Suggestions for Ram and Hard Disk

[drhill]

I'm about to upgrade from a Celeron 2 1.3ghz, 256 ram, geforce 4 ti 4400, 15 gb maxtor.

So far I'm thinking: Pentium 4 2.6C, Abit IC7.

I want 1 gb of Ram, I don't need the absolute fastest Corsair ram because I don't want to pay that much, but I would like ram that utilizes the 800 mhz bus.

Also, I was looking at a 80 gb SeaGate. They had a serial ata ($120-130) or the old ide ($80). Is the added money worth it? If I do go the serial don't I need a power adaptor, if so what exactly do I need?

Thanks for any help.

 

[l33t]

mobo comes with a sata adapter. (don't know what mobo that abit is but i'm assuming it supports sata drives).

edit: Apparently, some mobo's dont. Here's an example of what they look like:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030523/nforce2_11boards-04.html

 

[drhill]

Ok, nice to know what they look like now. Any suggestions on Ram, or whether serial ata is worth the price difference?

 

[Corporate Thug]

SATA offers next to nothing in performance, in fact, i didnt even bother installing the one that came with my NF7-s. as for ram, i'd get XMS pc3500. Although its expensive, i'm guessing your gonna OC and your gonna need good RAM. Also, XMS pc3200 is $95 at googlegear or newegg so you can get a gig for $190, which is very reasonable and it'll go to 225 Mhz.

 

[drhill]

Thanks, does having 8mb cache vs 2mb make much of a difference? Oh, I have no intention of overclocking.

 

[Corporate Thug]

no intentions of overclocking? dont get XMS then. 8mb cache does make a difference. may i ask why your getting a C chip if you dont want to OC?

 

[drhill]

I want HT and 800mhz bus. The only reason I don't want to OC is because I don't want to deal with new cooling (I use the retails fan) and instability issues.

 

[drhill]

Do you recommend a Western Digital special edition over a seagate then. Since the WD's have 8mb cache, and the seagate has 2mb. What about in terms of noise and overall performance?

 

[Tavoc]

You can get stable, modest overclocks without needing anything other than the retail HSF, and the P4 C has alot of headroom, especially at the 2.4 ghz level. If you just dont want to OC, I can understand that also.

For ram go with any PC3200 Corsair or Kingston ram. You may still want to consider getting XMS ram from Corsair or Hyper X ram from Kingston since they support lower timings which will help you regardless of whether you OC or not.

Any of the WD special edition drives are an excellent choice, they generally run cool and quiet. The only consistent problem I have heard about them is that they may eventually develop a high pitched whine, I personally own two and have never heard it, but just so you know.

 

[drhill]

K, thanks.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: shady06
no intentions of overclocking? dont get XMS then. 8mb cache does make a difference. may i ask why your getting a C chip if you dont want to OC?

Have you looked at the benches? a 2.4C beats a 2.66B in most of them for the same cost, and a 2.6C beats the 2.8B.

If you're buying a complete mobo, CPU & RAM package it doesn't really make sense to buy 533 FSB any more.

(ed) unless buying a budget mobo and a slower CPU like 2.4B I guess. But at that level AMD is a much better value (unlike the 3000+/3200+).

 

[drhill]

Oh, I have every intention to buy either a 2.4C or a 2.6C @ 800mhz fsb. That was the plan.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: drhill
Oh, I have every intention to buy either a 2.4C or a 2.6C @ 800mhz fsb. That was the plan.

Good choice. It will last you a long time because it also has Hyper Threading and as programs become more and more optimized for it you'll notice larger improvements in speed.

 

[Zebo]

Seagate drives are the quietest period.

Ram I'd go with crucial or mushkin both top end and both support this site