Worth upgrading to a 1GB ?

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Soviet
I noticed no diffence at all, except im now equal with my friend and he cant boast he has more but people have said that far cry is choppy, which gives a good indication of how other future games will run. Get a gig when you can afford it as the prices suck right now.

It only ran choppy for me before I upgraded to a gig, and that is because it uses over 550 meg just for the game in addition to the 120 meg for the OS.

 

[edmundoab]

yeah I was looking at the Mushkin Special 2-2-2,
But at a whooping $350 dollars
I really need to consider upgrading to a raptor which is cheaper or wait till RAM prices get better

 

[Metron]

Edmundoab,

Gaming is the main function of my home PC, and I was in your same position about a year ago. I had 512 Mb of Kingston HyperX, so I went wild and bought 1 Gb (2 x 512 Mb) of Kingston HyperX. Overkill I'm sure, but it's definitely an advantage.

In terms of Winbond memory, there may still be some BH6 sticks left...

I'd definitely upgrade to at least 1 Gb.

Metron

*edit for grammar

 

[Markfw]

Just get 512 of This and add it to what you have now.

 

[edmundoab]

I'd like to run dual channel though

so I'd rather go 512 X 2

 

[Markfw]

OK, so its a shade faster. Get the 512 now and its mate later. The extra speed instead of page-swapping yourself to death is worth it (if you go over 512 usage)

 

[faye]

Originally posted by: Tiggerbaby

Originally posted by: faye

I would like to play FARCRY, Halflife2, Doom3 once they are released..



what kind of memory should i get? 1GB is kinda huge.. but if it is the only case, i have no choice



INTEL based and AMD based use different ram, right?



in my mine, i think of PC3500 1GB DDR Dual Channel ram for both system, but don't know which brand to get.. Hey, I do overclock(not much, a bit) so which brand is great doing it? and money is the biggest issue.



thanks

No offense, but I think you will need more than RAM to be able to run HL2 and Doom3 with your current configuration

of course not my CURRENT system lol... I keep on posting because i want to get a reasonable in price but huge performance gain system. actually not gain, i will get a new system. like i always said, still hestitating to go with AMD or INTEL

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: edmundoab
I'd like to run dual channel though



so I'd rather go 512 X 2

You can run 3 sticks of ram in dual-channel on an nForce2 board. Just buy 512MB one stick of the Mushkin 2-2-2 Special: link, and put the 256MB sticks in slots 1&2, and the 512MB stick in slot 3, and you'll be running dual-channel. Yeah, it's alot of money for a 512MB stick of ram, but next month, you could buy yourself a mobile Barton for about $100, along with a good heatsink, and run it at about 11.5x220, with your ram in dual-channel at the tightest timings ever. Then you'd have one of the fastest systems around. Well, you might also have to buy a better psu, but I'm sure you could get up to around 2.3-2.4ghz with that Enlight. It's something to consider, anyway, especially since once you have a 2.4-2.5ghz Barton, there really won't be any need to upgrade until you have to move to 64-bit.

 

[edmundoab]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: edmundoab
I'd like to run dual channel though



so I'd rather go 512 X 2

You can run 3 sticks of ram in dual-channel on an nForce2 board. Just buy 512MB one stick of the Mushkin 2-2-2 Special: link, and put the 256MB sticks in slots 1&2, and the 512MB stick in slot 3, and you'll be running dual-channel. Yeah, it's alot of money for a 512MB stick of ram, but next month, you could buy yourself a mobile Barton for about $100, along with a good heatsink, and run it at about 11.5x220, with your ram in dual-channel at the tightest timings ever. Then you'd have one of the fastest systems around. Well, you might also have to buy a better psu, but I'm sure you could get up to around 2.3-2.4ghz with that Enlight. It's something to consider, anyway, especially since once you have a 2.4-2.5ghz Barton, there really won't be any need to upgrade until you have to move to 64-bit.

any compatibility issues with the Mushkin/ corsair combination?

