Jump to content

HD or ram


Recommended Posts

My computer is dated but still runs good on everything but demanding video conversions. It can use 1 gb of either ddr 3200 or sdram. ATM I have 1 gb of sdram. What will give me the best bang for my buck? Going to a newer faster HD (it now has a samsung 120 gb 5200 speed with a 2 mb buffer) with a bigger buffer and faster, or going to 1 gb of 3200 ddr? Both will cost about the same. I intend to do both but for now which should I do first?

DW

Link to comment
Share on other sites


No doubt about it: Go for a new HDD.

yup, you'll massive a huge speed increase!

get a western digital 8mb cache drive, i'm assuming your board doesn't have SATA becuase its got sdram in it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Definately the larger hard drive. 1GB is plenty of RAM for most systems (and considering that you tweak your system like mad to have as low RAM-useage as possible).

7200RPM and 8MB or 16MB will do WONDERS for your speed. :yes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The new HD it is. Later I will get the ram. Then when this box wears out, I will build another system and this will go into it along with another gb of ram.

My 120 runs out of room. I am considering a 300 gb is this a decent size?

yes its a very nice size, you should be able to get a nice affordable 300gb at newegg.com,, for a great deal

just make sure your new hd, dosnt turn at 5400 rpm,, stick with a 7200 on a minimum if you can , of course if your mobo can handle it sata is always nice,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Honestly - if you're running SDRAM, forget about upgrading. It'll be way too expensive, and you're better off saving up for a newer system.

300GB 7200RPM will be plenty for you. You can always use the 120GB HD for storage from now on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually jcarle, I am going to have to disagree with you on this one issue.

My brand new 7200.10 has serious speed... and it is for sale for under $100 at the egg right now. Here are some tests I ran on it.

st3320620as2us2.th.jpg

Please note the drive is on a sata1 port and that it is my OS drive so downspikes in speed are probably the OS accessing it.

~edit~ the test shot has the model number, and by what I read their PATA version is just as fast as this one.

Edited by Jaqie Fox
Link to comment
Share on other sites

CPU usage is actually more controller/driver based then HDD based.

Note the test shows CPU usage, seek times, and such on it. the dot map is a seek map.

~~And I definitely agree that transfer rates are nowhere near the only thing to look at when buying a HDD.

Edited by Jaqie Fox
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dislike Seagate hard drive for their noise levels. Don't get me wrong, they're good hard drive, high quality and impressive performance at times. But the noise levels are higher and the real world difference between a WD 320 and a Seagate 320 are marginal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I totally understand you there. The reason I switched back to seagate was WD playing the shuffle-the-warranty-period game. they burned me with that, bad enough im going to steer clear of WD for a while. My newest (remaining) WD is a WD2000BB I got when they were $100 new at the egg. You are right, they are quieter on average, but this particular drive seems just as 'loud' as my WD2000BB which is pretty quiet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...