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Solve : Best upgrade for a 100 bucks?? |
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Answer» So I have a hundred bucks that I have earned through selling and fixing old computers and I was wondering what the best bet would be for putting it into my media PC/Stuff I dont wanna do on my good PC. Here is what I have now. I assume a better CPU would be best, but would windows 7 be a better investment? Nothing is overclocked but it might be something I look into. The processor and the hard drive you have your operating system installed on are probably the largest bottlenecks. I was considering putting the OS on one of the other HDD's for a while now. Would it be a big increase in performance. I was looking at the Tri-Core by AMD, any thoughts? or is it better to spend the 30 bucks more on the quad? Ya once I make a few more bucks I will get W7. Is 64 required for the RAM increase or is 32 ok?Depends entirely on the specifications and health of the 40GB and the other DRIVES. List 'm and I'll have a look.This is probably overkill but its what I got from Everest HDD -Drive #1 - Maxtor 2F040L0 (38 GB) -Drive #2 - HITACHI HTS541616J9S SCSI Disk Device (149 GB) -Drive #3 - Maxtor 6 L160M0 SCSI Disk Device (149 GB) DRIVE #1 Model IDMaxtor 2F040L0 RevisionVAM51JJ0 Parameters79656 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors per track, 512 BYTES per sector LBA Sectors80293248 Buffer2 MB (Dual Ported, Read Ahead) Multiple Sectors16 ECC Bytes57 Max. PIO Transfer ModePIO 4 Max. UDMA Transfer ModeUDMA 6 (ATA-133) Active UDMA Transfer ModeUDMA 6 (ATA-133) Unformatted Capacity39206 MB ATA Device Physical Info ManufacturerMaxtor Hard Disk FamilyFireball 3 Form Factor3.5" Formatted Capacity40 GB Disks1 Recording Surfaces1 Physical Dimensions146.1 x 101.6 x 17.5 mm Max. Weight509 g Average Rotational Latency5.5 ms Rotational Speed5400 RPM InterfaceUltra-ATA/133 Buffer-to-Host Data Rate133 MB/s Buffer Size2 MB DRIVE #2 Model IDHitachi HTS541616J9SA00 RevisionSB4OC74P Parameters310101 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors per track, 512 bytes per sector LBA Sectors312581808 Buffer7516 KB (Dual Ported, Read Ahead) Multiple Sectors16 ECC Bytes4 Max. PIO Transfer ModePIO 4 Max. UDMA Transfer ModeUDMA 5 (ATA-100) Active UDMA Transfer ModeUDMA 5 (ATA-100) Unformatted Capacity152628 MB DRIVE #3 FieldValue ATA Device Properties Model IDMaxtor 6L160M0 RevisionBANC1G10 Parameters310020 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors per track, 512 bytes per sector LBA Sectors312500000 Buffer8 MB (Dual Ported, Read Ahead) Multiple Sectors16 ECC Bytes4 Max. PIO Transfer ModePIO 4 Max. UDMA Transfer ModeUDMA 6 (ATA-133) Active UDMA Transfer ModeUDMA 6 (ATA-133) Unformatted Capacity152588 MB ATA Device Physical Info ManufacturerMaxtor Hard Disk FamilyDiamondMax 10 Form Factor3.5" Formatted Capacity160 GB Physical Dimensions147 x 101.6 x 26.1 mm Max. Weight630 g Average Rotational Latency4.17 ms Rotational Speed7200 RPM Average Seek9 ms InterfaceSATA Buffer-to-Host Data Rate150 MB/s Buffer Size8 MBWow. Maxtor Fireball ... Unlike the name would suggest, they're not very fast. It's a 5400RPM drive. (The 40GB one). The Hitach is also 5400 RPM.. Is that a 2.5"? You should use Hard Disk Sentinel to diagnose all of those drives and see which one is healthiest. I'd recommend the other Maxtor. It's 7200RPM and has a SATA interface. Arguably the most superior drive in your fleet. Sentinal says the drives are all HEALTHY. The hitachi is a 2.5 and is SATA But yes the good maxtor is getting the OS next. Free upgrade haha. Now that still leaves me with a 100 bucks.I'd go for a second hand AMD Athlon X2 and stash the rest of the money in case something breaks down in the future. Unless you need it for gaming in which case I'd go for an AMD Phenom (new). Make sure you check the compatability list of the mainboard.I am more of an xbox gamer but i would do it on the pc if it was good enoguh. Looking at the quad core. I do use some GIS stuff that is cpu intensive, so its an upgrade there. Thanks a lot everyone |
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