Faster Processor Or More Memory?

[species5478]

Thanks for the great advice!

 

Interesting...because I checked various places for parts, like Amazon, read some reviews, and found near identical statements matching your suggestions. Since I have till late next month before I have the funds to purchase upgrades, I've been spending some time researching and realize that there really aren't that many parts to a computer. (generally speaking) The mobo, (and it's many parts) graphics card, memory, CPU, Drives, etc. I'm not sure why I felt so intimidated by computers, but after experimenting with graphics cards and memory, I began looking at the other parts and began to understand what I looking at! I know I probably sound crazy to you pros but...tweaking my P.C. is actually kinda fun! I was wondering where do you get your parts from? Is there like a cheap and safe place online? I bought my graphics card from Newegg, and my mouse and memory from Amazon. Are there better place? I'll probably read through more of LHammonds post because I'm sure the answer is there but I find people talking about stuff completely over my head. (at least for now)

[Balagor]

Well, i try not to talk over your head:

 

1.Your RAM are OK.

2.Your grafic card is OK. ( I chekked it. Has 800 streamprocessors, which is indeed OK)

3.If your power supply is at least 450 W, it is also OK

4. Your case is OK

 

So don´t waste money on anything else than a new moyherboard and CPU,

and perhaps a HD drive with a large buffer (16 or 32 mb)

 

As for where to by, you should turn to LHammonds or one of the others, since being from DK

i can not contribute with that.

[LHammonds]

I've posted some places I used to buy my parts recently here

 

There is no real secret, just a lot of searching. Places like PriceGrabber.com is great to find new potential stores and to see how other customers "rate" those stores with their experiences with them...not just the products. The more you look, the more you find and when you are done researching, you have a good idea where you need to purchase it from...such as packaged deals to get free shipping and such.

 

LHammonds

[species5478]

Very cool...

 

I have another quick question if you guys will be so kind as to answer...

 

What is the importance of power? I'm not even sure if I'm getting the right amount of voltage, or how and what I should be looking for in terms of voltage. I've read that if your power supply isn't right, then you could potentially damage your P.C. Is this in regards to the "power cord" or something else?

[LHammonds]

What is the importance of power?

Everything. I use an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) to ensure stable power to my computer such as the typical brown-outs that occur at my ranch. It is also important that you purchase a power supply unit (PSU) that has features to protect your PC in cases of failures or power problems so it does not fry your expensive computer parts and valuable data. I looked at the Antec CP-850 because of features such as "OVP (Over Voltage Protection), SCP (Short Circuit Protection), and OCP (Over Current Protection)"

 

I'm not even sure if I'm getting the right amount of voltage, or how and what I should be looking for in terms of voltage.

In the topic I linked to in my previous post, there was a posting about researching a case/power supply and noted a location where you could "calculate" what watt consumption you could require based on what components are in your PC. I even noted a formula you could use to determine how much it could cost in energy based on wattage used during the course of a year. ;)

 

I've read that if your power supply isn't right, then you could potentially damage your P.C. Is this in regards to the "power cord" or something else?

Mainly, it depends if you are using the wrong connectors or specifying 220 vs 120. Also, if your components are drawing more power than what your PSU can deliver or just barely, your hardware can suffer. Example: Your hard drives can "act" like they are failing and the OS can try to "correct" bad sectors which are not really bad (yep, had that happen).

 

LHammonds

[species5478]

Ok, I know some (if not most) of my P.C. related questions may seem like "given" knowledge, but I am just exploring the foundations of my system and, I'm a quick learner. I usually search for answers offline, and online first before bringing them here because I value the opinions of those on this sight because I have yet to be told a falsehood.

 

Blah blah species out with it!

 

Oh...My question? Well, I know the value of having an external hard drive in the event of system failure. But is there any performance benefit in having one?

 

And should 1TB be the goal? I've got about 60-100 bucks to spend on one, and I've seen these 1TB models with nice shiny cases that I like...

[Vagrant0]

Oh...My question? Well, I know the value of having an external hard drive in the event of system failure. But is there any performance benefit in having one?

Other than being able to store all those unneeded documents, music, and other stuff somewhere else you mean?

 

The transfer rate of most USB external harddrives usually isn't as fast as most internal drives, and you'd still be limited to the same sorts of caching and RAM limits of your system, so playing games from an external drive probably won't improve anything. However, if you listen to music while playing games, it might provide a minor improvement to be reading the music files from an external drive instead of the drive which is busy loading all the components related to the game. But, this improvement would likely be limited to just load times. So, your main benefit would be just in having quicker seek times and less directory clutter.

 

And should 1TB be the goal? I've got about 60-100 bucks to spend on one, and I've seen these 1TB models with nice shiny cases that I like...

While the all-in-one models are fairly simple, and have decent reliability, my personal standpoint is that it is often better to go with just an enclosure, and buy a compatible harddrive to put inside. While this may sacrifice some speed and simplicity, it can allow you to swap out harddrives based on usage and what's on them. But, this only helps if you happen to have enough data to fill multiple harddrives, or have some practical purpose for wanting two different harddrives to be used externally (work/personal). If your internal drives are also compatible with your external enclosure, it's also easier to recover data, transfer files, or fix the problem with another computer should anything happen that doesn't fry that particular drive. For backup/recover purposes, the normal enclosures only help if you had the foresight to make the backup first.

[LHammonds]

For backup/recover purposes, the normal enclosures only help if you had the foresight to make the backup first.

Foresight given here: Backup Your Data Files

 

Another related article: How to protect your PC

 

LHammonds

[Vagrant0]

For backup/recover purposes, the normal enclosures only help if you had the foresight to make the backup first.

Foresight given here: Backup Your Data Files

 

Another related article: How to protect your PC

 

LHammonds

Yep, great for system and important files, not so good for the mod project you happen to be working on at the time, or some recent documents you stuck in a folder for later review. Being able to access a functioning harddrive after some other component fails simply by hooking it into an external enclosure allows you to continue with a minimal loss of data and gives you a means of accessing old data while you try to fix the problem/order components.

 

But yes, regular backups are always a good idea.

[species5478]

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll just concentrate on a new processor and or mobo.