question on upgrading my ram and to windows 7

[Izzjess]

heres my specs 320gig hd--2.4 e6600proc--2 gigs of 800speed corsair sdram--9800 GTX--MB is a asus p5b-E--
antec 750w ps.. --------Im wanting to upgrade to window7 from xp and am thinking upgrading my ram would be the least cost best upgrade move i can make--- any way, should i get 2 more sticks of the ram ive got or get all new ram alltogether and if so how much..... any other wisdom on the windows 7 upgrade would also be nice thanks

 

[baih777]

you should consider making it a dual boot. i would get a western digital black edition 500gb and partition it, 40gb for XP and 100GB for win7 and whats left for storage.
my own computer i installed a 320gb for XP and 500 gb partition 100gb for win7 and whats left for storage. the dual boot issues with Vista have been eliminated with win7 . i have had not one problem in the past three months. just install XP first and do the first 100 updates ane then install win7. win7 finds its own drivers. really it does.
i am using win 64bit pro version. the only program i cant use is the security program from my backup maxtor drive. its was time for a new backup drive anyways.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

heres my specs 320gig hd--2.4 e6600proc--2 gigs of 800speed corsair sdram--9800 GTX--MB is a asus p5b-E--
antec 750w ps.. --------Im wanting to upgrade to window7 from xp and am thinking upgrading my ram would be the least cost best upgrade move i can make--- any way, should i get 2 more sticks of the ram ive got or get all new ram alltogether and if so how much..... any other wisdom on the windows 7 upgrade would also be nice thanks

Unless you are running applications that are particularly memory intensive 2gb of ram is really perfectly fine for 7. DDR2 Ram prices have really gone up in the last 6 months so adding more really isn't as cost effective as it used to be.

If you are wanting to improve system responsiveness, boot time, loading times, etc I highly recommend considering a SSD. Using one for you OS and programs will make a much more noticeable difference in how fast your system feels than adding more ram would. If you do decide to go with a SSD the Intel X25-V is an excellent drive.

Newegg.com - Intel X25-V SSDSA2MP040G2R5 2.5" 40GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - SSD

I would definitely go with 7 64bit though so you will have the option to upgrade to more ram if you decide to. IMO there isn't any reason to dual boot with xp, if you do need to run some old applications 7 Pro and Ultimate include a virtual version of XP that works very well.

 

[Izzjess]

an ssd? thats a new term to me .. how would that work with my sata 320 (it sounds good but i dont know how it would work

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Basically you just install Windows and a few programs that would benefit from considerably reduced launch times on the SSD and then put all of your files and other programs on the 320gb drive you have now. For Example i have Windows 7, Firefox, MS Office, Microsoft Security Essentials, and Visual Studio on my SSD right now and I have COD4, Crysis, Far Cry 2, and all of my documents, pictures, and music on my 500gb Hard drive.

Basically you just treat a SSD like a small but incredibly fast hard drive. If you are interested this article is very long but it does an excellent job of explaining everything you could want to know about SSDs

The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

 

[Izzjess]

well i looked up the specs of my mobo and it dosnt support more that 800 ddr2 ram anyway so it soulds like the hard drive idea is the best thanks..