6 replies to this topic

[Blissey]

I return to the hardware section with more questions.

I am picking out some upgrades for my laptop, which specs are:



and was thinking of:
upgrading the hard drive to a SSD for a boot drive, then having my caviar blue in an enclosure over USB
upgrading ram from 4GB to 8GB

would there be anything else I could upgrade for a performance boost?


Also, how much of a performance jump would I get from upgrading from 4 to 8GB of ram?

Edited by Skrillex, 22 November 2011 - 07:27 PM.

[Blissey]

Upgrade wise, im looking at this:
http://www.amazon.co...22079926&sr=8-1 for an SSD,
and
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820148345 for ram.

[Hydrogen]

go for faster ram if you can
674mghz is pretty slow... opt for 1333 +
usually speed of RAM determines how much better the leap will be from 4 to 8 gb

It depends on if the price is worth it. RAM is already much, much faster than disk, so increasing the total amount is much better than increasing the speed, if you have to choose.

Seriously, though, increasing your RAM is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to speed up your computer. As much as possible, prevent your computer from swapping or having to go to the slow ass disk. You won't notice a 100 MHz increase in clock speed as much as you will notice a 100 Mb increase in RAM.

If you are using more than 4 GB of RAM, make sure to use a 64 bit operating system, or the upgrade will be useless.

[iargue]

Using a 7200 rpm instead of a 5400 rpm hd will give you a nice performance boost.

[Blissey]

Okay, my final list of upgrades is:
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820147502 for windows + 1-2 games
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820178384
and
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817392019 to put my current hard drive in for data, etc

[Hydrogen]

Using a 7200 rpm instead of a 5400 rpm hd will give you a nice performance boost.

I don't believe it's worth the money. Your operating system, file system, and every other type of system on your computer already tries so hard to cache everything it possibly can, that the speed boost for when you do actually go out to disk is useless for the money you pay. If you really want to spend that, invest in larger L2 caches. Maybe even go to a L3 if you can.