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I need a few new hardware updates help me out

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I need a decent 750 or higher psu (thats priced right) and a 32mb 7200 rpm 250gb or bigger hardrive. Please post any and all deals you find. My current psu is decent but getting near it's max. I would like to stay under 100.00 on each.
 

Kreij

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I have a Thermaltake 750 modular. Solid as a rock.
May not be a good deal, but I don't want cheap, I want reliability.

Just my 2 cents :)
 

FatForester

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I would agree with fat foresters stuff. 320gb from samsung or WD if your not looking for that much space. Why do you want 32mb of cache? It makes virtually no difference at these capacities, I'm not even sure if they make one w/ that much cache under 500gb. It won't make a difference until your around the 1tb range.

About the one rail, here's our very own pancho's take on it from our psu guide:

Rails: While many psu's are multi rail, it is better to get a single rail system because with a single rail, the psu can transfer 100% of the 12v output of the psu to the computer, whereas in a multi rail system, you can face up to 30% distribution loss due to underutilized rails. lets say for example lets say rail 12vr2 is assigned to work for the cpu, and lets say the rail carries 17Amps of power, but the cpu only uses 7A of power, that 10amps in lost, whereas in a single rail system, the system draws from only one rail so the power loss is not there. also, lets say you have a grafix card that required 20A, but the rail its using is 17A, you have instability and problems like that, thats why for a sli/crossfire system, you definently want a single rail psu, because everything draws from the single rail, which has all the power of the psu. whereas if you're trying to sli/crossfire on a quad rail system, which has like power of the psu split up, that 1/4 of the power of the psu might not be able to power the sli/crossfire grafix cards.
 
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+1 for foresters stuff.
I was gonna suggest the Samsung as well
 
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Yup +1 on foresters recomendations as well, good solid psu and nice drives. personally I'd go for the 750GB due to the better price per GB but thats me.
 

alexp999

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+1 on fatforester too, but I would choose the WD, as it has 2x320gb platters. Higher density, better performance. I was debating between the two suggested, and I'm getting the WD.
 

FatForester

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+1 on fatforester too, but I would choose the WD, as it has 2x320gb platters. Higher density, better performance. I was debating between the two suggested, and I'm getting the WD.

I was in the same boat a month ago. The WD 640 was $100 at newegg and the Samsung 750 $110 at ZZF. Since newegg likes to charge me tax, it was a no-brainer for the Samsung. Now that the 640 is only $90 bucks at both sites, it definitely makes it a tougher decision.
 
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does 32mb makes a giant performance difference over 16mb?. The reason I ask is my current 80gb 8mb cache 7200 rpm drive seems fairly fast. I'm just wonder how much difference the on board memory makes.
 
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does 32mb makes a giant performance difference over 16mb?. The reason I ask is my current 80gb 8mb cache 7200 rpm drive seems fairly fast. I'm just wonder how much difference the on board memory makes.

Previous posts have already explained that the larger cache is only required with larger HDDs.
 
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Previous posts have already explained that the larger cache is only required with larger HDDs.

they did and where was that? Zithe I'm not sure how your post helped or explained anything? Thx for posting I think?
 
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Why do you want 32mb of cache? It makes virtually no difference at these capacities, I'm not even sure if they make one w/ that much cache under 500gb. It won't make a difference until your around the 1tb range.

There you go. :)
 
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Go for the 750GB F1, or the 640WD. The WD will be faster because it only hass 2 platters while the F1 has 3 (250x3). Depends what you need, space or speed?

As for the PSU, I'm with forrester, you cant go wrong with a Corsair!
 

FatForester

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does 32mb makes a giant performance difference over 16mb?. The reason I ask is my current 80gb 8mb cache 7200 rpm drive seems fairly fast. I'm just wonder how much difference the on board memory makes.

Past 16mb it's negligible. Under 500GB and the heads can't transfer enough data fast enough for the extra cache to be utilized. 1TB hard drives mainly and somewhat in 750GB's it is good to have since the platter densities (333GB per platter) allow for faster data transfers. A lot of 750GB's use 3x250GB platters, so 32mb is still pretty overkill.

Go for the 750 if you're wanting more space, but if you're looking primarily for speed then the WD 640 is your answer.

EDIT: In case if you don't see it... http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?p=901192#post901192

$85 for WD 640 and free shipping!
 
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Damian^

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I would agree with fat foresters stuff. 320gb from samsung or WD if your not looking for that much space. Why do you want 32mb of cache? It makes virtually no difference at these capacities, I'm not even sure if they make one w/ that much cache under 500gb. It won't make a difference until your around the 1tb range.

About the one rail, here's our very own pancho's take on it from our psu guide:

Rails: While many psu's are multi rail, it is better to get a single rail system because with a single rail, the psu can transfer 100% of the 12v output of the psu to the computer, whereas in a multi rail system, you can face up to 30% distribution loss due to underutilized rails. lets say for example lets say rail 12vr2 is assigned to work for the cpu, and lets say the rail carries 17Amps of power, but the cpu only uses 7A of power, that 10amps in lost, whereas in a single rail system, the system draws from only one rail so the power loss is not there. also, lets say you have a grafix card that required 20A, but the rail its using is 17A, you have instability and problems like that, thats why for a sli/crossfire system, you definently want a single rail psu, because everything draws from the single rail, which has all the power of the psu. whereas if you're trying to sli/crossfire on a quad rail system, which has like power of the psu split up, that 1/4 of the power of the psu might not be able to power the sli/crossfire grafix cards.

While that is true in some cases it just depends on the power supply you buy. Any one buying a power supply for a dual card setup should know to buy a quality PSU in which it delivers 20A or more per rail. Also take note of the PCI-E connectors and how some power supplies have a 12V just for them to deliver enough output for the video card only.

"Multiple +12V rail "enthusiast" PSU's today have a +12V rail just for PCIe connectors or may even split four or six PCIe connectors up across two different +12V rails. The rails themselves are capable of far more power output than any PCIe graphics card would ever need. In fact, Nvidia SLI certification these days REQUIRE that the PCIe connectors be on their own +12V rail to avoid any problems from running high end graphics cards on split +12V rail PSU's.:

-JonnyGuru
http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3990

But i do agree with you and pancho on the distribution lost.


EDIT: like others said the Corsair TX750W is a great choice especially for its price.
 
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I haven't filled up the 100GB of hardrive I have now but thought I would see an improvement , now I see I won't get very much improverment at all. So basically any hardrive with 8 mb cache or higher under under 500mb is plenty fast. Is there any improvement from 8 mb to 16 mb? on the smaller drives? I'm gonna get rid of the smaller 20gb hardrive, I just use it for windows xp. It seems pretty quick , but that must be because it is so small.
 
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The 320gb WD SE16 and Seagate 7200.11 both have 16mb of cache and 1 333gb platter, so either of those (whichever is cheaper) will be your best bet for speed, coolness, and quiteness under 500gb.
 
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