SSD and RAM upgrade for C2D6600?

[Icaros]

Hey all

After some debate and reading Ian Cutress piece on an old C2D-rig I decided on holding on to my dear old conroe desktop that's as old as the architecture (I think I got one of the first batches of chips to hit Denmark in august 2006).

My setup is:
Conroe 6600 @2,4 ghz dual-core (have previously overclocked it to 3,0@stock voltage)
Asus P5w DH deluxe (Intel 975x chipset)
2x1 gb kingston valueram (1066 mhz, as far as I remember they've been at 1333 at ocs too)
Hitachi 750 gb hdd
Asus GF8800 GT gfx

So I'm pretty set at throwing an SSD in it, and I'm looking at the Samsung 840 EVO (120 gb or 250) as the model that looks like the best price/performance. But should I go for something cheaper considering the rest of my system? - I might still carry it over to my next desktop when I upgrade some time, or to an older thinkpad laptop (but that's still c2d-gen hardware).

As to memory I'm figuring an upgrade here would make a tangible difference too. I'm hitting the memory ceiling now and then so the system chokes and I have to close some tabs. I’m figuring a pair of sticks of Kingston valueram will serve. Should I go for combining these with my existing ram (at a 4 x 1gb or 2 x 1 + 2x2 gb setup?), or keep it simpler with just two modules @ 4 gb (possibly higher clocked). As said I don’t use insane amounts of rams, I don’t get my 3 gb laptop to choke.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Cerb]

For 8GB RAM, you must use 4x2GB modules. Right now, that's kind of expensive. Unfortunately, 3-5 years ago was the time to max out your RAM. Unless some folks are giving away 2GB DDR2 sticks over on FS/FT, I'm not sure how good of a decision that will be, for such an aging PC.

2x2GB + 2x1GB (current) wouldn't be so bad, though, and worst-case would get you to 4GB, best case to 6GB. That's probably a better compromise. Even a basic office box needs 4GB, with the heavy websites we have to deal with, today.

IMO, get a 250GB or bigger, if you have the money. That can be enough for Windows, some big programs, some games, and misc. random files, without having to keep taking out time to swap between HDD and SSD.

But should I go for something cheaper considering the rest of my system?

Cheaper? Samsung, Toshiba, and Sandisk all have drives for about the same price. There isn't much room to go down from there, and it's probably not worth it to try. The new Toshibas, and Samsungs, offer great bang/buck.

Whatever you get now can transfer just fine. More than a few people here are still running Intel X2 and 320 drives, FI. Choose a good one now, and then you won't have to worry about it when you upgrade the rest of the system. There will be newer better and faster out, but that's life. What you'll have will still be fast enough that you won't have to care, and you will have gotten many months of prior use out of it, that you wouldn't have gotten by waiting. Also, your motherboard's chipset will limit the peak performance of a new SSD, so that same SSD will perform a fair bit better after an upgrade, too.

 

[Icaros]

Thanks for your help. I think I'll pick up some used memory and go for a 250 gig ssd.

When looking for memory I found that I can also get core 2 quads (q6600s and q9400s) fairly cheaply (at about 50 dollars), might have a look at one of those now I'm at it and see if I can run the same rig for 9 years...

 

[_Rick_]

My C2D E6600 with 8GB RAM and 256GB (?) SSD still serves my parents well. But then I did what the first poster suggested, and upgraded the RAM 5 years ago, when DDR2 hit rock bottom. I think I paid 120 euro or so for the 8GB 1066 Mhz RAM.

The lesson I learnt from that also applied to DDR3: Buy what appears to be too much RAM, when it becomes cheap enough to do so - prices will eventually go up, just when that much RAM becomes commonplace. So now I have 32GB, and in 2 or 3 years I can give the machine away to someone with a good conscience, that it will do another few years of service, until the mobo dies.

 

[Icaros]

My C2D E6600 with 8GB RAM and 256GB (?) SSD still serves my parents well. But then I did what the first poster suggested, and upgraded the RAM 5 years ago, when DDR2 hit rock bottom. I think I paid 120 euro or so for the 8GB 1066 Mhz RAM.

The lesson I learnt from that also applied to DDR3: Buy what appears to be too much RAM, when it becomes cheap enough to do so - prices will eventually go up, just when that much RAM becomes commonplace. So now I have 32GB, and in 2 or 3 years I can give the machine away to someone with a good conscience, that it will do another few years of service, until the mobo dies.

I searched around a bit on the web and I'm doubtful if I really need that much memory. I sometimes hit the 'capacity ceiling' on my desktop at 2GB but never at the laptop or work computer at 4 GB, (@32 bit so 3 something). I don't use particularly heavy software but I am a heavy consumer of chrome tabs.

I read some places that my asus board is not always so happy with 4 DIMMS, especially not at 1333 mhz fsb (which I need if I upgrade the CPU to a used q9400). Know anything about that? - if that's the case, I might be more inclined to look for 4 gb dimms.

 

[Cerb]

I might be more inclined to look for 4 gb dimms.

2GB DIMMs. I'm 99% sure that 4GB DIMMs, on top of being pretty rare, will not work with chipsets prior to the 4-series.

 

[Blue_Max]

2GB DIMMs. I'm 99% sure that 4GB DIMMs, on top of being pretty rare, will not work with chipsets prior to the 4-series.

Sadly, I can confirm that. 4GB DDR2 modules are not only rare, but pretty much only server-class boards could ever use them.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yes, besides costing an exorbitant amount of money, the 4GB DDR2 DIMMs only worked on the P45, and possibly the G45 chipset.

 

[tweakboy]

Grab a 3770k and your life will change. Its literally 10000x times faster then that cheap Intel dual core. thx gl