Suggestions on RAM and HD

[hatchmar]

I am building a system starting with the Motherboard listed in my sig, I found a CPU on sale that I am going to buy ( Intel Pentium 4 3.0E Prescott 800MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache Socket 478 Processor - Retail ) anybody have any suggestions on what RAM and HD that would work with this combo without any problems? I am dealing with an insurance compnay so I have to keep it around $300 for the RAM and HD. thanks for any help!

 

[HIM_Valo]

Here is some good RAM for a decent price, it will do its job.

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB DDR400 1GB(2x512mb) .... $90.15
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440

CORSAIR System Select 512mb DDR400 .... $79.19
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145146

As for HDD's depends on what you want, speed? or capacity?

Speed Wise I'd Recomend the Western Digital Raptor 74GB ... $183
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144160

Capcity Wise I'd Recomend the Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB ....$109.50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148065

If these do not appeal to you check out www.newegg.com there are plenty of selection, they have a great search tool to find exactly what your looking for. Hope this helps. Good Luck with your build. :giddy:

 

[hatchmar]

cool thanks, speed is more important with the HD

 

[hatchmar]

looks like the SATA is pretty fast but is it a pain to setup or is it like IDE?

 

[vnf4ultra]

In a way sata's harder, you have to load drivers off a floppy disc when it says press f6 to load driver(or whatever it says with the f6), but with sata you don't have to worry about master/slave drives, they all are like master drives, as only one drive can connect to one cable. So I'd say on average it's about the same.

I like seagate, they're reliable, quiet, and have a 5yr warranty, which is nice.

I like corsair ram, especially the valueselect(cas 2.5) for the price.

 

[hatchmar]

speaking of ram, I was looking at ddr 400's 512m and there is a list on newegg, all of them look like they have the same specs, but there is a huge price difference between a couple of them. there is one for $100 and another for $44. only difference i see is the brand. isnt RAM well... RAM?

 

[HIM_Valo]

Well yes, all RAM has to meet certain requirements to be well RAM. The difference is timing's CAS latency, etc.

Generic RAM has poor timings and latency, while name brand RAM like corsair or kingston to name some improve those things, to make a better quality RAM.

 

[hatchmar]

makes sense. thanks

 

[Row1]

asus has ram selector-

per your profile, you have an asus mb-
asus has ram requirements at their website, and some websites have ram selectors: you click your mb manufacturer, model, etc., and they give you a list of what is meant for your mb.

also, their website should have info about mb and sata: i just built a system with asus a8n-sli and the mb recognized my sata hd with no action on my part other than installing the hd.

if you spend $90-100 on ram that leaves you up to $200 for hd: that will get you a lot of ram and hd. cool.