Help me decide!

[onelegout]

Help! I've FINALY managed to make some money! Although, now I can't decide what to buy!:(

I have 220 quid to spend.
Now, my ram is AWEFUL, so perhaps I should upgrade that?
But my sound is also aweful!
And those physics processors do look mighty good fun!
aaaah!
What do I buy?
here are the things that I want, which is more important?! :( I realy cant decide!

1gb of pc3200 ballistix ram? (80 quid)
or
2gb of pc3200 ballistix ram? (160 quid)
or
256mb physX card? (170 quid)
or
150GB raptop hdd (190 quid)
or
X-fi Fatal1ty FPS-edition (136 quid)

Which would benefit me most?
I play battlefield 2 and CS:S, but Im always listening to music, and sometimes recording it.
Will Physx cards take off? Or will the technology die?
Help me decide what to get! please!
Thanks
H

[bartvandenberg]

go for the ram.. or raptop. if you want an increase in gaming capabilty.. then def ram.

IMO i would cancel the physx card altogether.. or at least until they really become worth it. soooo few games even use it , and the ones that supposedly do, noone can even tell the difference really. (so ive heard and read)

PhysX will probably take off. its a really good idea, but.. the technology is nex tto dead right now. but its like anythign thats new. you have to wait till they actually find how to use it properly and design games with it in mind.

[CanaBalistic]

dont get the sound card. its a complete waste of money.. the fatality card boast a 15% performance increase over on-board sound. To me thats not getting my 136 quid worth (i think thoes cards are $250 CAD).

The ram shouldnt even be a question. GET IT!

The HDD doesnt give you much of an improvment either. unless you currently have an ide drive and are going for a sata 2 raptor. Personally i think the raptors suck for the money. The seek time for a sata2 raptor is 8.9ms, My western digital IDE drive has a 9ms seek time. The transfer rates are a lil higher

Have you thought about a new gfx card or a better cooling solution? What about a new monitor? Better power supply? front panel display?

[MarkTheDaemon]

Personally i would go for the RAM, i think the soundcard is a bit of a waste of money....


Mark

[onelegout]

Hmmmm.... ok so ram is the best choice then? :)
Cana-balsitic - I just got a new psu, gfx card, and Im going to have a 15" lcd in the side of my next case, but thanks for the ideas! :)
I think I'll be going for the ram then.
But Im at another fork in the road now!
Do I

A) get 2x 1GB sticks
or
B) get 4x 512mb sticks

I have 4 ram slots in my mobo, and the reason for getting 4 512mb sticks, would be to fill them out and reduce the temptation of buying more in the future! (I spend ALL my money on this machine!)
Would getting 4x 512mb sticks give a significant loss of performance as apposed to 2x 1gb sticks? Im using a dual channel mobo.
Thanks for all your help guys!
H

[DaveW]

Hmm...i don't think theres much difference performance wise...i think that 4 512 sticks would run cooler and pottentially faster. Maybe i'm wrong, who knows? I'm not the RAM guru.

-Dave

[Omega]

Get two gigs of the RAM and the cheapest Audigy you can find (I think EAX is worth it, so make sure it has EAX. The Audigy 2 Value is like 20USD. Have fun.)

[bartvandenberg]

with current 1GB sticks the way they are, you really shouldnt notice a difference. timings are up to par on 1 gig sticks as with 512.

id say get 2 sticks of some kick ass ram. like xms or something. that way, if you need more later on, you have room to upgrade.

its either get 2 gig sticks, have 2 slots open, or get 4 512 sticks, and when you wanna upgrade and run dual channel properly, get rid of all 4 sticks, and get 4 gig sticks. so... def cheaper upgrade wise to go 1gig sticks.


oh.. and about a hd. if you currently only have like an ata-100 hd or something, then go with a new sata or sata II hd (after your ram upgrade of course. RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM. yay for RAM). raptors are good for transfer rates and what not, but seek times on them are no faster. and for the price, they are far from worth it in my books.

my sata's kick ass