More ram or faster hdd?

I currently have a hp DV4t with 3gb of ram and a 250gb hdd at 5400.
So my question is should I upgrade my ram to 6gb or get a faster hdd at 7200?

 

Faster hardrive, 4GB is sort of borderline where people say that you won't utilize it at all or often. A faster hardrive will be utilized every time you use the laptop, AND is noticeable. Plus if you upgraded the ram you'd have to changed your OS to 64bit.

 

sorry i forgot to mention that I am using a 64bit os cuz i wanted to save time when i do upgrade to more than 3gb of ram. Thank you for your input!

 

What do you mainly use your laptop for? Gaming, surfing or what?

 

Yeah well you could use programs to monitor how much RAM is actually being used, but still the hardrive would be a more noticeable and effective upgrade.

 

Right, please list what you do the most so we can determine what is the best upgrade for you.

 

Im not sure if this will help but I also have a dedicated graphic card, but I do a little bit of gaming not too intensive, surfing the web, watching movies, a little bit of programing here and there.

 

Do you use all of your 3GB RAM while doing anything of this?

 

I dont believe so probably at most 70% or less

 

Go with faster HDD, unless you do anything like CAD or Rendering (3D, video etc) then the RAM really wont make much of a difference. Going from 5400 RPM-7200 will make quite the improvement that you will continue to see.

 

Okay thank you, any recommendations for a 7200 hdd under $70 or should i make a new thread for this question?

 

Well idk. I went to 8GB of RAM and I couldn't see anything else giving me such a boost. I too never even used up 4GB, but Windows 7 has this neat thing called cache. The system is perfectly smooth now. No single program I use takes up much RAM, and right now for instance I'm using only 3.61GB. But all the rest is being used by Windows to cache stuff. I can switch between any sort of programs at any time like a breeze. I've stopped quitting games now, I just leave them running. And oh yeah, I am running on a 160GB 5400rpm 2.5" Samsung drive. I used to want an SSD, but after I went to 8GB, now that would be the last thing I ever buy for a computer.

 

lol, I'll buy this.

I've also have 8GB of RAM, never used it up but from 4GB overall my laptop/system feels much more snappier.

 

haha wow 8gb? that must have been pretty expensive! well I have a desktop that is 6gb and another laptop that is 4gb and they both feel way smoother than my current dv4t with 3gb

 

Dude, where do you live? RAM modules are quite cheep atm.

 

for like 2x4gb ddr2 is almost 200 bucks and i live in california

 

In 2 minutes I just found 8GB of DDR2 for $149 shipped. But I guess plus tax for California. But 8GB of DDR3 is pretty cheap. It was as low as $60 without and $50 with rebate, although now the price jumped back up a bit. Still under $100 for 8GB of DDR3 though.

 

New! 8GB 2X 4GB MEMORY PC2-6400 800Mhz DDR2 SODIMM RAM - eBay (item 370474536870 end time Feb-10-11 21:29:22 PST)

?

 

haha well i guess my budget is kinda tight atm and i kinda dont trust ebay with ram sticks kinda had bad experience with that in the past. If anything I would buy a 4gb to go with my 2gb of ram to make 6gb, and if i go with the hdd upgrade i would probably get a HITACHI Travelstar 7K500 unless someone says other wise haha

 

You got enough to fork out for a momentus XT?

 

well yeah i think so, but say I upgrade both my ram 3gb to 6gb and hdd from 250gb 5400 to a 500gb 7200 it would be about the same price as the momentus. So should i still get the momentus or upgrade both the ram and hdd?

 

if your only utilizing 70% of 3GB then you're only going to utilize 28% of 6GB. What is the point? RAM will get cheaper over time, so why not wait until you're in actual need of it. Remember I'm talking about the Momentus XT. The XT has a 4GB SSD platter in it so it's faster than the orginal Momentus. I'd get the 500GB Momentus XT off Amazon as the 320GB is $10 Cheaper - Pointless, and the 250GB is $3 cheaper than the 320.

 

Okay thank you, I think I will go with the momentus xt,

I've read some reviews about the momentus locking up and freezing kinda scary....

 

By that logic nobody would notice going to 8GB from 4GB, but they do. Also the price of DDR2 which he says is only going to keep going up, and DDR3 prices are not guaranteed to get cheaper over time either.

 

hey trottel would you consider the momentus xt with its current reviews? Its kinda giving me doubts about buying it because most of its issues hasnt been resolved yet

 

How long are you hoping to keep that laptop? If your hoping to keep it for a while, I would get the ram now and then wait a year or so and get an ssd drive as they start to get cheaperr. I think you would notice the biggest difference with an ssd, but I understand it's not in your budget.

 

I'm probably not the person to ask about that. There are plenty of others on here who have it and like it. I personally think some people get a little too excited about it, and you must remember only 4GB of the 500GB is going to be about the same speed as a fast desktop drive.

 

In this particular case, 3GB -> 8GB means 5GB RAM cache vs 4GB NAND cache. I would say more RAM is better. Though it is a 7200rpm drive.

 

Where can I find DDR2 at that price ? As the OP, I don't trust ebay. I bought one 4GB stick last Oct and it cost me 130.

 

I just found it on Newegg.