Re-Building my PC... A few questions:

[fizzy_drink]

Time for an overhaul.

1) New Hard Disk: SATA 80GB, 8MB buffer, 7200 rpm.

I hope that this will sharpen things-up a little.

Question:
If I partition it into OS & Files, will that make it any slower?

How much partition to leave for OS (playing with photos/video).


2) Memory: An Extra 1GB of PC3200, 400 DDR.

Now... I originally went out to purchase 512MB to add to my existing 512MB.

I ended-up getting 1GB instead - is that overkill, or will I reap the benefits of the extra 512mb? (again, I will be playing with photos/video).


3) Processor: ?????

I currently run a an AMD Athlon XP 2800+ 2.1 Ghz.

I'd like to upgrade it... but I don't know what to get?

A "Siempron" chip? What about the 64 bit ones? (my motherboard is compatible with the 64 bit processors).

What about over-clocking?



Ta,

Oms.

 

[wozzaa]

Unless you have one of these upgradable motherboards which are shite how is your comp which has a 32bit OLD style cpu gonna be able to run a 64bit cpu?

The sempron isnt a 64bit cpu its just an XP chip rebranded and in some cases cut down.

Your extra 512mb ram might not be that beneficial. Mainly cause you will loose dual channel and 1t latencies.

You will get no slow down from partitioning drives either in fact its advised you do so.

Both my hard drives have 3 partitions on them. but 10gb for windows is good also means if you get any problems in future and need to format you dont loose all the data on the harddrive you only loose those 10gigs.

 

[MikeDX]

Is there any reason why you want such a small hard drive? 80gb seems rather primitive considering you can get a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA/150 16MB Cache Hard Disk Drive for £70.44 inc VAT. what are you paying for the 80gb? £40? £50?

Dont skimp on the hard drive, especially if you are throwing 1gb of ram in there, you are just crippling yourself before you begin.. unless of course you plan to just use the 80gb as your primary drive and bung another couple of 250/300 drives in there as slaves

 

[Daz]

The Sempron 64's are Socket 754. Your Athlon XP will be Socket A, so you can't just swap them. You either need another Socket A CPU or get a new motherboard.

 

[wozzaa]

There are boards that do both think ECS make them but i just dont rate ECS.

And not all the 754 semprons are 64bit. Plus socket 754 is awful not worth the money. Considering socket 940 / M2 is coming out soon we will see 939 becoming the budget platform and being a lot cheaper.

 

[fizzy_drink]

Okies...

So I'll leave the processor out for the moment - unless a reasonable CPU upgrade is available for use with my K7 Motherboard??



The HDD is mainly for OS installation, and photo storage.

I've got an External 250GB for my MP3's/Videos... I'll use that for now, until I get myself a BIG slave.

Ta very much guys.