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    RAM or Harddrive?? HeLP!!!

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by bonedages, Nov 14, 2004.

  1. bonedages

    bonedages Notebook Enthusiast

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    I want to upgrade my acer tm3201. I'm on a two hundred dollar budget so i can get only one of the upgrades. My question is, which would be a better buy? An extra stick of a gigabite of ram or a 7200 rpm harddrive. Note: my machine already has 512 ram and my harddrive is a 4200 rpm.
    Thanks for your help.
     
    bonedages, Nov 14, 2004
    #1
  2. ariskk

    ariskk Notebook Enthusiast

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    I suggest you get the hard drive (that's what I did). I also think that 1GB of laptop ram will cost more than $200.

    ==============================
    1.
    Gigabyte 7DXR+, Athlon XP 2400+, AMD cooler
    512DDR Ram, 200GB + 80GB WD JB + 40GB WD BB + 40GB IBM DeathStar-ready to die (click click clicks).
    DVD , CDRW, 350Watt HEC AMD approved PSU, 1000VA Mustek UPS
    212G Allied Data wireless PCI adapter
    Prolink PixelView PlayTV Pro card (sucks)
    Soundblaster live! Value
    Running XP Pro & Linux

    2. Laptop
    Acer Aspire 1501LMi, Athlon 64 3000+ DTR, Ati 9600 (M10), 512 DDR333, 60GB hard disk, WinXP / WinXP 64 bit beta
     
    ariskk, Nov 15, 2004
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  3. djxtamster

    djxtamster Notebook Consultant

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    First things first. The harddrive upgrade would be the best choice. It would run a lot faster. Having larger amounts of RAM would be nice too, but 512mb is good enough already for everyday use.

    Fujitsu S6210: PentiumM 1.6Ghz 1GB DDR333 RAM 7K60 Hard Drive DVD RW Drive...
    What more do I need for this thing?
     
    djxtamster, Nov 15, 2004
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  4. vr5

    vr5 Notebook Guru

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    I would get 1gig ram - makes more sense to me.
    Newegg sells 1gig modules for under 200.
    In terms of overall performance, I think that ram is more important.
    Application loading times - i don't really care that much.
     
    vr5, Nov 15, 2004
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  5. Big Calhoun

    Big Calhoun Notebook Evangelist

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    Biggest initial (and noticeable) performance increase, go with the hard drive. You'll notice your system boots faster with more memory, but as you continue to use it, the faster HD will give you a better performance boost overall. Once you have the HD, go for the increased memory. 512 is plenty to start with.
     
    Big Calhoun, Nov 15, 2004
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  6. bonedages

    bonedages Notebook Enthusiast

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    I guess the consensus is an upgraded hard drive. Looking at it as a price issue now. 150 for a harddrive or 200 for ram? anyone know any cheap places to buy either or?
     
    bonedages, Nov 15, 2004
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  7. Excavator

    Excavator Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'll vote for the hard drive upgrade too. If you only had 256meg of ram you would notice a huge difference but, as most have said already, 512 is pretty good for now.

    Have you looked at newegg.com? Memory and hard drives both there. I'm getting a 7200rpm 60GB Hitachi for my laptop - should be here today. Was only $152.50
     
    Excavator, Nov 15, 2004
    #7