Upgrading my computer

[flight doc89]

So, I traded in some points i got from selling cameras for a couple gigs of OCZ Gold DDR2......







Only to realize tonight that my motherboard is DDR(1), not DDR2 :cry:

Upon contemplation, my computer may look pretty (and sound like a freight train), but it might be time to upgrade...

I've currently got:
*inhale* ""DFI LANParty UT NF4 SLI-DR Motherboard,""
2x512 DDR Ram (Kingston, no less),
WD 7200rpm 160gb SATA drive,
a shitty IDE DVD-RW, and an OLD Memorex CD-RW,
a pair of nVidia 7600GS,
and an AMD 3800+

the first question is: how much should I upgrade. I'm looking for this computer to last me at least another 2 years of school. I want more RAM and need more storage space, and I'm fairly poor.

Should I: Hit up ebay for cheap DDR RAM
Or: Get a new board that supports the rest of my current components

next question is: I'm gonna get a couple new hard drives for a RAID0 setup (I'm looking for fast R/W times), no real space minimum, just want either 16mb or 32mb cache and 7200rpm. My current drive is 160gb 8mb 7200rpm
I'm building this to put quick access stuff on, like games, documents (when it comes to sifting through school crap, I'm impatient), and most importantly a scratch drive for photoshop.

Should I keep using my current drive as my boot drive, or should I put my OS on the RAID array and use this one solely for storage? I don't care how long my comp takes to start up, only how well it runs once it is started.

Looking purely for performance on the RAID setup, anything I have on disc that I don't want to lose is already burned to DVD.

 

[Doward]

DDR1, so I'm assuming you're socket 939?

You've got two ways of doing this:

1) Go cheap. I mean DIRT FUCKING CHEAP - that s939 system is a decent performer still, just throw some more ram (2-3GB total) into it and call it a day. If you are looking for fast r/w times, I'll actually suggest you not look toward a RAID0 system. You said it yourself - you need storage space. Just get yourself a single 750GB or 1TB 32MB cache drive of your choice.

I used to run a 3 x 120GB 7200rpm Seagate RAID0 array in my desktop. Upgraded to a single 750GB 7200rpm Samsung F1 drive. According to all the benchmarks, I had less throughput, but you know what? The system felt just as fast to me.

Now, if you are constantly moving MASSIVE (1-2GB+) files around on your system, then yeah, the RAID0 might not be bad.

For small files, you will notice almost no performance difference, unless you're running Linux in a RAID1 far layout array (concurrent reads off both drives)

That's just my opinion - now to actually help you -

Do not run a RAID array on IDE. Just... don't bother. Go SATA or don't do it at all. How many SATA ports does your board have (too lazy to look it up )

Option 2) Throw down and do it right:

Get yourself a nice P35 or better Core2Duo board, slap you an E6300 on there. The biggest difference you'll see, IMHO, is going to a Dual Core processor of your choice. Even the cheapest Dual Core Celerons will feel snappy compared to that single core 3800 you've got.

Don't waste money on another s939 board. If you had an AM2 processor, you should already have DDR2 lol, in which case you might have some wiggle room to upgrade.

Here's a quick HitList on a C2D upgrade for you:
$80 GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L
$72 Pentium E5200 (2MB cache) Wolfdale 2.5Ghz (overclock to ~3.2)
$33 GSKill F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK 5-5-5-15 PC1066 (I've got 4GB of this EXACT ram cruising DDR1333 right now 5-5-5-15 without a sweat)
$70 Hitachi 32MB Cache 750GB SATA HDD

For around $260 you'll have a MAJOR increase over your current system. If that's too much, drop to a 500Gb HDD and save $10, and drop to a Celeron Dual Core (yeah, I know, but overclock it and don't tell anyone until you get a better proc ) to save another $20. For $230, still a damn nice jump over what you have now.

6x SATA and 1x PATA on that board, btw. Option 2 is the way I would point you, until LGA1366 comes down in price

 

[jackal613]

I have pretty close to the same setup as you:

DFI Lanparty UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert
939 AMD 3800+ (San Diego I think?)
2 gigs Patriot RAM 2-3-2-5
2 x BFG 8800 GTS OC in SLI
etc. etc.

I have it watercooled and can get a nice overclock out of it, but I haven't had time to mess around with it too much.

I've also had this rig for almost my entire college life and it's been more than adequate except for the fans crapping out on me.

Keep your current 160 as a secondary/media dump drive.

Switch over to at least 2 GB of the fastest DDR400 ram you can find, with the tightest timings. This will improve your speeds in general and especially when working with photoshop.

Add at least 1 x 750 GB drive with the perpendicular technology and NCQ as your main OS drive. Don't cheap out on this! If you really want to try raiding, go ahead, but it's more money than it's worth.

Personally, I went from IDE hard drives to 1 TB SATA perpendicular drives and I'm seeing awesome speed increases in everything that I do. Also, being in college, it's not the speed that will make your life miserable, it's the storage space! Never have enough room for that all of that awesome stuff...

Your computer should be fine for the next 2 years, especially with the way games are headed. It's college so you don't need a gaming rig, that's what your 360 and PS3 are for :naughty:

 

[flight doc89]

I was going for the RAID 0 array so that I would have fast r/w times in my photoshop scratch drive, but if I won't see a significant improvement then no biggie. My board has 8 SATA slots.

I'm a little confused on the AMD socket boards right now: my board is a Socket 939, and I'm running the AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+. Looking at boards on newegg, the AM2 boards are listed for AMD Athlon 64 X2's. Will my chip fit an AM2 board AND a 939 board?

I'm not moving singular massive files too often, but I will set photoshop or another photo program to editing/watermarking/copying photos on a regular basis, and when I do that I'm looking at processing 3-6 GB worth of files and then the copies that are produced are 1-6 GB worth, depending on if I downsize them or not.

EDIT: oh, and no PS3/XBox for me. Hell, I don't even have a TV

 

[shiftysupra]

look on www.newegg.com they have cheap prices there. have bought all kinds of ram and hhd's from them.