PC Upgrade advice

[.: Mac :.]

Custom built PC here and have a question to those of you who have built your own.

THis machine has the following:
Intel Pentium 4 Model 531 (3Ghz, HT, EM64T, 800Mhz FSB)
768MB(1 256 and 1 512) of DDR266 RAM
160GB PATA Hard Drive
NVIDIA Geforce 4 MX 4000 GPU with 128MB of VRAM

The Motherboard supports Dual Channel 333 and 400hz RAM and has SATA connectors

Now knowing that which will give me the best performance boost?

a) replacing the RAM with 2 512MB DDR400 chips (they would then be dual channel unlike it is now)

OR

b) Upgrading to a SATA Hard drive from the current PATA drive?

[CharleyO]

***

I may be wrong but I would go with the RAM upgrade.


***

[Marc57]

***

I may be wrong but I would go with the RAM upgrade.


***

I agree, I would upgrade the Ram.

[Gene J]

266MHz vs. 800MHz, no contest. Make sure the RAM will work with your MB. Not all RAM is created equal. See what brands your MB maker recommends. You did not mention if your board supports SATA II. That might change things.

[Negeltu]

I would upgrade the RAM and the graphics card  :-D

[.: Mac :.]

Not sure if the board has SATAII. its an Intel D865GSA board

EDIT: box says 1.5Gb/s so thats SATA I

[.: Mac :.]

Yes its an older GPU but Since im not running Vista and Command and Conquer 3 is not out yet, I will wait until later to upgrade that

[New_Age]

I've built tons of systems. You stated your MB supports DRR400? Go with this if anything "http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141212"

[.: Mac :.]

Thanks, I will be ordering the memory

[Hard_ROCKER]

Hello Mac !

I would recommend this ram to you if you are buying at newegg.com : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440

The price is lower than PQI , it's faster (better timings) and it's from Corsair which means you can't miss 

If you'll be OCing though none of those two kits will do, i have a similar setup to yours and i used some cheap value ddr 400 PQI ram in my system and it was a total nightmare for OCing. Now i use a 2x1 gb Patriot(very popular ram here in EU) ddr 400 signature ram running at ddr480 with a slightly bumped voltage at default timings, stable as a rock  . Not a huge OC but not bad for the price either. This is what i use now:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220079

[.: Mac :.]

Thanks for the link, No I do not overclock my hardware In this machine yet ( wait until the warranty runs our on all the hardware first)

[Hard_ROCKER]

Thanks for the link, No I do not overclock my hardware In this machine yet ( wait until the warranty runs our on all the hardware first)

No problem ! Well if you won't be OCing than that Corsair value ram should really do well for you ...  And also about the warranty with Corsair, this is from their warranty policy :

... Corsair's memory modules, SD, and CF Flash Memory cards all carry a lifetime warranty ...

http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/warranty.html

[DavidR]

Crucial memory is also good and they have a guarantee that the memory they supply for your system will be compatible. You input the motherboard info and it lists recommended/compatible RAM modules.

[neal62]

Mac as you may know it's always good to have 2 of the same kind of Ram that are a Matched pair. The system will generally perform much better and usually faster that way. As the others have mentioned I would go with the Ram.  I use the crucial brand and they have a fine product IMHO. 

[.: Mac :.]

Thanks for all the input guys Memory ordered:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440