If your system can handle SATA, I'd consider getting an OCZ Solid State Drive, installing your OS onto that and then turning your whole existing drive over to storage. It'll also give you faster boot times
Much faster than a traditional hard disk, but would personally go for Crucial M4. Had lots of OCZ Vertex 2 drives (which I realise are old now) and had lots of failures and incompatibilities with various machines.
Don't go solid state - I did, it's great but needs a lot of techy fiddling to work properly. and not THAT much faster sadly.
If it's not optimised, there ain't any point in having it - you're wasting money!'But I'm sure you already knew that.'Yes. But I do IT for a living. Badger asked for basic advice which implies he's not that familiar with the workings of a PC. Let's not get into a 'My PC is bigger than your's'.Having had an optimised SDD for about a year, I probably wouldn't bother again unless they were cheap (got this one half price, but still more than a HDD which was working fine anyway), and mine gets a lot of use.