SATA Raid or new Ram?

[ohnoesaz]

Im willing to dish $120 more into my computer...

What will help more?

Going from 40g 7200rpm IDE hard to 2X40gb 7200rpm SATA (raid0)

or...

Getting 2X256mb PC3200 OCZ Enhanced Latency Platinum for my A64 system. Im currently on PC3200 but its basic series and can barely run at its 200/400 rated speed. My skt754 DOES NOT support dual ddr, even though Id be getting 2X256mb.

What would you do.

 

[Blasphemy]

I would get the RAM. Quality RAM to me is far more important than a hard drive, and plus, a RAID 0 setup isn't as impressive as some reviews make them seem. If you can live without the hard drive space, definitly go for that RAM.

----------------------------------------------------
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (stock)//1GB Corsair 3200XL//ATI Radeon 9700Pro (360/335)//WD Raptor 74GB/Antec Neopower 480W//Lian Li PC-61 Custom

 

[fishmahn]

Get the RAM. Like Blasphemy, RAID isn't worth it unless you need the space and/or mirroring.

Personally, I'd get 1x512 RAM if the price is about the same. You may find a better performance increase (depending on what you're doing) by giving yourself a full 1gb rather than 512 of low latency (although I hear you on the crappy ram).

Mike.

 

[Mr5oh]

Like Blasphemy said Raid0 is basically going to show zero improvement unless you are transferring lots of very large files, for everything else, RAID0 is overratted, and doesn't tend to show real world results.

Fishmahn also has a good point, have 1 gig of RAM would show more of an improvement than having low latency RAM.

Check out this article about RAM timings:

<A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040119/index.html" target="_new">http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040119/index.html</A>

Quote from above link:

In most of the disciplines, you can see that it no longer matters as much what memory timings you have as it did only a few years ago, when SDRAM or the first DDR generation were still hot. Or, to put it another way, having faster or slower RAM will not tip the balance in favor of or against the latest AMD and Intel processors.

So basically both options you have basically won't show much improvement, not a $120 worth of improvement for sure. If you were buying faster RAM for overclocking staying with 512 MB could be more easily justified. Just replacing PC3200 for PC3200 isn't worth $120.

Are you planning on overclocking at all? You have generic RAM, but what brand is it in particular? Many times even generic RAM will overclock a little, have you ever tried to overclock your RAM?




My Desktop: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html</A>

 

[endyen]

I am currently running a 512 stick of cheep ram. It is at 222 mem bus speed, with 2.5, 3,3,8 timings, running at 200/400DDR.
I tried to add another stick of ram, but as soon as I booted, I noticed that the speed had dropped to 333. By playing around ,I found that to keep the mem bus at 200/400, my memory had to be a single stick, in the slot closest to the chip.
On socket 754, the ODMC works best with fewest numbers of sticks, and with the shortest distance between controller and ram.

 

[Blasphemy]

have you decided on getting RAM yet?


----------------------------------------------------
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (stock)//1GB Corsair 3200XL//ATI Radeon 9700Pro (360/335)//WD Raptor 74GB/Antec Neopower 480W//Lian Li PC-61 Custom

 

[xeenrecoil]

heya ohnoesaz;

I recommend 1x512MB no matter what brand you end up buying, the fewer number of modules you have the better.

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