Improving on an old build

[dreadnought07]

I'm not a total computer geek so bare with me. Ok, so here's my problem, last year I built a computer and decided to reformat an old 160gb IDE drive from my last computer and stick in the new one that I had built. Lately, I have noticed that my games load significantly slower and when going to certain areas of the game when loading objects my fps goes down. Last night when I was playing WoW I got a BSOD, while objects/characters were loading. Could this be caused by my hard drive? I have feeling it might be dieing, so I'm thinking about replacing it with a SATA. Any thoughts on any good sata drives I could replace it with or If my problem is something else? I also have 2gb of crucial ballistix ram and my OS is windows XP, would upgrading it significantly boost game loading times as well?

My current build:
Intel E8400 duo core 3.0ghz
2gb crucial ballistix <-- I wanna know some good high performace gaming ram I could replace this with.
GA-P35-DS3L
Seagate 160 GB IDE 5200RPM
MSI 8800GT(OC)

Im currently looking at this hard drive as a possible upgrade - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320

I appreciate any help, you guys have always greatly helped me in the past.

 

[drippyfausett]

I hear that the 640gb black is one of the fastest 7200rpm hdd so you may want to get it instead. It uses bigger platters than the one you listed. Just a thought for only $10 more. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319

I have heard that these ram were pretty good don't no how much it will improve your system http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231209

 

[Outlander_04]

More RAM wont affect game loading times , and XP 32 bit cant use more than about 3.3 gb [ including the gfx ram ] . XP is faster with 2 gig than Vista is with 4 gig so that wont be your problem .

Hard drives do die but it tends to be relatively quickly . Damaged IDE cables can slow transfer speeds a lot . Just bending the cable can be enough . . If you have another one handy you might as well try it .

SATA drives are a lot faster loading than IDE . The 320 , 640 and 1 tb hard drives are a bit faster than the 500 gb. The reason is they have more data squeezed on to a single disc and it take less time to read .
The WD black 640 is the performance value drive atm . The 640 blue is fine too

 

[dreadnought07]

Well with my current case I have no other option but to bend the cable in order for it to fit, so I guess that may possibly be the problem. As it is with the space I'm using with this hard drive I guess upgrading wouldn't be a bad idea. Im still puzzled why I got the BSOD thought.

I really appreciate the help. I'll look into buying the WD 640.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

+1 for the WD 640GB drive.

A lot of BSOD's are caused by RAM errors. Have you run memtest86+ overnight lately (or at all)? Crucial has been having some quality control issues lately, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if you have a dead/dying stick of RAM. That G.Skill PI Black RAM is awesome! I've used a few of those lately and have never been disappointed with it. I would upgrade to 4GB of RAM since the prices are currently so low, even if you can't fully use all 4GB due to the 32-bit OS limitation. Still 3 - 3.5GB is better than 2GB.

 

[Upendra09]

+1 for the WD


Seagate has also been going through problems lately so it is a good idea to go for WD

 

[dreadnought07]

+1 for the WD 640GB drive.

A lot of BSOD's are caused by RAM errors. Have you run memtest86+ overnight lately (or at all)? Crucial has been having some quality control issues lately, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if you have a dead/dying stick of RAM. That G.Skill PI Black RAM is awesome! I've used a few of those lately and have never been disappointed with it. I would upgrade to 4GB of RAM since the prices are currently so low, even if you can't fully use all 4GB due to the 32-bit OS limitation. Still 3 - 3.5GB is better than 2GB.

Thanks for the idea, I haven't run memtest on this comp in a very long time. Although, I really hope that the ram wasn't the reason it crashed, but at the time that I bought them they were extremely cheap so I'm guessing it was for a reason.