Upgrade PC - Hard drive and Memory 1

[jessiejc]

Hi

I want to upgrade my PC and I am looking for a bit of advice.

My PC spec is as follows:

Dell, Pentium II, V350
System Chip: Intel 440BX AGP set
Current RAM: 64MB
Max RAM: 384MB
Sockets: 3
OS: Win 98

I want to add a second hard disk, and more memory.
I will probably add 128MB DIMM and a 20gig drive.

My problem is knowing what is compatible with what ?
How do I know if I should be looking for a hard drive thats ATA/66 or ATA/100 ?

Can anybody recommend a Hard Drive and DIMM to suit the above spec ? or do I need to give you more info ?

Thanks
Jessie

 

[nlm9802]

what are you looking for? just extra disk space and increased speed?

I'd get 128 mb stick of pc100 sdram from buy.com
20 gig 5400 rpm hdd from buy.com

if you want to really increase speed..

get a decent motherboard that supports an athlon 1000 mhz
a stick or 2 of 128 mb pc 133 sdram
a 7200 rpm hdd ata/66 or ata/100

price for the first option will be about 130 shipped, for the second option more like 330-350 shipped

 

[jessiejc]

Yeah, its extra disk space and speed that I'm looking for.

are there any major differences in makes of hard disks ?
are there any you would recommend or so say not to look at ?

in looking at the 20gig 5400 rpm drive is it ATA66/100 I need ?

the hard disk I have at the moment is:
Maxtor Diamond Max 3400, Ultra DMA 33, 5400 rpm, 256 cache.

Thanks

 

[grygst76]

you have a dell so go with ata/66 pentium 2 dells do not support ata/100 western digitals are good drives but I prefer seagates which are more expensive for obvious reasons go with dell memory believe me when I say that because in my personal work experience with dells they will use other manufacturers memory but it usually slows the system down due to it being proprietary and if you can stick with 256 megs of ram any more is just overkill for a home user.

 

[ceh4702]

Buy Micron memory at

http://www.crucial.com

for free shipping in the USA.

Buy a 20 gig hard drive anywhere. SAMS and Best Buy can help you price one. Or go to

http://www.newegg.com

to purchase one. IBM makes some nice 20 gig hard drives with excellent installation software. They cost a little more but run pretty quiet and are dependable. Maxtor also makes some nice harddrives. Most hard drives are backward compatable. If you buy ultra ATA100 and the motherboard doesnt support it, it will just run in a different mode.

I have a 20 gig ATA100 drive in my PII350 at home made by IBM. It runs fine. I have 3 computers networked together and it is the slowest one. For a 3 year old computer it isnt too bad. Mine has a VOODOO III 3000 VGA video card. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[Jakespeare]

ceh4702 --------
You wrote just about EXACTLY what I would have written,
INCLUDING about the IBM & MAXTOR HD,s and

http://www.newegg.com

(for those who see my posts regularly, I recommend

http://www.newegg.com

and

http://www.crucial.com

REGULARLY)
Hence, you get the *STAR* ( I couldn't have said it better)

One note: jessiejc - at CRUCIAL memory - you have a NO FAIL method of getting RAM. You input your system information, and they give you a Guaranteed match.
* DO NOT buy your RAM at a place that sells dishwashers, DVD players, records and Crayons *

 

[nlm9802]

theres nothing wrong with buying your memory from buy.com, or any other retailer that chooses to sell more than one product.

you get good prices, free shipping, and no difference from going to crucial and paying double.

as for hdd's they are all about the same. lots of people will say a certain brand is the best just because that is what they use. just stick with ata/66. you can get ata100 or ata/133, but you wont see any increase in performance.

 

[jessiejc]

Thanks for all of the advice.

Well I have decided to go with a Maxtor hard drive anyway,
and crucial is who I'll get the memory from.

ceh4702, Jakespeare --> crucial & newegg were a great help!!

nlm9802 -->
I'm living in Ireland, and buy.com don't usually deliver to Ireland, when I mailed and asked them they said the UK is the closest they could deliver to me (which is not really an option seeing as how Ireland is a different island !!)

when I pointed this out to them, they said they could possibly deliver to Ireland but it would cost an extra £40 Sterling !! HHHmmMMMMmmmmm.

so buy.com is out for defo. Crucial is only charging £8.50 for next day delivery.

I was asking if ATA 100 would work because the only ATA66 drives that I have come across are more expensive and more scarce to find. Whereas I can get an ATA 100 delivered to Ireland no probs, and relatively cheap.

grygst76 -->
I have mailed Maxtor and they have told me that an ATA 100/133 will work perfectly with a Dell PII.


Thanks to all again,
Great help.
Jessie