2mb ddr ram is it worth it? All suggestions are welcome!!!!

[toraji40]

Hi all,

First I want to thank you in advance for any suggestions.

I am the proud owner of a very nice machine but I can't keep thinking
about upgrading, therefore I would like to see what other people
think.

I have:
P4P800 DLX (asus)
P4 3.2 Ghz
180 Gb western digital hard drive (4 partitions)
Radeon 9800 xt
(2 pcs. Corsair XMS3500 512MB DDR RAM (Dual Channel)
Sony DRU-530A 8X DVD Burner


I am thinking about upgrading with:
73,6 GB SATA[10.000rpm] Hard Drive
and 2 more pcs of (Corsair XMS3500 512MB DDR RAM).

I know I sound spoiled but I need to get this out of my system. So I
need some help............


Again........Tnx in advance...........

Best regards, Ron

 

[Ken Fox]

Hi all,

First I want to thank you in advance for any suggestions.

I am the proud owner of a very nice machine but I can't keep thinking
about upgrading, therefore I would like to see what other people
think.

I have:
P4P800 DLX (asus)
P4 3.2 Ghz
180 Gb western digital hard drive (4 partitions)
Radeon 9800 xt
(2 pcs. Corsair XMS3500 512MB DDR RAM (Dual Channel)
Sony DRU-530A 8X DVD Burner


I am thinking about upgrading with:
73,6 GB SATA[10.000rpm] Hard Drive
and 2 more pcs of (Corsair XMS3500 512MB DDR RAM).

I know I sound spoiled but I need to get this out of my system. So I
need some help............


Again........Tnx in advance...........

Best regards, Ron

I think you would (probably) notice the speed difference from the
(presumably WD Raptor) hard drive, maybe most because it is 10K RPM and less
so because it is SATA.

As for the memory upgrade, you really need to look at your memory
utilization, which shows up on almost every benchmarking type program I can
think of, even on Asus Probe, I think. In my own case, I have 2 sticks of
512MB 400DDR RAM which is running at 440 FSB which it seems to tolerate, and
which is not really relevant to your question. Whenever I look at
benchmarking programs or Asus Probe, or whatever, I see that at most I'm
utilizing 600 or 700 MB of the RAM, never all of it, and never swapping to
disk. I think it depends on what you use your computer for. If you are
doing a lot of video editing, I think it is very possible you'd notice some
benefit from more RAM. If you are doing more mainstream type of
applications, I think you would be totally wasting your money as you won't
ever use the extra RAM, in fact you probably are not using all the RAM you
already have.

Good luck.

ken

 

[David]

I'd stay away from the raptors, they are REALLY loud

 

[Lynn Coffelt]

I'd stay away from the raptors, they are REALLY loud

Hmmmm... I put two raptors in my P4P800 Deluxe, and I cannot hear them
over the normal fan noises. Perhaps my hearing has become insensitive to
computer grunts, groans, hums and clicks.

Lynn

 

[Rob Stow]

Hmmmm... I put two raptors in my P4P800 Deluxe, and I cannot hear them
over the normal fan noises. Perhaps my hearing has become insensitive to
computer grunts, groans, hums and clicks.

Lynn

I put a pair of the newer, bigger, Raptors in someone's system
last weekend and took out a pair of 60 MB IBM EIDE drives. Neither
I nor the computer owner nor his wife could detect a change in the
noise levels.

What was obvious to all of us, however, was a change in the
amount of heat producted by the drives. The case temperature,
as measured by AsusProbe, went up by 5'C. Even just using
a hand to feel the temperature of the case side panels made
the temperature increase obvious. I went out and get a couple
of drive bay coolers, and I also got a couple of brackets so I
could move the drives from the 3.5" bays up into the 5.25" bays.

 

[DaveW]

The P4P800 may or may not be stable running four sticks of RAM. It's
unfortunately not a sure thing.

 

[Stan Lowitka]

The P4P800 may or may not be stable running four sticks of RAM. It's
unfortunately not a sure thing.

I'm running four sticks of Corsair 512MB DDR400 in dual channel mode.
No problems at all for the last 5-6 months - it's been rock solid.

Best rig I've ever built. Not over-clocked. XP Pro SP-1.

 

[Stan Lowitka]

Hmmmm... I put two raptors in my P4P800 Deluxe, and I cannot hear them
over the normal fan noises. Perhaps my hearing has become insensitive to
computer grunts, groans, hums and clicks.

I also have two Raptors running RAID 0, and I rarely notice them making
any noise except for a few seconds during boot up. I'm very pleased with
them overall.

 

[toraji40]

Wow,

This is the first time I am posting a question and I am pleasantly
surprised by all of the suggestions until now. I will keep all af them
in mind.

1. The noise, I do not really mind, I love to hear my machine ).
2. The heat, coming from the raptors. That could be a problem because
my video card makes the case temp already pretty high. But, I do have
the Cooler Master Jet 4 CPU Cooling Fan which keeps my processor at a
steady 39 degrees.
3. (Maybe I should have mentioned that in my posting) What I do a lot
is playing games like Americans Army and Generals and I noticed that
they make my machine work ).
4. I did read before that 2mb ram could make the machine less stable
so I am really curious if there are more people out there that have
xperience with it and what they think.
5. Please keep your reactions coming.
6. I wish all of you a nice evening...Sleep well!!!

Thanks again,
Ron

 

[Lynn Coffelt]

2. The heat, coming from the raptors. That could be a problem because

my video card makes the case temp already pretty high. But, I do have
the Cooler Master Jet 4 CPU Cooling Fan which keeps my processor at a
steady 39 degrees.

My two small Raptors were put right behind a case fan pulling air in, and
after a fair amount of running, the Raptor's metal drive housing and cover
are barely warm. I think that putting them in the airstream removes the
heat, but then of course it has to be removed from the case immediately.....
an exhaust fan in the right place does that pretty well. The exhaust air is
just barely warm. Tomorrow I'll take a reading and report just what that is
in ASUS degrees. (another EIDE drive in the system actually gets a tad
warmer by feel, but it isn't in a good airflow position)

Running four sticks of 256mb Crucial PC2100 in dual channel, and I have yet
to encounter system instability (P4 2.6 800mhz, not overclocked). Oh, sure,
some of the older software didn't like the new (to me) XP Pro OS, and had to
be patted on the head a little.

Lynn

 

[Lynn Coffelt]

My two small Raptors were put right behind a case fan pulling air in, and
after a fair amount of running, the Raptor's metal drive housing and cover
are barely warm. I think that putting them in the airstream removes the
heat, but then of course it has to be removed from the case immediately.....
an exhaust fan in the right place does that pretty well. The exhaust air is
just barely warm. Tomorrow I'll take a reading and report just what that is
in ASUS degrees. (another EIDE drive in the system actually gets a tad
warmer by feel, but it isn't in a good airflow position)

Tomorrow turned out to be a week later, but here are the running temps
according to Asus Probe. Processor is 26c and Motherboard is 32c. Which is
just about opposite of what I expected, but in any case, a far cry from
recent experience with AMD stuff.

Again, this is a P4P800Deluxe, P4 2.6c, Two 36mb Raptors and one 80mb WD
IDE. I'm thinking the Asuz Radeon 9600XP video card is helping the
motherboard to exceed the temperature of it's processor. There are two
optical drives in there, too, but not running, so don't think they were
contributing much heat.

I'm pleased, almost worried that the poor, non-overclocked processor is
running too cool!

Lynn

 

[ME]

You could overclock it a bit, just to get those temps in line with what it's
expected.
lol

 

[ME]

I love it when you talk dirty.
Sorry, it just came out...
lol