IDE and SATA

[PLAZ]

I am in the process of purchasing a Plextor PX-820 DVD burner. It comes in either IDE or SATA.

What is the differfence between the two and which one do you folks recommend?

[glc]

Depends on your motherboard and what you presently have for drives. The only difference is the data and power connectors.

[PLAZ]

The following are the current components I intend to use in my new computer with a plextor PX-820 DVD burner:

- ASUS P5Q Premium Motherboard
- Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9550
- OCZ700GXSSLI 700W ATX 12V Power supply
- HD 4870 Video card
- Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX 8GB memory
- 2 X Seagate 750 GB SATA2 Hard drives
- Lian Li V1010 case

Which burner version would be more appropriate IDE or SATA?

[glc]

I would go with the SATA drive with those components.

You do know you will need a 64 bit operating system with 8gb of ram, right?

[PLAZ]

glc--No I didn't know that. There is a lot I don't know about computers. You have helped me a lot and I appreciate that. I expected only to use XP Home after hearing your comments on Vista. Does XP come in 64 bit configuration?

[itsgt]

Originally Posted by PLAZ glc--No I didn't know that. There is a lot I don't know about computers. You have helped me a lot and I appreciate that. I expected only to use XP Home after hearing your comments on Vista. Does XP come in 64 bit configuration?

Yes XP comes in 64 Bit configuration

XP Pro 64 Bit is the only way you will be able to get 8GB of RAM in a system, XP 32 Bit only supports up to 4 GB

The only feasiible reason why you would need 8GB of RAM would be if you were using your system as a small file server

[glc]

No way do you really need 8gb of ram - I'd get 4gb (a 2x2 kit) and use plain old XP Home. XP 64 has some driver issues. You can always upgrade to 8 gigs later with another 2x2 kit.

[PLAZ]

OK- I'm convinced that 32 bit is enough, and I thank you all very much.

[glc]

Even 4gb is plenty for a small file server.

[PLAZ]

I am also interested in speed. Won't 8 GB make my computer faster?

[Alaron]

At a certain point the law of diminishing returns sets in.

What are you going to be doing with the system? The majority of people would not come close to needing 8GB.

[not important]

The new Plextor optical drives are not made by Plextor and are well none to be problematic. My best advice would be to get a Lite-On SATA. They are a little noisy but they work and you'll save some money.

[Rev_pizzaguy]

Originally Posted by PLAZ I am also interested in speed. Won't 8 GB make my computer faster?

I have a computer with 2 GB of ram on XP Pro. I use just over 1GB with CRYSIS running! My brother-in-law has a pc with XP Pro 64-bit and 4GB of ram. He runs 2 Folding@Home instances, and about 5 or 6 virtual servers and uses 3.5GB or ram. MORE ram won't necessarily make your computer "faster". It depends on your needs. If you want it be "faster", then get faster ram. That P5Q should be able to handle DDR2 speeds up to DDR2 1200. Will it really make a difference compared to DDR2 800? Not really for most purposes, but faster ram will allow you to overclock to a higher FSB. If you are running Vista, you will notice a good deal going from 1GB to 2GB. Going from 2GB to 4GB... maybe, depending on how much crap you have running at once.