Upgrading HDD & RAM

[exxoid]

Hello all,

I'm thinking of upgrading my RAM & HDD on my box because i believe its dragging my performance...

My configuration is:
Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit
AMD X2 3800, ASUS A8N32-Sli, 1GB OCZ Ram, 7.2k 160GB HDD, GeForce 7800GTX 256MB.

I think that my 1GB ram on Windows Vista and a 7.2k OS Host HDD is dragging my performance.

What path would you suggest for upgrading the HDD?

I was looking at raptor HDDs.. maybe a 37GB 15kRPM HDD to host the OS? and move all my applications and games to a secondary HDD? for faster data access.. also would a 15k.RPM in Raid.0 improve seek/read/load performance much over a single ?

Also, i think the 1GB ram is a drag... for vista anyway... opinions?

thanks!

 

[exxoid]

also forgot to mention i do have another secondary hdd that's 80gb in the current system.

 

[mancunian]

A raptor would improve load times.

Adding another Gig of RAM is a good idea for Vista. Vista likes RAM.

 

[Roguestar]

I think the 7200RPM drive is having an almost negligible effect compared to your underwhelming amount of RAM. Add at least another 1GB (or 2 or 3 if you want, RAM is pretty cheap right now) and you should notice a pretty good jump in performance without having to mess about with stuff like RAID or shell out for an expensive hard drive. Also be sure you're backing up files if you use a RAID-0 configuration - they fail twice as fast as the average hard drive.

 

[Oyeve]

RAM, definately get more ram. Even on XP let alone Vista, another gig will greatly inprove you speed.

 

[tungtung]

The price over performance ratio of memory upgrade in your case is much much better than buying the Raptors.
Especially at the current market rate, the price for one 36GB Raptor can probably get you two sticks of 1GB DDR RAM (maybe even with change left for some coffee).

As for the hard drive, usually a simple defrag operation will bring that laggy drive up to speed. Especially if you didn't install the OS from freshly formatted HD.