Would I notice much of a difference?

antsct

Senior member
Sep 22, 2005
265
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0
Hello everyone.

I would like to know, would I notice much of a difference in preformance if I upgrade from my Notebooks current:

1GB DDR 333
40GB HDD 4200rpm, 2mb cache, UATA 12ms
Windows XP Home

to

2GB DDR-II 533
100GB HDD 7200rpm, 8mb cache, SATA 10.5ms
Windows XP Professional

Thanks for any help.
 

LouPoir

Lifer
Mar 17, 2000
11,201
126
106
Not much difference on the 1gb to 2gb
No difference - XPhome to XPpro
Big difference on 4200 to 7200 RPM drive - I doubt you can go from UATA/PATA to SATA - you'd have to get another PATA

I would suggest a 4200 to 5400 RPM - you would see a difference there as well - not much of a difference between 5400 and 7200

Lou
 

antsct

Senior member
Sep 22, 2005
265
0
0
Well this is the chipset I have: http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/915gm/index.htm

It says it supports DDR-II and Serial ATA.

I guess graphics preformance may increase as well because it has integrated 128mb graphics and the memory speed for graphics will now run at 533MHz yeah?

EDIT: This is what EVEREST reports: Supported Memory Types: DDR-333 SDRAM, DDR2-400 SDRAM, DDR2-533 SDRAM
 

alimoalem

Diamond Member
Sep 22, 2005
4,025
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it really depends on what you do and what the rest of the specs are...what do you use this for and what's your cpu, gpu, etc?

5400RPM notebook drives are pretty fast these days and almost as fast as the 7200RPM ones. unless you really need it, i think going with the 5400rpm is a better choice (it's a lot cheaper too).

about the ram, your laptop seems to be something older. is it worth the $130 for the 7200rpm hdd and $250 for the ram? (prices from newegg)

there is a chance your work is primarily limited by your ram and hard drive, but the chance that you will see any significant increase from the ram without needing a new cpu (basically a new laptop) isn't too great. basically what i'm saying is it would be easier for recommendations to be made if we know what it is you do
 

antsct

Senior member
Sep 22, 2005
265
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Thanks for the help. My laptop is definetly not old, it was the latest series before the Intel Core Duo.

I live in Australia and the prices are much different to US prices. If I find a cheap 5400rpm drive I'll probably get that instead.

I mostly use my PC for music, video playing, games (CS 1.6, BF1942. COD/UO, Live For Speed, San Andreas, all which run great) internet browsing/downloading, photo editing and a bit of flash and video converting/editing.

My GPU is an Intel GMA900 which is Intel's 2nd latest GPU. It has 128mb of memory and because it's memory clock uses system memory I suspose the DDR-II will help it run faster.

Any other help/opinions would be great! Thanks.

EDIT: And my CPU is a 1.6GHz Pentium M
 

alimoalem

Diamond Member
Sep 22, 2005
4,025
0
0
you can play BF1942 on the GMA950?? damn...lol

you said "all which run great." if everything runs great, why upgrade? you will notice a huge upgrade from the 4200rpm drive to the 7200rpm. the ram should help but if everything is fine right now, is it really worth it? maybe you should list the prices you can get these for in ausralia
 

antsct

Senior member
Sep 22, 2005
265
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0
BF1942 is a pretty old game man. It's not very graphics intensive. I mostly get 40fps in each game, CS 1.6 60fps +. I run at usually 800x600 with medium graphics. I'm not really one for graphics im more into gameplay. Anyway, I'd like to know, with the DDR-II ram at 533MHz will it run at 533MHz because my CPU's fsb is 400Mhz.

EDIT: When you say huge difference between 7200 and 4200, what do you mean....as in loading times, boot times, open/close program times...???

Also, what's the difference like between 100gb 5400rpm 8mb SATA 12.5ms and a 100gb 7200rpm SATA 10.5ms. Is there a big difference?

Thanks.
 

alimoalem

Diamond Member
Sep 22, 2005
4,025
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basically the hard drive will improve the things you stated. overall computer speed will increase.

as for the difference between the 100gb 5400 and 7200rpm drive, there's no big difference. if the price is like a 10% difference, go ahead and go with the 7200rpm drive. if there's a big difference, the 5400 is perfectly fine.

i'm not sure about the ram question in relation to your CPU's bus speed...it could be a factor. are ddr1 pc3200 ram sticks cheap in australia? you could consider going with that, although i doubt you'd notice the difference going from ddr333 to ddr400.

how much does 2gb of ram cause in australia?