150 Dollars To Burn

[healimonster]

As the subject suggests I have about 150 to burn and am thinking of getting some new hardware.

At first I thought I would max out my computer memory and buy 3 256 sticks of crucial memory.

Then I realized I was constantly having to delete shit off my hard-drive and thought of getting a new slave HD.

Then I thought of a combination of the two, maybe a 40 gig drive and 2 sticks of memory.

Then I noticed office max had a dvd burner for 169 dollars after rebate which sounded very enticing. However I likened that to being a 13 year old buying bottle rockets. A great idea because you can buy them, but really how much entertainment will you get out of it. I don't have a video camera so I don't know what exactly I would use a burner for.

Then I thought I could finally upgrade my home stereo and get a 5.1 decoder for my tv/xbox.

Then I realized I had no idea what I should do and am now looking for advice.

[Ron]

$ 150 for a 40GB HD AND two sticks of 256MB memory?
WOW!!!
Where do you live?

Anyway, I read in a mag a while ago that anything over 512 MB doesn't speed up your PC anymore.
To the contrary, it might slow it down a bit even.
/me is jealous of so much hardware for so little cash.

[BROCKSTER]

im getting a 120gb harddrive soon for £100 which i think is good :blink:

[CornerPocket]

Guess it depends on what you use the most. If you spend more time on the pc then on the Xbox go with ram - hd upgrade. No sense in upgrading stereo (just for xbox use) if it won't get as much play time as a pc.

[njs12345]

Trust me ron, more RAM does have a use, however small ;) . SimCity 4 is such a RAM monster that only 1 GB will give you perfect performance, hell, it lags on my 512 mb machine :( .

[ShareDaddy]

Hard Drive is where I would and did sink my money. I got a 120 BG HD for 119 dollars US, worth every penny in the long run, specially if you share on KZL like I do.

[Nobody1234]

Why would you get 2x256 megs sticks instead of 1x512 megs ?
Where I live you would save some money and you would also leave 1 more free memory slot. (Just in case you ever want to upgrade later.)

[healimonster]

you bring up a good point. currently i am running 3 sticks of 128 (384) and was planning on getting rid of those for 3 of 256. 768 was/is the goal.
But I recently decided that a new HD is more important and buying 3 sticks of 256 plus a HD is probably out of reach right now cost wise. So get 2 sticks now and the third a little later. Why not just get 1 stick of 512? Two reason I think 768 is my computers max capacity so down the road 2 sticks of 512 would be a waste.
I am also under the belief that if you mix memory sticks the computer treats all the sticks like the one of the lowest amount of ram. This thoey may be wrong but if you had 1 stick of 128, 1 stick of 256, and 1 stick of 512 (a total of 896) your computer will only utilise 384 of the 896 in your computer.

so that leads me to my next question cost aside, would it be better 2 have 768 (the computers max) with 3 sticks, or have 1024 over the computers max with 2 stick of 512?

I fear that it may not recognise the second sstick.

[ooo]

wait you can have more then 1 ram stick on your computer? umm i wanna make a com... :P resembling alienware's computer... :P thinking of what parts i shoudl buy... gonna make one from scratch...

[Nobody1234]

Originally posted by healimonster@10 March 2003 - 19:20
you bring up a good point. currently i am running 3 sticks of 128 (384) and was planning on getting rid of those for 3 of 256.  768 was/is the goal.
But I recently decided that a new HD is more important and buying 3 sticks of 256 plus a HD is probably out of reach right now cost wise. So get 2 sticks now and the third a little later. Why not just get 1 stick of 512? Two reason I think 768 is my computers max capacity so down the road 2 sticks of 512 would be a waste. 
I am also under the belief that if you mix memory sticks the computer treats all the sticks like the one of the lowest amount of ram. This thoey may be wrong but if you had 1 stick of 128, 1 stick of 256, and 1 stick of 512 (a total of 896) your computer will only utilise 384 of the 896 in your computer.

so that leads me to my next question cost aside, would it be better 2 have 768 (the computers max) with 3 sticks, or have 1024 over the computers max with 2 stick of 512?

I fear that it may not recognise the second sstick.
Go buy one 512 meg stick and replace only one stick. Leave the other 2 there.
So you end up with 512+128+128=768

You can mix different amout sticks of ram together and you will have full access to it all.

If you mix slower speed ram together then ALL the ram will run at the slowest speed. So adding faster ram is no point if you want to mix them.

Simple no?

Just to be sure of the maximum size of stick you can put in each slot, what brand and model motherboard do you have ?
If you can give me that information I can look it up for you.

[healimonster]

the mother board is
Chipset Information:
=====================

North Bridge: Intel 845 (MCH)
South Bridge: 82801BA (ICH2)

I am not sure what the father board is. ;)

One site I am looking to buy this stuff from is splitting their memory into non-ecc and ecc memory.

Just when I thought I understood all the different memory nuances what is ecc or non ecc and do I need to worry about it.

[Nobody1234]

Get non ecc. Do you have the brand name and model of the board?

Edit: Ecc memory is mainly used in server installations.

[healimonster]

Compaq Presario 5000T 5PXE1.

is what I was told is the brand and model number. However on those memory configurator things like a crucial.com it doesnt list the model number 5pxe1

[Nobody1234]

I still cannot find the motherboard specifications with that information. Do you have a users manual that might have memory type and capacity specs?

[healimonster]

I was just told by tech support that it has a max capacity of 1gig.

since it was a custom order computer the model number of the computer isn't populated in drop down lists.

Other then the fact that it is a compaq presario 5000T-5SPXE1, and the mother board is an intel 845 I don't know much else.

What is 1 gig? 1000mb?

so 2 sticks of 512 would be 1024 exceeding a gig? would that be a problem? at some point in time I am looking to max it out.

[Nobody1234]

1 gig is 1024 megs. I will look into this tomorrow to see if I can find any more information for you.

How many memory slots are there in total on that board?

I am still trying to figure out if it is standard sdram or ddr ram.

[healimonster]

there are 3 slots.

I am pretty sure its sdram.

[Nobody1234]

From what I can tell your board should support more than 1 gig. I looked around to find other boards with the same chipset. Of the ones that support sdram, just about all of them support 3 gigs. Here is an example of a low level motherboard model: http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/pd_spec.asp...p?product_id=18 (http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/pd_spec.asp?product_id=18)

Note that it's the same chipset... and see it's memory capacity?

If you intend to purchase your memory at a local store, just make sure they have a return or exchange policy. Get a 512 meg stick and try it out.

[healimonster]

Thanks for all your help on this nobody1234.

[Nobody1234]

You're welcome, and please tell us what happens with this. It may help someone else too y-a know.