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Thread ID: 58682 2005-06-08 22:17:00 More storage space or more processor speed? xmojo1 (4630) Press F1
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362215 2005-06-08 22:17:00 I'm putting together a price list of parts to build a Shuttle computer for home use. Working within the budget that I've set, I have $60 left to play around with. With that $60 I can either upgrade the hard drive from 120GB to 200GB or upgrade the CPU from an Athlon64 3000+ to an Athlon64 3200+. The Shuttle box will be for my wife's and young son's use, so it's not a gaming box. It will be used mostly for light gaming (children's games), web surfing and whatever work my wife cares to do on it :confused: I might also use the box to do some video editing & burning.

For the record, these are the parts I've chosen for the computer:

Shuttle XPC SN85G4
AMD Athlon 64Bit 3000+ Socket 754 or 3200+
GeIL PC3200 400MHz DDR Value - 512MB
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200Gb Serial ATA150 7200rpm 8MB Cache or Barracuda 7200.7 120Gb Serial ATA
CMV CT-720D 17inch LCD Monitor With DVI Port
LG GSA-4163B Dual Layer 16X DVD+/-R/RW

No graphics card listed as I already have one for the computer.

Which upgrade would be more practical: more HDD space or more processor power? I'm inclined to go for the extra HDD space. Your opinions please?
xmojo1 (4630)
362216 2005-06-08 22:36:00 Hmmm . . . . what a decision to have to make . :p

If you were planning to do video editing soon I would choose the larger hard drive . Waiting an extra minute or two is a lot less painful than scrambling around trying to squeeze a few more files on a disk .

On the other hand if you were not planning to do video editing in the near future I would opt for the extra processing power and add another hard drive later when you have more funds .
FoxyMX (5)
362217 2005-06-08 22:36:00 I tend towards more hdd space also but I must comment that I think the whole thing is a horrendous overkill for the purpose it is intended. Thought about buying a used one? Could of course be that youre doing it for the fun of building, which is what I have done with two lately, so thats cool :) Enjoy. |llus|oN (645)
362218 2005-06-08 22:38:00 I would pocket the $60..... Metla (12)
362219 2005-06-08 22:48:00 I tend towards more hdd space also but I must comment that I think the whole thing is a horrendous overkill for the purpose it is intended. Thought about buying a used one? Could of course be that youre doing it for the fun of building, which is what I have done with two lately, so thats cool :) Enjoy.

I haven't ruled out the possibility that I'd claim the Shuttle box for my own use and instead give my son my current rig :D

I'm looking to upgrade my own PC a year later down the line. Dual CPUs, next-gen graphics cards, Blu-Ray burners....oh, my :eek:
xmojo1 (4630)
362220 2005-06-08 22:52:00 I would pocket the $60.....
I reckon this is way overkill for what I think it'll be used for. Do you really need a Shuttle!? Even if you do, you won't need 200GB of harddrive! And the increase in processor speed will hardly be noticeable for what you're doing.
techie (7177)
362221 2005-06-09 00:10:00 How about more ram? :2cents: lazydog (148)
362222 2005-06-09 00:23:00 spend the money on booze ;-) drcspy (146)
362223 2005-06-09 01:03:00 Are these machines networked? If so, i'd go for performance now. Later, when/if you need it, put the big HDD in whichever machine is on the most, an share it for all to use. :2cents: personthingy (1670)
362224 2005-06-09 06:37:00 I would go with lazydog's suggestion and increase your RAM and leave the CPU and hard drive as is. :) Jen (38)
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