fact that the swapfile is a littel faster on the 7200 RPM drive is nothing compared to the speed gain from avoiding the use of it entirely by staying in RAM.

Winner. Pick up some RAM, although you are better off picking up a stick of 512MB PC3200 for less than $40 shipped from newegg than the adata for $65.

Edit: This would work

Yeah, it's CAS 3, but this is of little importance when you consider the boost of going from 256MB to 768MB.

For Cas 2.5, this is a good choice. Would be $42.32 shipped, vs. 35.49 for the above.

 

[bob4432]

what do you do with your computer? my rig is sitting with 245MB ram used with a couple firefox browsers up and then your normal av, firewall, mbm running. since the machine has been started up, it has only use a max of 266MB, so hit ctrl-alt-del and see what the commit charge is in total and peak. if they are both under 256, use the machine that way you normally do whether it be gaming or whatever, check again the peak and if it is still under 256 get the hdd, if it is over get 512MB of pc3200 from newegg for ~$40.

 

[yandao87]

 

[yandao87]

Originally posted by: Nick5324

Winner. Pick up some RAM, although you are better off picking up a stick of 512MB PC3200 for less than $40 shipped from newegg than the adata for $65.

Edit: This would work

Yeah, it's CAS 3, but this is of little importance when you consider the boost of going from 256MB to 768MB.

For Cas 2.5, this is a good choice. Would be $42.32 shipped, vs. 35.49 for the above.

would there be any observable difference as to cas2.5 or cas3? how do i see which one does my mother board supports? i see a lot of timings on newegg like 2.5-6-3-3. why is it that it is only listed for some memory brands and not for others? the lower the values the better right?? what are the typical values that we must have at least?

 

[yandao87]

Originally posted by: bob4432
what do you do with your computer? my rig is sitting with 245MB ram used with a couple firefox browsers up and then your normal av, firewall, mbm running. since the machine has been started up, it has only use a max of 266MB, so hit ctrl-alt-del and see what the commit charge is in total and peak. if they are both under 256, use the machine that way you normally do whether it be gaming or whatever, check again the peak and if it is still under 256 get the hdd, if it is over get 512MB of pc3200 from newegg for ~$40.

normally i use my com for internet surfing and music and word processing only .. i'm using internet explorer.
i used the computer for some time and now the commit charge for total is 266028 and peak is 301060. so should i still get the ram?? it seems to exceed by a bit onoly..

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

The difference from CAS2.5 to CAS3 is really minimal, and you won't notice it. Don't worry about the values too much; all you want is more RAM. It won't really change the performance much. I'd also pick the RAM over the hard drive, because 256 is kinda pushing it. You'll most likely notice a bigger performance increase going from 256MB to 768MB of RAM than going from a 5400RPM to 7200RPM hard drive.

 

[ProviaFan]

What is your OS? If you are using Windows 98 (*barf*) for that kind of usage scenario, then 256MB may not be that much of a problem. However, I get the impression that you are using 2000 or XP, in which case I consider 512MB to be the minimum for acceptable performance in just about any task. Go ahead and upgrade your hard disk to a 7200 RPM model later on - there will be a noticeable difference there as well, but the lack of memory is currently a much greater issue.

 

[yandao87]

HEY PEOPLE, i really want to thank you all for all your valuable opinions!!
and i decided 512 ram would be a better buy.. i would buy a pc3200 one for my pc2700 mother board, hopefully it won't cause any incompatibility.. but still not sure if i should pay a bit more for cas2.5

thanks biostud, ExpertNovice, Arcanedeath, leigh6, RoninDave, Simmons ,Nick5324, bob4432, t3h l337 n3wb, dullard and ProviaFan!

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: yandao87
HEY PEOPLE, i really want to thank you all for all your valuable opinions!!
and i decided 512 ram would be a better buy.. i would buy a pc3200 one for my pc2700 mother board, hopefully it won't cause any incompatibility.. but still not sure if i should pay a bit more for cas2.5

Good choice. People always use RAM, but depending on the individual, the hard drive use may be very minimal. What you listed is very minimal hard drive use. So RAM will likely help more. I wouldn't go above 512 MB though for your use. PC3200 should always work in a PC2700 motherboard (but at PC2700 speeds). I see no reason at all to pay more for cas2.5 for your use.

But do get a faster hard drive when you have the cash.

