Upgrading Suggestions

Hey everyone. I'm thinking about upgrading my PC and need some advice.

I'm mostly using it for college and the type of stuff I do is PC work. Eg. Designing (photoshop), video editing (premiere, after effects), Modeling (3ds max).

Now I found some kingston ram for about $25 USD for 1GB chip each (brand new). That's the cheapest offer I found online. I "believe" my PC uses 3200 DDR RAM (old I know!). So is it worth it to buy 2 (1GB chips) and keep the 2 (512MB chips) too? Or get 3GB and keep one 512? or go for 4GB and keep the 2 (512's) as spare?

As for my Harddrive, I was thinking of getting a 1.0TB or 1.5TB Seagate Drive. I know I'll need a lot more storage soon and the drives I have now could be good use for secondary storage/backup.

I don't want to go crazy with upgrading, because this PC is slightly outdated in terms of upgrades. I plan to get a huge machine in 2-3 years. I'm still in college, so I'm trying to save as much as I can.

Anyways, just wanted some recommendations.

Thanks.

 

How much can a 350 Watt power supply power up in terms of devices? I haven't checked to see how much power an average HD takes and a average cd drive takes?

In total, I'll have 3 sata hard drives, 2 cd/dvd burners and the motherboard powered by a 350 watt supply. Hoping that's enough, as I know I'll have to use some power supply Y adapters.

 

Hi, Here is a power supply calculator for your pc.

 

There are a couple of factors involved here. First, the brand of the powersupply. Just because it "says" 350W doesn't mean it actually is. There are a whole host of really crummy power supplies out there.. so make sure you ascertain that you have a good one. Even if it runs now, if it's running out of power (in other words, an efficiency rating of 75 or less) it will heat up..quickly. Once it gets too hot, it runs out of spec. Add in a lack of PFC - Power Factor Correction - and you'll blow the PSU and most likely take other parts with it.

Second, ditching the WD Crapiar is a great idea. A Seagate is good.. But my recommendation for anything that requires heavy volumes of read/write transactions would be a WD Caviar RE3... Those things are tanks... surprising coming from WD.

Kingston isn't performance RAM by any stretch (save for the HyperX). It's actually quite doggish... Cheap Kingston should really be avoided as they use modules from low quality yields. Corsair, Crucial Ballistix, Patriot or OCZ (gotta love those Brain Power PCBs) are a much better bet.