WinXP on 2nd hard disk = faster performance?

[Greg Peterson]

I'm building my first PC, and trying to do it for a really low price (it's for my folks). I got a nice mobo, case, ps, fan, 3.06 GHz Celeron, 256 MB DDR RAM, and CD drive for about $100. Already have a licensed copy of WinXP Home. I have a few IDE drives lying around that I'd like to use up now.

Question: Which would lead to a faster system (for starting up & running simple programs like Firefox, Outlook Express, Adobe Acrobat, etc.)?

Buying an extra 256 MB of RAM?

or

Putting WinXP on a 10GB 5400 RPM hard drive that I have, and the remaining files (software installs, files, etc.) on a spare 40 GB 7200 RPM drive?

Thanks.
Greg

[saphalline]

The extra 256MB of RAM would be the most effective. Although if you have a 7200rpm hard drive, put WinXP on that. The faster the boot drive, the faster WinXP will boot & load. You can always partition the 40GB 7200rpm hard drive if your folks won't need the entire 40GB for their main C: drive.

[Erik]

Defenitely more RAM, the realistic working minimum for XP is 512. A bigger HD won't be of much use unless you think a lot of programs will be installed, or a lot of data being stored. A 7200 RPM drive would be the better option though if you can do it.

As mentioned you can always partition. A good general startegy is one partition for applications, anything that is easily installed again if Windows is corrupted. A second for data and stuff that would be hard/impossible to replace in the event of a Windows reinstall. Keep in mind though that it offers no protection against hardware failure, just software problems. This way if anything gets screwed up in Windows just format, clean install, and all of your data is how you left it.

[Greg Peterson]

Okay, so it's unaminous that more RAM is better than 2 hard disks.

The 256 MB stick that I have is: Infineon, 256MB DDR, 400, CL3, PC3200

I looked through Ebay and could not find an identical match to the above, but did find 2 choices at roughly the same price:

1) 2 x 128 MB sticks with the exact same brand and specs as above. I have 3 slots in my mobo, so I would essentially be using up all 3 slots to get to 512 MB.

2) 1 x 256 MB stick with the same specs as above, but made by a different manufacturer.

Do I need to match the brand, or can I just buy any old 256 MB PC3200 stick?

-G

[Whyzman]

I would suggest looking at www.crucial.com You will be able to match your RAM there.

[Erik]

OK, having a seperate HD for Windows won't improve performance any unless you are planning on using something like a Western Digital Raptor which is a super fast drive. Using an identical drive for Windows and applications/data would possibly be a negligable performance boost at best. RAM on the other hand would defenitely be a big boost.

Matching the RAM exactly is a good idea if possible. It ensures maximum performance, compatability, and realability. Whenever I am building a new system I like to get matched sets of RAM. Also depending opn the mother board, if it supports dual channel or not, using three sticks of different size will break that ability. Everything will still work, but you lose the benefits of dual channel operation. It also makes it harder to upgrade in the future as all of your RAM slots are filled. So I woud recommend you go with a second 256MB stick of the same or greater speed.

[saphalline]

Matching the CAS latency might be a good idea to make the system installation smoother, but other than that you aren't dealing with an OEM system so any RAM will do.

256MB Kingston ValueRAM DDR400 CAS 3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141468)
512MB Kingston ValueRAM DDR400 CAS 3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141436)

[Pentium100]

Your RAM is DDR400 and CL3, so any RAM with 400 effective MHz and CL3 will work. RAM with CL2 or CL2.5 will work at CL3 (but you will be wasting money for faster RAM).
And put windows on the faster drive. If for some reason you cannot do that (for example I could not make my computer to boot from my fastest drive) at least put page file there.