Upgrade Suggestions

placeboFx

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 20, 2005
Messages
247
Hello,

My basic system specs are:

A64 3000+
512meg pc 3200 (corsair xms)
80 gig WD special ED.
GF6800 GT

And I have an extra $250 to spend on my system. Now the problem is where do I spend it?

I have been looking at watercooling for a while and found some setups in that price range. Or I could get another stick of mem and a WD raptor 74 gig. The problem is that I don't know which I shoud go with.

Should I Watercool?
Should I upgrade the drive to the raptor, and get more mem?
Should I even spend the $$$ on the corsair or go TCCD?

Which area would you pros guide me too?

I thank you for your time.
 
Well are planning on doing a lot of overclocking? if not then just go with another stick of RAM and a raptor..
 
I gather from your post that you already have the listed components. In that case, unless you really want to pull some overclocking I would get another 512 of RAM and a raptor. If you haven't yet purchased... that's a different story.
 
I OC'd the proc to 2200 on the stock heatsink.
I don't really want to OC too much I do however use my pc for long periods and I do notice a performance loss. Also, with three 120's the heatsink and the video card it's kind of loud. If I installed the the WC system I would get rid of one of the fans and the heatsink fan.

Do you think the raptor and mem would make that much of a difference? I do DVD authoring and Quite a bit of Gaming.

I guess that I am just worried that I will spend money and not notice much of an improvement.
 
People have said that 10k rpm drives have pretty noticeable performance increases. I don't have any personal experience with one (unless someone wants to send me 150 :p ) The extra RAM will not be noticeable, but it definitely helps, especially with the recent generation of games.
 
Yes, if you get a 74gb raptor for windows and games you will see a lot of performance increase. Windows will boot quicker, and load times in games will seem almost not there. It really is a great upgrade, since the harddrive is the slowest component in any system. Along with another 512 of ram windows will run much more smoothly, and be able to cache more for quicker re-loading. I'd go that route.
 
Yeah,
I am kind of leaning toward the Raptor. As your hard drive is the largest bottleneck in your system. I do want to watercool at some point though. And also, I know this should go in the "HOT DEALS" but newegg is still running a $25 dollar rebate on the 74.

Thank you guys for all your help. Hardforum rocks!

Talk to you when I get my tax return.
Hmmmmm Vapor Phase, New Laptop, or 21 inch LCD?
To be continued.........................................................
 
OMG!
I can't believe that there was that much of an improvement.
I only purchased the Raptor. This week I want to purchase the memory and wc kit.

Any suggestions on Memory?
I have 512mb corsair pc 3200 xml. But I think I can do better.

Any help would be awesome. Thanks.
 
well..I'd just match the RAM and run it in dual channel (assuming you're 939). Watercooling..well..that's not my department.
 
no,
I forgot to mention. I run s754

I decided not to go 939 for a couple of reasons.
1. I upgrade every six months.
2. dual channel didn't seem to provide that much of a boost. (at the time of purchase)
3. I wanted to run amd xp dtr w/ 1meg cache
 
raptors sema to have the shortes life span of any hard drive i have ever seen, so i haope you have a good warantee on it

i would get some xms pc4000 ram and if you can still afford anythign else do some water coolign you could overclock the crap out of your pc
 
is this speaking from personal experience? I think the Raptor maybe the most controversial hardware I have ever seen.
They rock! They suck!
They're stable! They have the lifespan of a Mayfly.
 
placeboFx said:
Hello,

My basic system specs are:

A64 3000+
512meg pc 3200 (corsair xms)
80 gig WD special ED.
GF6800 GT

And I have an extra $250 to spend on my system. Now the problem is where do I spend it?

I have been looking at watercooling for a while and found some setups in that price range. Or I could get another stick of mem and a WD raptor 74 gig. The problem is that I don't know which I shoud go with.

Should I Watercool?
Should I upgrade the drive to the raptor, and get more mem?
Should I even spend the $$$ on the corsair or go TCCD?

Which area would you pros guide me too?

I thank you for your time.

If you're not having heat problems with air cooling, why bother watercooling? For the price of a watercooling system you could probably get a good case with lots of quiet fans, like an Intel Server Chassis.

What kind of PSU do you have? You might want a better PSU if you don't have a Zippy, Enermax, Fortron or other good brand like the ones in the PSU sticky.
 
either get a new power supply like the antec true 550; another 512mb stick of ram, or a large hd for storage since u only have 80 gigs ~ if u could use a larger hd
 
placeboFx said:
is this speaking from personal experience? I think the Raptor maybe the

i dont have one cuz im tryign to stop spending money on my pc, its jsut every now and then you willl see how someones raptor suddenly died or fried
 
thanks for all the help guys
This forum is by far THE BEST PLACE for pc help and suggestions.

Give yourselves a HUGE pat on the back.
 
Another 512 of ram no doubt. After the raptor that'll be your biggest increase in system responsiveness.
 
Back
Top