Upgrading and Reformating and RAM

[DeathFlame]

I'm hoping to upgrade my PIII 500 to a Duron 700 (and overclock it) and had a couple of questions.

Would I need to reformat my harddrive for the new system to work best? I have a great deal of data that I have no way to store (no 2nd hard drive, no cd writer) and I want to keep that data if at all possible (d/ling Counter-Strike at 70+mb on a 56k... uggh)

My second question is about RAM. I have 128mb of PC100, and was wondering if getting more (128mb, or even 256mb more) would make a big difference in performance, and if mixing PC100 and PC133 memory is possible? Or should I just buy PC133 and use the other memory somewhere else (possibly in a 2nd system)

 

[wyvrn]

RAM depends on what you do with the computer. Adding RAM helps prevent hard disk thrashing. So if you are using memory intensive apps like Photoshop or if you play 3d games, then 256 RAM is better. After 256 RAM, it is debatable whether you receive any performance gain, IMHO. You can mix RAM speeds as long as your slowest RAM can keep up with the system. IE: If you take PC100 and the mobo wants 133, results are not guaranteed, but 133 will always work at 100 setting.

 

[TonyT]

The only reason you'd really need to reformat your hard drive is if Windows is giving you tons of error messages that you can't seem to solve. Otherwise, it doesn't really matter if you reformat the hard drive; the processor will still run as fast as it's supposed to.

 

[JACKHAMMER]

1. It would help if you reformat b/c you are switching MOBOs (read driver headaches), you may not have to, do the switch and see if everything is kosher first.

2.If you do reformat, get partition magic - partition your drive into 2 drives move all the stuff you want to keep onto the second partition and just format the boot partition. That way you will not lose everything.

3. Upgrade to 256, over that you wont see any real difference.

 

[burnses]

One tip that I've learned through these forums is that when you are upgrading a motherboard, first go into device manager and delete all the "system devices" (ie motherboard devices). Then change motherboards and now when you boot up for the first time you will have no driver issues.

 

[DeathFlame]

Thanks for the tips guys.. let's hope everything works out well...