What is holding my system back?

[Gamingphreek]

Im just getting a new CPU HSF (Thermalright SLK-947U with a Panaflo 12L fan). I was wondering, which part of my system is really holding me back. Which part would i see the best results in from upgrading.

A7N8X-E Deluxe

AMD Athlon XP Barton 2500+ @ 3000+ (2.1GHZ)

512MB Kingston Value RAM PC2700 @ 3200 VDIMM 2.8

5900XT-VTD128, Nvidia Geforce FX 5900XT w/ VIVO.

Soundstorm integrated Audio

Allied/Foxconn 400Watt PSU (Next month upgrading it to a Silverstone w/PFC hopefully)

20GB Western Digital 7200RPM HDD (WD200BB) (Like 4years old)

-Kevin

If anything i forgot to list dont hesitate to ask.

 

[myocardia]

What's holding you back (in order of importance): 1. only having 512MB of Value ram 2. slow, small hard-drive 3. 400 watt cheap psu

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: myocardia
What's holding you back (in order of importance): 1. only having 512MB of Value ram 2. slow, small hard-drive 3. 400 watt cheap psu

Though, the hard drive is at least a 7200rpm drive.

What do you want to do with the PC? What is it that you want it to do better? - load times, gaming, video/image editing?

 

[Tiamat]

1. HDD. If you upgrade directly to a Raptor 74gig, you will notice the difference. Its 200$ at newegg.
2. RAM. 2-2-2-11 or thereabouts will improve your system's responsiveness (not as much as the HDD upgrade)

THis is assuming you are playing games especially those that play off of your harddrive.

 

[WobbleWobble]

Definately the hard drive. Even though it's 7200RPM, newer drivers have higher density leading to faster reads/writes. Many newer drives also have a much larger cache. If you go to a Raptor that'll make it even better.

Get 1GB of RAM and you'll be fine. Just because it's value ram doesn't mean it's crap. Tighter timings help a bit, but only marginally by a couple percentage points if any. Not worth the money in my opinion.

I agree with the PSU. You might want to get a better one for piece of mind

 

[Gamingphreek]

Those are the 3 things i had in mind. Im thinking of getting a Silverstone 400Watt PSU with active PFC next month. If there is anything better plz let me know. (Kinda want it quiet)

I dont know when i am going to get a new HDD, but my current one has the infamous WD whine. Will i notice a difference between the 36.7Gig models and the 74Gig. Frankly im probably not going to use all of it as i still have like 8gig left on my 20Gig.

As for the 1 gig of RAM, will i see a big difference if i get another stick of 512mb Value RAM. That way it would run in dual channel mode and have another 512mb, or would it just be better to go for the high quality OCing memory.

-Kevin

 

[jhurst]

I don't know what your budget is for memory, but RAM is very important to gaming performance these days. However you want to do it, whether you upgrade to some high quality PC3500 (maybe some HyperX or OCZ EB or Corsair XMS) or if you just want to get another stick of ValueRam, you definitely want to take advantage of dual channel optimization (although not as important on AMD systems).

 

[WobbleWobble]

I dont know when i am going to get a new HDD, but my current one has the infamous WD whine. Will i notice a difference between the 36.7Gig models and the 74Gig. Frankly im probably not going to use all of it as i still have like 8gig left on my 20Gig.

You probably won't notice as the increase will be subtle. Really depends on how much you want to spend. The 74GB model is pricey, but if you got the dough I'd do it.

As for the 1 gig of RAM, will i see a big difference if i get another stick of 512mb Value RAM. That way it would run in dual channel mode and have another 512mb, or would it just be better to go for the high quality OCing memory.

Are you contemplating between 512MB low latency overclocking RAM or 1GB of value RAM? 1GB of value RAM for sure. Overlockers memory gives you a very very very minimal boost if any with tighter timings but will allow you to get to a higher FSB.

 

[Gamingphreek]

So if i bought another stick of 512mb of memory from best buy i would definately see a difference. I would like to get the high performance memory but i dont want to spend much over $70.

Sometime soon i will get these three things taken care of.

one other thing i was concerned about was my sound. Im using the Soundstorm, dont get me wrong it is awesome, but would an Audigy 2 use less of the CPU and sound better?

-Kevin

 

[WobbleWobble]

It really depends what you're doing to notice the increase in RAM. Things like Photoshop and newer games tend to appreaciate the RAM more. If you're looking for a general boost in Windows, it probably won't be as noticable as a hard drive upgrade will be.

SoundStorm has lower CPU utilization than an Audigy, but it would sound better if you're using analog out.

 

[Pheran]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Those are the 3 things i had in mind. Im thinking of getting a Silverstone 400Watt PSU with active PFC next month. If there is anything better plz let me know. (Kinda want it quiet)

Are you aware that PFC is pointless for home users? I'm just asking because you keep mentioning it. If you're shopping for power supplies, don't base your choice on PFC.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Oh, thats it? Hmm... well then anyone have a suggestion for an extremely quiet PSU. I will be OCing, but i only have 2 HDD 2 CDROMS and a Video Card (5900XT). Oh yeah and theres that floppy drive. I already know the Antecs are like the best PSU out there but i want something quiet yet powerful. (lol im asking for a perfect world eh? )

-Kevin

 

[Hans5849]

HD, i don't know how you have a comp with that much space anymore i need over 20 gigs for my songs

RAM, 1 gig is the sh*t, 2 gigs is pimp