Considering a small upgrade.. but which part?

[TheSwede]

Hi boys and girls!

I'm thinking of a small upgrade shortly, but can't really decide which component to chose! Should I go for more storage, a sound card or more memory? Can spend around £100 or so at this moment in time..

Starting to run low on my storage space so have been thinking of a 1TB drive, was leaning towards the WD Caviar Green, since I never had a problem with a WD drive.. but they are out of stock now on OcUK, so which other brand would you recommended if I chose a new drive.. Samsung F1 or the WD Black?!? (Even thought the WD Black is a tad pricy..)

Using the onboard sound on my PC for now.. not a heavy gamer, but when I do play its mostly SimCity 4, Civ 4, The Settlers V & VI and similar games.. listen to music most of the times, though... and I also watch DVD's on my PC.. in a month or so I am hoping to have my HD Ready TV properly connected to the PC so should I pick a sound card instead?!? Thinking of the ASUS Sonar D2 in that case.. is that a good choice or should I go for another card? Ohh I have the Logitech Z5500 5.1 speakers if that matters in regards to which soundcard I would chose..

Or should I go for a bit faster RAM? Have 2x1GB OCZ PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 right now, should I add another 2x1GB sticks, or would it be better to go for 2x2GB instead? If so, should I pick the OCZ again or is the Geil Black Dragon better? No overclocking though, just the settings out of the box. And I am using Win XP Pro right now, I am aware that I will not get the maximum from the RAM but it would be faster then what I have right now..

Ohh, I will be getting all these components but due to being a bit skint at the moment I can only do one at the time.. so I guess the question is really in which order I should do it.. in what order would you guys/girls get it?!?

Cheers
Tom

 

[Namistai]

Changing your RAM for 'faster' RAM won't make any difference unless you're overclocking and the RAM is currently a limiting factor. More RAM would help, but with a 32bit OS you won't be able to utilise all of it.

For £100 and your current spec I'd probably look at changing the gfx card if you want a decent performance upgrade. Otherwise a 1tb Samsung would be a worthy addition

 

[TheSwede]

Opsi, my bad! Did not mean faster RAM.. meant to be more RAM.. from 2GB to 4GB, and I will stay with the PC2-6400 ones.. but was wondering if I should get 2x1GB sticks, which would mean all my slots are filled or should I get 2x2GB sticks instead.. then if I upgrade to Vista or the next OS, Windows 7 I think its called, I would have another 2 slots available if I needed more memory.. Also, is there any difference in having 4 x 1GB sticks compared with 2 x 2GB sticks?

I actually had a 8600 when I first built my machine but due to incompatible issues with some of my games, such as Cossacks and American Conquest I had to downgrade to my 7900, which is doing the job just fine for me.. so investing in a new GFX and then have programs not working for me is a bit of a waste of money for me..

Basically, I will sooner or later get these three items, more memory, hard drives and a sound card.. question is which brand would be best suited and in which order.. just interested to see what recommendations you guys and girsl can give me, if any!

Cheers
Tom

 

[OLDPHART]

My son,s pc has CPU E6750 overclocked to 3.2GHz using 2x1GB OCZ PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 x 2 in total. So just get an extra 2 x 1GB,s and set the Northbridge(MCH) Voltage to +0.1v since you are using 4 sticks. Also make sure your memory voltage is set to 2.1v.

 

[TheSwede]

Thank you for your input Oldphart, but as mentioned in my first post I am not overclocking my machine, do I still need to set the Northbridge(MCH) Voltage to +0.1v since you are using 4 sticks. Also make sure your memory voltage is set to 2.1v., or is that only if you are overclocking the machine?!?

Cheers
Tom