Upgrade advice?

[log1kq2]

I need a little advice from all you gurus....

I'm finally deciding to switch over to Windows 7 (will most likely by the Ultimate version).


Current configuration is as follows:

Asus P5K Mobo w/ Q6660 G0 stepping (thought I would overclock someday, never happened)

2gig DDR-800 RAM (crucial ballistix)

OS is on a partioned Western Digital WD2500YS 250GB (100gig to OS rest for apps/games)
Also have several other drives for storage.

EVGA 8800gtx (I don't game all that much anymore, and it still does things well enough)


I know that 2 gigs of RAM will not cut it, so I've been looking to upgrade. Unfortunately, I've waited too long and now will have to pay substantially more. Nevertheless I'm thinking of upgrading to 8gigs of ram.

Which would you choose?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...20-231-182-S01

Along with upgrading my RAM I was contemplating upgrading the OS HD.

The way I see it there are several options:

1. I pick up a 300gig velociraptor for OS/Games/Apps.

2. Use my current HD and wait for the next generation of SSD's to be released thus causing a drop in price for current models.


Let me just end this post by saying I don't need the latest and greatest, I just want to run windows 7 well, and make my rig last another 2 years


Thanks in advance.

 

[FishAk]

The velocirapters don't have anything on the current high density disks like the Spinpoint F3, except for I/O rates. An SSD trounces a Velocirapter in IOPS very badly, so there is no reason to put up with all the noise and heat of the 10K drive. The 1Tb F3s are $55-$65 right now.

I suggest buying 2 1Tb F3s. Put your OS and programs on a 60Gb partition on one, and your data and games on the other. Make a 50Gb partition on the inside, slowest part of each disk, and store 3 or 4 images of various times, or states of your OS/programs partition. This will allow you to recover to a previous time after a virus attack, bad program, or broken disk. Just remember that images must be original, and not copies to be reliable.

Use the space between the OS/program, and the Image partitions to backup your games and data from the other disk. With this method, not only do you have a complete copy of everything, for when either of the drives fail, but your system can read from both the data and the program at the same time.


If you keep all your data out of your OS partition, it's unlikely to grow more than 40-60Gb. Macrium Reflect (free) compresses my 23Gb OS/program partition to a 10Gb image file. I don't know how well it scales up.


If you set your disk to ACHI, or RAID mode in BIOS when you install W7, it will be easy to migrate your <60Gb OS/programs partition to an SSD when the prices drop in a couple months. Having two storage disk, one running backup duty for the other, is not the perfect backup solution. However, it's much better than only having external and off-site backups, because the internal backup can be automatically kept up to date. It is a fact that all drives will die. Having an up to date surviving set of data will save much heartache, when one of the disks are lost.

 

[Zap]

Use my current HD and wait for the next generation of SSD's to be released thus causing a drop in price for current models.

They're more likely to be discontinued. Just ask everyone with a GTX 295 who were hoping for a drop in pricing after the GTX 480 came out... oh wait, they can no longer buy new GTX 295. D: