2GB of ram or a new HDD?

T

teatime0315

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
216
So heres the deal. I found two 1gb sticks of ram for 150 dollars - Kingston Brand.

Currently my rig has -
AMD 3800+ X2 stock
2x 512 mb of DDR ram
100 GB Maxtor HDD
172 GB? Hitachi HDD around 5 years old
Nvidia 6800 GS 256MB PCI-e

And i was wondering. What would benefit me more? Adding two gigs or ram running in dual channel? or buying a brand new sata 320 GB HDD from Seagate?
Only quirks i have with my current system are load times and some lag when playing RTS games. :)
 
go with the 2GB of ram, you'll get a better performance boost than by going with a new hd.
 
Are your HDDs IDE? or SATA? If they're IDE, go with the Seagate 7200.10 drive (theres a 250gb model for $80 @ the egg). If they're sata, then your load times shouldn't be that bad. What games are you playing? and what motherboard do you have? Have you tried OC'ing your cpu?
 
enginurd said:
Are your HDDs IDE? or SATA? If they're IDE, go with the Seagate 7200.10 drive (theres a 250gb model for $80 @ the egg). If they're sata, then your load times shouldn't be that bad. What games are you playing? and what motherboard do you have? Have you tried OC'ing your cpu?
Click to expand...

Yeah my hdd's are currently IDE and i wanted to upgrade to the SATA Seagate 320 GB HDD
I'm playing COH and loading a lvl takes forever.
Umm... I haven't tried upgrading my CPU yet, I'm not sure if I should because it is an ECS a939 Motherboard. Not the greatest in the world.
 
Oh yeah I forgot to add. Everytime I play an RTS when lag occurs, i can see the game accessing the HDD. The HDD LED lights keep blinking and when the lag is over, the HDD LED lights are off.
 
I agree with the people who say RAM......... RAM will give you a much more tangiable performance boost, especially with Vista...........
 
mmk Thanks guys. I just wanted more opinions before i make a decision. So 2 gigs it is thanks again :)
 
filthysanchez said:
1. buy new ram(2x1 gig)
2. sell old ram
3. save for sata hard drive
Click to expand...
I agree, because you need both more ram and a better HDD. Since COH is ram intensive, the ram will help alot. You see the HDD being accessed because of your page file. While a new HDD will help a little, more ram would help you more in your situation.
 
teatime0315 said:
Oh I didn't know that. Whats with those raptors then? how come a lot of my friends tell me to get a raptor to lower my load times?
Click to expand...

I was being sarcastic because you sounded like HDs were designed to give a performance boost like RAM or a new video card or a new CPU when HDs' main purpose is to store information.
 
A raptor will still lower your load times, lol. A raptor is a performance drive, but many newer drives are almost as fast, but much cheaper. Lets look at my personal experience with my drives:

Average Transfer Rate
78MB/s - WD Raptor, 150gb, WD1500ADFD, SATA150, retail: $200AR
65MB/s - Seagate 'cuda 7200.10, 320gb, ST3320620AS, SATA300, retail: $90
52MB/s - WD Caviar SE16, 250GB, WD2500KS, SATA300, retail: $80
52MB/s - WD Caviar SE, 160GB, WD1600JS, SATA300, retail: $53
50MB/s - Maxtor DiamondMax, 200GB, 6L200M0, SATA150
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
37MB/s - WD Caviar SE, 80GB, WD800JB, ATA100
44MB/s - WD Caviar SE, 160GB, WD1600JB, ATA100

If theres no price, the drive is too old to buy, lol.
 
Just a point of interest: what RTS games are you experiencing "lag" in?

Could just be that you could be in the market for a new video card.....
 
quadnad said:
Just a point of interest: what RTS games are you experiencing "lag" in?

Could just be that you could be in the market for a new video card.....
Click to expand...

I'm experiencing lag in Company of Heroes and Battle for Middle Earth 2. I dont play any of them on insane resolutions, and i turn down the eye candy. Its just when something new happens to the map, like building a new building, the game would freeze for 3 seconds. I can see the game trying to access the HDD but i am not too sure if that's the problem. :confused:

EDIT: i forgot to add.. when it doesn't lag, it runs around 30-40 fps. and during fights it goes down to 25, but the game usually doesn't hang when it reaches that low.
 
enginurd said:
A raptor will still lower your load times, lol. A raptor is a performance drive, but many newer drives are almost as fast, but much cheaper. Lets look at my personal experience with my drives:

Average Transfer Rate
78MB/s - WD Raptor, 150gb, WD1500ADFD, SATA150, retail: $200AR
65MB/s - Seagate 'cuda 7200.10, 320gb, ST3320620AS, SATA300, retail: $90
52MB/s - WD Caviar SE16, 250GB, WD2500KS, SATA300, retail: $80
52MB/s - WD Caviar SE, 160GB, WD1600JS, SATA300, retail: $53
50MB/s - Maxtor DiamondMax, 200GB, 6L200M0, SATA150
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
37MB/s - WD Caviar SE, 80GB, WD800JB, ATA100
44MB/s - WD Caviar SE, 160GB, WD1600JB, ATA100

If theres no price, the drive is too old to buy, lol.
Click to expand...

Wow thanks just what a needed, a comparison chart :D
 
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