My thoughts: 1. Dump the ancient HDDs and either buy something current or, more preferably, go buy Samsung 830, 840, or 840 Pro SSDs. Cannot overemphasize this point--it would be a tragedy to pair those nice systems with such horribly slow, outdated drives.
2. Honestly, I'm not fond of ESET's antimalware. When I tested it several years back (in a work scenario) against several others, its actual system impact (in terms of performance delta vs. no AV) was FAR greater than its reputation would lead you to believe--it was in the worst half of the bunch. I'd recommend MSE, but that seems to have declined as of late for 0-day threats. A MSE + MalwareBytes Pro combo may be the best bet right now. 3. 2x4GB=8GB is an appropriate amount. 32GB is overkill unless you're doing something special (e.g., running multiple local VMs), and any less doesn't really save you much. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of DSinc Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2012 12:28 PM To: HWG Subject: [H] Ram musing? (Yes, Boz, I did mis-type my last. I really meant 32GB!) Fine. But, I've backed off a bit............... :) So, I am circling in on my new machines(3). Plan to re-use my SeaSonic 610w psus. Plan to re-use my nVidia 5900GT video cards (unless circumstances make this difficult). Plan to re-use my Seagate sata 160GB hds (3.0GB series.) These machines will run to failure for their lives. I plan their lifetimeat 4 years (2016). Well, unless I see my electric bill take an upward spike! That said, I think I've chosen the Asus P8Z77-V-Pro m/b. It seems to give me most of the 'new', but, still lets me do some 'old' also. Plus, it does give me one Intel on-board NIC. To me, this is important! Yes, I will most likely start Win7 on each in 64-bit mode; though I do have some long memories of ESET A/V having a long list of glitches w/64-bit operation. Yes, I will deal with FireFox Browser and ThunderBird Email in 64-bit also. I still can not fathom what Office 2003 will present me with yet. Thinking about machine base RAM. Thinking about 8GB to start (2x 4GB). Seems like a lot, but I do use 2GB in WinXP now. The Egg has a deal of 8GB for $70 w/m/b. It is there 'Xtreme' series (one rev back per the G.Skill website. Fine. Have not visited the Corsair website yet. I've never used Corsair Ram. Today, I see that Crucial offers RAM for the m/b. The price is ~half the G.Skill Ram. Decisions, decisions? Opinions, suggestions, experiences welcome. Duncan