 

[yandao87]

dullard: but i see that the price difference in terms of percentage between cas2.5 and 3 is quite little... always buy the best when you can afford the slight difference, you see..

furthermore, it seems to me 2.5 and cas 3 is about 25% difference.. not sure about the performance difference though...maybe its better when i want to sell/put into a new pc(when i strike rich)?

another question, is there any diffference b/w cas2.5 and 3 if its a new/high end pc?
and oops, what brand of ddr ram is good? i saw geil that comes with free aluminium cooler.. does those brands that gives such freebies perform poorer(the reason for bundling something free) or should i go for established brands like kingston and corsair? is patriot good?

 

[dullard]

You have a fairly crappy computer on all measures (Celeron, 5400 rpm, and 256 MB). Decent computer for simple office tasks (Word, internet, etc). So it is fine for your uses. However, you need a major overhaul on everything to really take advantage of getting expensive memory timings or to worry about memory manufacturer.

When it comes to memory there are two groups of people:
[*]Non-overclockers. This is the vast majority of people. Either (a) the memory works or (b) it fails. So basically anything you buy is fine as long as it is compatable with your system.
[*]Overclockers who want to get every last drop of performance possible out of their computer. These people are willing to spend tons of money, tons of time, and risk permanently distroying their equipment to get a couple percent faster. To these people, memory timing and brand are highly critical. Getting the right brand with the right timing will maximize the possible performance gain.

You fall in the first group, those who don't overclock. By the time you sell your memory, many memory generations would have come and gone, and you likely won't get much if any of your extra money back for getting better memory than you need.

 

[yandao87]

Originally posted by: dullard
You have a fairly crappy computer on all measures (Celeron, 5400 rpm, and 256 MB). Decent computer for simple office tasks (Word, internet, etc). So it is fine for your uses. However, you need a major overhaul on everything to really take advantage of getting expensive memory timings or to worry about memory manufacturer.

When it comes to memory there are two groups of people:
[*]Non-overclockers. This is the vast majority of people. Either (a) the memory works or (b) it fails. So basically anything you buy is fine as long as it is compatable with your system.
[*]Overclockers who want to get every last drop of performance possible out of their computer. These people are willing to spend tons of money, tons of time, and risk permanently distroying their equipment to get a couple percent faster. To these people, memory timing and brand are highly critical. Getting the right brand with the right timing will maximize the possible performance gain.

You fall in the first group, those who don't overclock. By the time you sell your memory, many memory generations would have come and gone, and you likely won't get much if any of your extra money back for getting better memory than you need.

oh yes.. you make a lot of sense to me.. haha its true.. but most consumers do want to get the maximum from every cent they spent.. buy something that's value for money and i'll be elated, as compared to buying something of higher price but having the same stats...

 

[shoRunner]

memory, but don't spend $65 on 512 pc2700. get some 512 pc3200 value ram from newgg for ~$35

 

[yandao87]

oh yes i bought a geil ddr400 ram and it works perfectly well until now..
boot up speed was significantly increased!!

 

[Noriaki]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

Originally posted by: leigh6
Yup.

256 is a killer on a system. Having a 5400 drive is not. His "system" is runnning slow.

Exactly, 256 MB RAM means using the dog-slow swapfile. The fact that the swapfile is a littel faster on the 7200 RPM drive is nothing compared to the speed gain from avoiding the use of it entirely by staying in RAM.

Yes. 256MB of RAM is very low these days. 512MB should be your low watermark on a Win2000/XP (and Mac OSX for that matter) system.

Ed: I guess I should read the whole post and notice you made your decision already

 

[yandao87]

Originally posted by: Noriaki

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

Originally posted by: leigh6
Yup.

256 is a killer on a system. Having a 5400 drive is not. His "system" is runnning slow.

Exactly, 256 MB RAM means using the dog-slow swapfile. The fact that the swapfile is a littel faster on the 7200 RPM drive is nothing compared to the speed gain from avoiding the use of it entirely by staying in RAM.

Yes. 256MB of RAM is very low these days. 512MB should be your low watermark on a Win2000/XP (and Mac OSX for that matter) system.

Ed: I guess I should read the whole post and notice you made your decision already

haha ok thanks anyway.
geil is not bad, free heatsink. but the problem now is that the memory is hotter thaan my original ram.. don't understand why.. not compatitible?