Help: First upgrade for FZ190CTO

I'm getting my FZ in sometime this week. I was wondering what i should do first for upgrade.

my rig is t7300 with 2x512mb ram 80 gig harddrive

should i...

a) 2x1gig dual channel
b) 2.5 (2gig + 512mb) so that i can upgrade to 4 gigs once drivers are available for 64bit vista
c) upgrade to 7200rpm harddrive

 

If you want the largest performance boost, I'd say (b). Loosing dual-channel won't be a big deal for most applications, and 7200RPM drives only decrease loading times for programs and not their performance.

Take a look at our RAM Deals thread, where you could do option (d)...upgrade to 4GB anyway

 

is there any substantial benefit for 800mhz over 667mhz ram? most say, but why?

 

The front side bus for the FZ on the new Intel platform runs at 800 MHz. Whatever that's not capable of that speed will simply be a bottleneck.

if you plan to upgrade later on to 4 gig, then definitely don't do any upgrades now. things are always cheaper later and if you do the 2.5 upgrade now you MAY have a hard time finding an identical 2gig stick later on to replace the 512 for dual channel.

....or if cash isn't a big deal just pay and get the 4gig now to save the hassles of all above.

 

I don't see a point in upgrading the memory to 4GB.
2GB can handle today's applications really well.
I'm not even sure whether the machine can utilise 4GB memory even if that's available.

Regarding the 7200 drive, the 5400 drive should be good enough. 7200 might only give a slight boost to loading programs, but will generate a lot of heat.

 

i am looking at the patriot and the kingston on the ram deals thread, which one do you recommend? these are refurbed, am i correct?