ram and raid

[jensked]

Maybe it's a stupid question, but

1) I have a motherboard that supports PC3200 ram...but my 512mb Samsung ram is only PC2700. Is it worth the money to switch to PC3200?

2) Is it worth the money to switch to a 1024mb PC3200 ram? Should I feel the difference?

My pc:
Asus A7V8X-X
Athlon XP 2600+
512mb ram (PC2700)
Radeon 9800 Pro
WinXP SP2
WD 120 gb and Seagate 80gb
Plextor DVD writer

And does anybody here have any experience with RAID 0?
Do the two drives have to be identical?

thanks a lot guys and gals 8)

 

[jayjaya29]

I would go for the 1024MB (goes as 1gig of RAM), any speed, 2700 or 3200. 1 gig of RAM is a feelable improvement over 512MB of RAM. I did it, and its wonderful.

As for RAID 0, I don't think they have to be the same, I would try and get two identical drives though. I have my two SATA drives in a RAID0.

 

[mgkdk]

Re: ram and raid

And does anybody here have any experience with RAID 0?
Do the two drives have to be identical?

thanks a lot guys and gals 8)

They don't have to be identical
I don't know about the ram but isn't it a case of the more the merrier

 

[fluke667]

Re: ram and raid

They don't have to be identical

they don't have to be indentical in the same way as you don't need 4 identical wheels on your car
so they don't have to but it's highly recommended

the performance adantage of raid 0 is not very big
it helps speed up booting as for the rest there is not much "felt" difference imho

and more ram is better

 

[Z102]

I would go for the 1024MB (goes as 1gig of RAM), any speed, 2700 or 3200. 1 gig of RAM is a feelable improvement over 512MB of RAM. I did it, and its wonderful.

I agree. Go for the Gig, the improvement in performance you'll notice between 512Mb PC2700 and 512Mb PC3200 is nowhere near what you'll notice if you double your RAM. As mgkdk pointed out, in regards to RAM, it's really a case of the more the merrier

As for a RAID0 setup, it's the cheapest and easiest RAID to implement, you just need two disks (needn't be the same size, though it helps), and voil?, you now have that much disk space available, plus a boost in speed. The downside is that, should one of the disks die, you'll lose all your data, because RAID0 offers no redundance or error checking. But I guess that if you backup often, that shouldn't be an issue... except one of the disks dies the very Friday you were going to do the backup... That's one of the reasons I don't like this setup, besides, as fluke667 says, there isn't that much difference in performance.

 

[swek]

That's just not true. Especially on older Athlon boards, different ram configurations can cause you a sleepless night. Two sticks might work well toghether, while they won't in dual channel. Three completely diffrent sticks ie. SS DS DS could cause your system to crash. I'd say you should check your Manual and buy supported ram.

 

[jayjaya29]

Of course you should buy supported RAM to make sure it works. Dual channel can be a pain in the ass too, but if he is using an older machine, he won't have to deal with dual channel.

 

[jensked]

My motherboard isn't dual channel

So i'm thinking of
1) adding 512mb of ram (PC2700) = 1gig
2) getting rid ot that 512mb and just buy one 1gig PC3200 stick, IF i should feel a difference between those two.

Thanks a lot guys...I think i'm gonna stick with just two disks. I do planto buy another bigger disk in stead of the 80gig one and sell the old one to my brother

 

[Kip_6666]

Re: ram and raid

Maybe it's a stupid question, but

1) I have a motherboard that supports PC3200 ram...but my 512mb Samsung ram is only PC2700. Is it worth the money to switch to PC3200?

2) Is it worth the money to switch to a 1024mb PC3200 ram? Should I feel the difference?

My pc:
Asus A7V8X-X
Athlon XP 2600+
512mb ram (PC2700)
Radeon 9800 Pro
WinXP SP2
WD 120 gb and Seagate 80gb
Plextor DVD writer

And does anybody here have any experience with RAID 0?
Do the two drives have to be identical?

thanks a lot guys and gals 8)

That processor of yours is a 2600+

There are two version of that cpu, one with a fsb of 133mhz, the other one with a fsb of 166. If your running your fsb in sync with your ram you need or pc2100 (fsb 133 ddr266) or pc2700 (fsb 166 ddr333).

If your not overclocking, pc2700 is that max you need.

pc3200 is supported on your motherboard, but it won't make much of a difference (nothing you'll notice)

Yet with the prices these days, pc3200 vs pc2700 hardly makes a difference, and if your thinking about ever switching to a athlon64, that pc3200 can still be used.



And I've switched from 2x256 to 2x512, and THe only place I've noticed it is in high end games.

maybe photoshopping large photographs, but other than that it's limited in my subjective view. Other people will probably think differently about it.