 

[RussianSensation]

You shouldn't have any problem with combining excellent corsair and mushkin ram but the prices are real high right now. Also the OCZ ram that Markfw900 is excellent and just as good so check if the price of the mushkin is higher or not. Your computer components are excellent all around except for the hard drive (you guessed that already). Personally I install a lot of programs, and extract and transfer files so hard drive speed is important especially for loading games. BUT, with games that require more than 512mb of RAM when I run them i cant press Cntrl+Alt+ delete or the windows button to quickly return ot the desktop like for other games so i have to end the game/close it if somethign comes up where I have to switch to teh desktop for some reason. So 1 gig would greatly benefit you. Unless your maxtor/ibm drives are 5400 rpm (make sure they are also running in ultra dma Mode 5) then I would get the RAM as performance wise it will be more helpful for gaming in your system than a hard drive. But for everyday usage the Raptor is a better investment in my opinion. So if gaming takes up more time than other tasks you perform with your computer, I would definately buy an extra stick of 512.

 

[AngelOfDeath]

I did not notice huge improvements but in general things work more smoothly and loads faster too. I turned off paging so now all is stored in memory which makes my system rather fast imho Games are also a bit faster but it depends on your current needs and power in the machine

 

[edmundoab]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
You shouldn't have any problem with combining excellent corsair and mushkin ram but the prices are real high right now. Also the OCZ ram that Markfw900 is excellent and just as good so check if the price of the mushkin is higher or not. Your computer components are excellent all around except for the hard drive (you guessed that already). Personally I install a lot of programs, and extract and transfer files so hard drive speed is important especially for loading games. BUT, with games that require more than 512mb of RAM when I run them i cant press Cntrl+Alt+ delete or the windows button to quickly return ot the desktop like for other games so i have to end the game/close it if somethign comes up where I have to switch to teh desktop for some reason. So 1 gig would greatly benefit you. Unless your maxtor/ibm drives are 5400 rpm (make sure they are also running in ultra dma Mode 5) then I would get the RAM as performance wise it will be more helpful for gaming in your system than a hard drive. But for everyday usage the Raptor is a better investment in my opinion. So if gaming takes up more time than other tasks you perform with your computer, I would definately buy an extra stick of 512.

It is a 7200RPM btw for both my harddrives.
Seemingly 1 stick of 512 RAM and a new raptor should solve performance bottle neck for now.

I'll look into the OCZ as well,
did you guys mention this enchance mem module is able to go CAS 2?
or its more stable at CAS 2.5?

surely the price is desirable if I do not intend to keep the 2-2-2 timings i have currently.
Unless you are telling me that the OCZ can also do these timings.

 

[RussianSensation]

the OCZ stick Mark pointed out will do 2-3-2-6 at 400mhz or its stock speed. So with 2.7V it should be capable of 2-2-2-11 like you have right now even at 205mhz.

 

[paladiin]

I love having 1GB of RAM in my system. Since I play BF, UT2k4 and Far Cry (and used to play EQ using 2 accounts at a time - talk about ram hog) the extra RAM is appreciated. When I first got my two sticks of Corsair XMS3200 512MB, one stick was bad and I went for about a week on 512MB while I did the RMA (this was late last summer). I certainly noticed a difference when I played Everquest, but BF1942 wasn't too bad, though there was a small but noticeable drop in performance. But I sure would hate to go back to 512 after enjoying 1GB for my gaming needs.

However, I have to mention that with today's RAM costs, I'm not sure I could recommend going up another 512MB. Don't hate me for saying it, but last year I got my ram for $85 a stick. The exact same stick sells at newegg for $161 today. Sick, I know...

Unless you had the money to blow, and really felt the applications were struggling with your current amount of RAM, I wouldn't upgrade. The bang for the buck would be on the disappointing side. But that's just me - I'm a hardcore budget gamer!