Need help with my system specs

[doanster]

Can you guys suggest what's the better setup?

Key performance-affecting specs:
DFI Lanparty NF3 250GB mobo
Athlon 64 3700+ Clawhammer CPU
Radeon AIW X800XT 256MB vid card
Raptor 74GB HDD
WinXP Pro SP2

Now for the RAM, what's the better trade-off?
Should I install:
-2GB DDR400 Kingston ValueRAM, or
-1GB DDR400 OCZ EL Platinum Rev.2

Not a heavy gamer, but I do edit photos and videos and run multimedia apps.
Basically what I'm asking is, how can I squeeze out the remaining life out of this PC??

 

[Roguestar]

Why wouldn't you install the larger stick of RAM?

You can't squeeze life out of that PC, buy a new $400 Dell and it'll be a better system.
AGP = dead
S754 = dead
DDR1 = dead

 

[mpilchfamily]

Upgrades on that system is a waste of money. Like Roguestar said, save up about $400 and get a base line Dell or HP.

 

[doanster]

I'm not spending any more money. I have both types of RAM lying around, just wondering which one would provide the better performance - the 1GB of OCZ or 2GB of Kingston.

 

[disports]

Add in the 2 GB. The more ram, the better.

 

[SonicIce]

754 CPU's dont support dual channel memory so you should just put both of them in there. (As long as the motherboard can access the 2GB stick because it 2GB sticks were rare 4 years ago.)

If you wanna upgrade the CPU a little bit, you can get a 754 venice on ebay and overclock it, but it won't be much better than your 3700 because that is already pretty fast. They had a 3200 venice on geeks.com a little while back I got and it oc'd to 2.5ghz. It wouldn't really be worth it, that big ram might limit your oc anyway. you'd have to get it to 2.6ghz just for it to equal your 3700. just live with the system for another year or so and build a whole new one. your system is pretty similar to mine and I think it's plenty fast

you could also find a used AGP 7900 GT or so

 

[doanster]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
754 CPU's dont support dual channel memory so you should just put both of them in there. (As long as the motherboard can access the 2GB stick because it 2GB sticks were rare 4 years ago.)

If you wanna upgrade the CPU a little bit, you can get a 754 venice on ebay and overclock it, but it won't be much better than your 3700 because that is already pretty fast. They had a 3200 venice on geeks.com a little while back I got and it oc'd to 2.5ghz. It wouldn't really be worth it, that big ram might limit your oc anyway. you'd have to get it to 2.6ghz just for it to equal your 3700. just live with the system for another year or so and build a whole new one. your system is pretty similar to mine and I think it's plenty fast

you could also find a used AGP 7900 GT or so

It's actually 2x1GB Kingston sticks, and I'd hate to loosen the OCZ's awesome memory timings just so they'll be compatible together with the Kingstons :S

So it's either 1GB of fast memory or 2GB of slow memory, not sure what the real world performance difference is.

My 3700+ can overclock to 2.5GHz, so I think I'll just keep the CPU the way it is

 

[JDMnAR1]

If you won't otherwise be using the RAM in another system, put all three sticks in for 3GB total. I don't see you losing much in the way of performance by doing it.