Another "What to Upgrade"?

A

Actuary

2[H]4U
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Feb 8, 2005
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So, the upgrade probably won't be happening for a couple months, but I felt like posting to feel out which way I should go. Here's my current system:

DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra-D
Venice 3200+ O/C to 2.45 gHz
1 Seagate 7200rpm 200gb Sata HD
1 Seagate 7200rpm 250gb Sata HD
ATI x800xl 256mb
1 gig Crucial Value(1 stick)
SB Audigy 2 zs

So, I probably will only be upgrading 1 thing, maybeeee 2 if I can find the money(and then part with it). So, if possible, give 1 choice for "upgrading only 1 thing" and 1 choice for "upgrading 2 things." Also, if you can, give me a guess for how much I could sell my old part for(like if I upgrade video, how much will the x800xl go for).

Anyway, here are the choices:

1. I have a ton of movie files and stuff on my computer, and my hard drives are getting full. Therefore, choice 1 is get a 74gb raptor and make it the boot drive(the 200gb currently is) and use the other 2 as storage.

2. I like to play games, and turning down the effects on Oblivion makes me sad. Also, seeing my x800xl get up to 81 Celsius(with atitool alreading boosting the fan) makes me sad. Upgrade to a 7900gt and sell the x800xl.

3. Get another gig of ram and run in dual channel!

4. Get a dual core cpu(I don't do much encoding) and sell the 3200 Venice.

So, please, offer your advice. I'm not sure if I'll be able to upgrade 1 component or 2, so if you can provide choices for both scenarios and how much I could probably get for selling the current hardware I plan on replacing. Thanks for all your help guys.
 
I'd do the extra gig of RAM first, video card second, raptor third.
 
Schro said:
I'd do the extra gig of RAM first, video card second, raptor third.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking, but how often would I actually be using 2 gigs?

Also, if I did decide to sell my x800xl, how much do you guys think I could get for it? $130-140 maybe?

Any other thoughts?
 
this month i am upgrading my workstation table it's made of wood, i got one made of steal and glass. looks really good. i got to a point that i don't need to upgrade nothing in my computer, i'm ready for vista!
 
stopmenow said:
this month i am upgrading my workstation table it's made of wood, i got one made of steal and glass. looks really good. i got to a point that i don't need to upgrade nothing in my computer, i'm ready for vista!
Click to expand...

How does that help me decide what to upgrade? Thanks for nothing. Anyone with an actual opinion to help me out?
 
1 ? your drives are getting full and you want to buy a 74 raptor? why not sell all of them and get a 500gb one, they supposed to be real fast.

2 sell and upgrade to the 7900 gt it's just as fast as my 7800 gtx.

3 more memory is always best specially for vista.

4 dual core imo is totally unnecessary. really not going to need it, even with vista. spend money with a single core like a fx-57.
 
What PSU is it that you have? If it's some POS case PSU, that needs to go first ;)

I say the Video Card, RAM, then the Raptor.

For the Raptor, just pick up a 16MB Buffer SATAII HDD. More storage, close performance, less cash :p
 
I'm using a Fortron PSU, Blue Storm 480W I believe.

As for the hard drive, basically I wanna use the 200gb and the 250gb I have now as storage and use a smaller, faster drive as a boot drive/installing my games on. Maybe I will take a look at sataII hds, maybe a 120gig or something. Thanks.

Any other opinions?
 
Dual channel will make a night and day difference it did on my venice anyway.
 
DeChache said:
Dual channel will make a night and day difference it did on my venice anyway.
Click to expand...
Actually, it made about a 3-5% increase :)

You might be referring to 512mb SINGLE, vs 1GB DUAL, well then hell yes! a difference ;)
 
3!! Difference between even 1gb vs 1.5gb is amazing for me, and storage, well you always have dvds as a temp solution. I feel you, im looking into a 250giger for my media :)
 
bLaCktIGErs91 said:
Actually, it made about a 3-5% increase :)

You might be referring to 512mb SINGLE, vs 1GB DUAL, well then hell yes! a difference ;)
Click to expand...

Yep 1 512 pc2700 or ddr333 to 1GB pc3200 night and day. but still i wish I had to gigs.
 
As far as overall gaming performance, my reccomendations still stand. Today's games tend to be memory hogs. Adding an extra gig is at a trivial cost (somewhere around $65, if I'm not mistaken), and will give you benefits beyond gaming. You know that lag that happens when you exit a game? Very apparent with 512mb, gone for some games at 1gb, gone for ALL games at 2gb.

Second choice is the graphics card. If you take a look at the recent [H] enthusiast article about CPU scaling, you'll see that the CPU doesn't make a huge difference in your overall game play once you pass a certain threshold.

I put the raptor down for third, because it does give you a bit swifter load times for windows, applications, etc etc etc, however, if you're expecting it to let you bump the resolution in Oblivion, you're mistaken. The only tangible effect will be a nominal decrease in load times.

A dual core chip would be worthwhile for your non-gaming tasks. Referencing the [H] Enthusiest article again, dual core doesn't make that big of difference in gaming performance. However, as far as computer usability and experience outside the gaming world, the dual core chips are second to none (until quad core and a supporting os comes along).

All the drivel about single vs. dual channel is rather annoying to me, because RAM is faster than any hard disk (including the i-RAM), thus, I'd prefer to have 2gb of PC2100 in single channel over 1 GB of dual channel 3200. Heck. I'd even take 2gb of PC100 over the latter options.

Going back to your ponderance of SATA-II. Or.. Uhh.. Fallicy, as I like to call it. Upgrading a drive from SATA-I to "SATA-II" will give you no noticible increase in performance. In fact, if you have NCQ turned on in a single user environment, it'll slow you down. I'd do the RAM, video card and CPU before chasing down this holy grail.
 
Well, I won't be bumping the resolution higher since I have a 19" lcd, max resolution is 1280x1024, which I like just fine. The only things about the raptor I really do like are:
1. Quicker load times, windows etc.
2. I can use the entire 200gb drive as storage, giving me more space.

I definitely think I'll go for another gig of ram though. Even small things like the 2 seconds of lag I get after closing firefox before I can really open anything else up bothers me(like after I close it theres 2 seconds where I can't do anything, even minimizing/unminimizing others programs already open.)
 
for sheer usability, a second gig of ram and a dual core cpu cannot be beat.
for gaming, the videocard, obviously. You have to determine whats more important to you.

I have an X2 3800 with 2gig of ram and its damn sexy in windows, essentially all the little things that would add up to you waiting a second here, a few seconds there are completely gone. I cant recommend this kind of upgrade enough.

If you need mass storage for video, avoid paying more for the raptor and get a large (400 or 500 gig) sata2/ncq drive with 16 meg of cache, money better spent.
 
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