Ok i got 200 bucks and I am purchasing the following Chieftec Workstation case with Window = 50 3 Cooler Master 26DBA case fans = 17.50 Alpha PAL8492 = 30 = 97.50 = 112 shipped Now I cant decide on the following. I can only get one 60gig Seagate HardDrive = 86 WD 60gig 8mb Cache = 91 Samsung PC3200 512DDR ram = 83 or another stick of Corsair Value Ram 512DDR PC2700 = 76 -=System Specs=- Pentium4 2.4B@2.7 Retail/Stock cooling ABIT BH7 Corsair 512DDR PC2700 Value ram @ 2 5 2 2 1/1 Asus Geforce4 Ti4200 128MB SB Live! 5.1 Maxtor 40gig Pioneer DVD rom PlexWriter CDRw Generic Beige Case Antec True380 I am a moderate gamer, just sometimes Warcraft3 or Quake3. I stared getting into overclocking the past few weeks and I think my current ram is holding me back. And my Maxtor HD is almost filled and its so loud . Thanks for all your help and suggestions
An interesting choice, I wouldn't bother with the extra 512 2700 ram, what you have should be enough for most things. A program like cpu cool from www.podien.de should show you how much memory you are using in general activities. With the extra headroom on the 3200 ram, you should get a general boost in performance. I don't know anything about P4 overclocking though, do you have any control over multipliers? If you overclock you may need a new chip cooler, mem coolers, extra case fans etc. As for the two drives, the seagate is quieter, but the WD will be a bit quicker, both have good reliability, More info at www.storagereview.com Edit, Although Samsung memory has a pretty good reputation, Crucial, Corsair and Kingston area also worth looking at. See if you can find a mention in a review of which brand your motherboard prefers
if you watch some cheapstake forums you can find really good deals on Harddives (i think people had a 40 giger at $14 the other day) I know this is kinda off subject but it might help to streach your money. hardocp cheapstake forums just search around, you might have to wait a bit for the deal you want but it will usualy happen. I have also had alot of luck on ebay.
i would go with the hard drive !! it seems the best deal and for like 8 dollars more at newegg u can get one thats 80 8meg
One more question. If you guys had a choice between memory modules but there is a little money budget which would you get? Kingston HyperX PC3000 512 = 90 Corsair XMS PC3200 512 = 146 I mean the price difference is huge and is there a big performance difference between PC3200 and PC3000?
It depends on just how much you want to squeeze out of your P4. The Corsair is very good and with low latencies, but Kingston are also a well recognised make. If the difference were $20 I would say go with the Crucial, but at $50, I'm sure you could get more fun per $ spending it elsewhere. The Crucial will be faster, but you may not be able to use its full potential, is it worth a possible 2-3% performance increase? XMS review http://www.deviantpc.com/reviews/cxms3200/index.shtml
Wow I didnt even think about Crucial but it a little expensive, I mean 125 bucks. I am a college student lol There is also Samsung which looks like they have nice ram for a nice price . I can get Samsung PC3200 512DDR for 86 bucks SO my choice is between is Kingston HyperX PC3000 and Samsung
