Buying a new PC

[spooker]

related question. i have an AMD athlon 64 X2 4200+ system, but only 1 gb of ram. I think the ram might be the biggest bottleneck.. is it worth upgrading to 2? i play mostly quake but also a lot of newer games

[tical]

Sole honestly all the NFORCE chipset is AC97 audio...if you want a home theatre surround system then go with the higher priced one, but the onboard audio is fine for everything has 3 ports...all good nforce has always been good. ( It's really two different types of audio codecs) not worth it honestly


SPOOK, you should really consider an upgrade, just check what RAM your motherboard supports and try getting a couple new sticks. newer games require more memory nowadays so yeah take a looksie.

[Grim]

SPOOK, you should really consider an upgrade, just check what RAM your motherboard supports and try getting a couple new sticks. newer games require more memory nowadays so yeah take a looksie.

Also to add. What kind of video are you running? Anytime I think "bottleneck", that's what I usually look at as well.

[foq]

related question. i have an AMD athlon 64 X2 4200+ system, but only 1 gb of ram. I think the ram might be the biggest bottleneck.. is it worth upgrading to 2? i play mostly quake but also a lot of newer games

It's only worth it depending on what you do with your PC. If you have say 250MB memory usage in windows, I say get 1.5GB. Any more 2GB would be better.

Dual channel 1.5GB:
DIMM1 512MB
DIMM2 256MB

Grim, he has a x1650 PCI-E. That's nicely balanced with an X2 4200+ imo

DIMM3 512MB
DIMM4 256MB

[spooker]

lol Foq my personal hardware counselor. Its an ATI radeon x1600, PCI-E 256 mb. Yeah i think it's nicely balanced. i will probably get more ram, when i get more cash

[foq]

Eh, I thought you said x1650. No big deal, maybe 2fps difference lol.

Spook, what kind of RAM are you running??

[spooker]

PC-3200
here are the detailed specs although it is 2 years old, I love my HP! it does run slow sometimes, but its mostly cuz i pirate so much crap! particularly startup--takes 2-3 minutes, though fully 1 minute of that is because it is loading linksys wireless config utility gayness

[Grim]

Looks fine for what your're running. Memory upgrade it is. Just like the specs call for. 1 GB (2 x 512 MB) PC-3200 MB/sec.

I noticed all the other extras that come with the software package. When installing the OS, does HP give you the option to choose what to install?

Dell does and I only installed what I use. Nothing worst than installing crap that's going to going to use resources when I could be utilizing it for something else.

[spooker]

ah yes grim, the stupid pre-installed programs. Ive heard someone call them "crapware". This is the one fatal flaw of prebuilt machines. I'm impressed that dell lets you choose what you want, but i suspect theres still boatloads of needless crap you don't need. No, HP didnt give me the option of what to install, i removed most of it myself, and spent a few hours documenting each of the 60-70 or so running processes. These pieces of crapware actually reduce the price of the PC, cuz software companies pay loads of money to use your new desktop as advertising space. i hate it

[foq]

This is another reason why I like custom systems...
For spooker: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227210

[spooker]

This is how I view it--the crapware on prebuilt systems is offset by the fact that you don't have to buy an operating system for $100-$200 (and i will pirate anything, except an operating system, just from practical considerations. yes the manufacturers buy windows but in bulk and they pass the savings on to you). The price of all the components for a custom system is comparable to the same hardware in a prebuilt system, but with the prebuilt you get an OS, but on the downside also crapware.

Okay foq important question: i have 4 ram slots, currently with 2x512 mb; you gave me a link to a set of 2x1 gb sticks; would that be better than adding 2 more 512 mb sticks? it is certainly more expensive. so basically, which is better, 2x1 gb or 4x512 mb?

[foq]

I wouldn't try running 4x512. Not only does it put more strain on your power supply, but that configuration may have issues.

Personally, I would never try and run more than one type of ram (very specific down to speed, memory, company, voltage, model number). You could do it, but it just seems like a bad idea. I would never run more than one exact type of RAM in my system.

Spooker, that system is prebuilt right? Then you'll have a hard time finding the right model of memory... I would just buy the 2GB kit.

[Solecord]

How much strain does 2 more sticks of mem cause to the PS?

[Grim]

How much strain does 2 more sticks of mem cause to the PS?

Not really that much. Personally I'd go for two x 512. Something certified to work specifically in your system. Whichever way you wish to go, six one way, half a dozen another.

[foq]

Girm, you mean 2x1GB?? 1GB memory is becoming a little bit obsolete....

Sole, depending on what RAM you get, adding 2 more sticks varies on the strain. My RAM takes 2.6V I beleive... some RAM takes as little as 1.8 and as much as 2.8... My processor (P4 Pescott) takes around 1.475 volts... I may be missing something, but voltwise RAM takes more than a processor... so I would stick with 2 at the most.