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So I'm trying to hit the no interest threshold at Newegg and need $40 more to hit it. Any thoughts?

These two are closer to $50 but they are the best I could think of
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6815124114
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820313252

My system was built for Vista and hit it's 5th birthday last week, but it runs Win 7 like a champ and I don't see myself jumping onto Win 8 any time soon.
Q6600; Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R; Radeon HD 2600 Pro 512MB; 4GBs DDR2 800; 200GB SATA boot; 3x 1TB SATA in RAID 5 storage; Corsair HX520 PSU; 2x Samsung 225BW 22"

I am totally about how I can get a nice upgrade for under $100, and do it several times a year. One thing really stands out to me looking at your system: Not taking full advantage of how Windows can fill up more Ram with cached (preloaded) stuff that you use a lot. I run 8GB and it was one of the best upgrades I ever did, as many more programs start in 1-2 seconds, instead of 10 or 12.....

So, adding 4GB more will cost quite a bit less than $40. (Edit: Whoops, make that "will cost about $50!) But it is one of the most powerful upgrades you can do for any system running Win7 or later.

All of my RAM slots are full. I would have to buy all new RAM and DDR2 is hard to come by.

And if you've filled all four slots with 1GB sticks, you will be looking at ending up with either 6GB most likely. Even for $50, it is still a very good upgrade for Windows7 if you plan to keep that motherboard at least another year.

One more thought: I've got USB3.0, but haven't even used it. Why not? Because the external hard drive I bought a month ago was on sale for $80 for 1.5TB with USB 2, and it just doesn't matter that the new drive is USB 2, because the backup software is compressing anyway and can't use much more speed than USB 2. No doubt there are situations that USB 3 would be so good, like for a photography pro, or some such. I'm just not there yet.

One last thought! Do the check to see if the motherboard can support that RAM amount before you buy. Of course, also consider that the timings will be set to be the same as the slowest sticks still on board (but actually, that's a lot less significant than just having more RAM).

halbhh2 wrote:

One last thought! Do the check to see if the motherboard can support that RAM amount before you buy. Of course, also consider that the timings will be set to be the same as the slowest sticks still on board (but actually, that's a lot less significant than just having more RAM).

It can, up to 8GB
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product ... id=2551#sp

ChrisDTC wrote:

halbhh2 wrote:

One last thought! Do the check to see if the motherboard can support that RAM amount before you buy. Of course, also consider that the timings will be set to be the same as the slowest sticks still on board (but actually, that's a lot less significant than just having more RAM).

It can, up to 8GB
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product ... id=2551#sp

Good grief, the picture appears to show 6 Ram slots! heh, heh, that surprised me. Ah, it can take ddr2 or ddr3. Too bad not 8GB of ddr3! What a tease that was.

(edited)

I've got this guy and I love it. If you look at the difference in transfer rates, it's totally worth the extra $10 to me. I got mine for $40 on sale back in April if that helps.

DDR2 ram is a waste of money at this point. 4GB is just fine.

The money I spent upping my Win7 system from 4GB to 8GB was by far, far and away, the best upgrade I did, better than going from 2 to 6 cores. Some people wouldn't even notice the difference. For me, the difference is dramatic, and I'm not using any serious memory hogs.

But that's just me. Everyone is different.

halbhh2 wrote:

The money I spent upping my Win7 system from 4GB to 8GB was by far, far and away, the best upgrade I did, better than going from 2 to 6 cores. Some people wouldn't even notice the difference. For me, the difference is dramatic

Agreed that everyone has different needs for their computer. On that note, the OP hasn't said what they use their computer for or why they were initially interested in USB3 flash drives. With DDR3, I would say "sure, go ahead and spend $20-25 to go from 4 - 8GB, whatever blows your skirt up." However this is DDR2 that we're talking about where the cheapest 2 x 2GB kits are $50. That would leave the OP with 4x1GB and 2x2GB = 8GB total. When the price/GB doubles, I don't support buying more RAM than you'll ever use. Periodically checking windows resource monitor to see how much RAM you're currently using in various "demanding" tasks is a great way to see if you need more.

What are you spending $210 on already? I wouldn't buy a USB 3.0 card unless you use external storage *a lot* or you'll keep your current platform for years. Your next platform upgrade will include USB 3.0 natively.

I wager you don't game since you're still using a very old graphics card? Or is the $210 going toward a graphics card already.

A last resort is to buy something that you can flip and resell 'as new' for little to no loss if you really have to hit $250. Deals, promo codes, and MIR can help with that.

Do you see yourself needing a BluRay drive anytime soon?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827135247

DPete27 wrote:

Agreed that everyone has different needs for their computer. ... However this is DDR2 that we're talking about where the cheapest 2 x 2GB kits are $50. ....I don't support buying more RAM than you'll ever use. Periodically checking windows resource monitor to see how much RAM you're currently using in various "demanding" tasks is a great way to see if you need more.

Agree entirely. If you have a useage pattern where Resource Monitor shows on the Memory tab (or you can use Task Monitor on the Performance Tab and look at: ) that "Free" (this is the telling indicator) doesn't get down to 200MB or less even after 4, 6 hours since booting (and myself, I use standby, so I only reboot once or twice in a week....), then if you still have that 200MB or more Free memory (not "available" mem (which is partly cached), but "free" (completely unused)), then you don't need more Ram. It's only if you used up that free memory down below 200MB or so in typical use, and plan to keep the motherboard going more than a year, then it would definitely pay to either get a SSD or up the memory. The advantage of the SSD is that you can take it with you to another system. The advantage of the memory is that it helps all the time for someone like me that has 10,20 windows open typically.

But in your case, $50 is getting close to that price point for some of the SSD choices. Even if you go to the better 128GB Samsung 830, $50 is halfway there. So it would be better (of course), if you have more cash available, of course, to jump up to an SSD.

halbhh2 wrote:

But in your case, $50 is getting close to that price point for some of the SSD choices.

Cheater!! Of course an SSD is one of the best upgrades for his system, but the rest of us were limited to $40 while you get to play around in the $80 to $100 range.

By the way, that 32GB USB 3.0 Flash drive I mentioned earlier is on sale right now for $33 with promo code "EMCNBJC55"