Upgrading RAM

OldMan SG

i assembled a amd 1500+ pc a few years ago with 512mb ram. now i want to add 1gb ram to improve performance.

i intend to buy pc-3200 ram so that i could reuse it when i upgrade pc, but will it be compatible with my current motherboard? my current ram should be pc-133.

Twincat SG

Pardon my ignorance but i dun think the chipset will support that mixed configuration. even if it does, it will perform at the slowest ram.

Pc-100 -> SDR
Pc-3200 -> DDR

If u use Pc-100 u can most likely use Pc-133

OldMan SG

i tot pc-3200 is still sdram?

Twincat SG

Both are still considered as sdRam.

But the main difference is at the clocking rate...
SDR - Single Data Rate, 1 Complete clock pulse give access to 1 address.
DDR - Double Data Rate, 1 Complete clock pulse give access to 2 address.

Pc-166 and below are all SDR clock rate.

Apart from the apparent speed gain, the timing, voltage and physical dimension is quite different as well.

OldMan SG

my motherboard is gigabyte ga-7vtx, do you think it can support pc-3200 ram?

octega SG

According to the MB specs:-
Memory

1. Supports up to 3GB DDR SDRAM
2. 3 DIMMs of 184-pin DDR sockets
3. Supports either PC1600/DDR200 or PC2100/DDR266 DDR SDRAM
4. Supports 72bits ECC type DRAM integrity mode

So safest bet is to search for PC1600 or the PC2100 RAM types.

ndmmxiaomayi SG

PC-133 RAM is a SDRAM

PC-3200 is DDR RAM. It will not be compatible.

ndmmxiaomayi SG

184-pin sockets will support DDR RAM. However, since it states that it supports either PC-1600/DDR-200/PC-2100/DDR-266 DDR SDRAM, so it will be better that you buy the supported RAM.

If you used PC-3200 RAM and damaged your motherboard, your warranty will be void.

OldMan SG

now the tricky question is whether to spend $100+ to buy 1gb of ram and another $100+ for a 256mb agp card to prolong the pc life for 1 to 2 years, or spend $800+ to overhaul the entire system …

Twincat SG

well that leads to this question first ...
Wat do u normally use ur computer for ? and how big is ur monitor / LCD?

OldMan SG

19" lcd monitor. i was quite happy with my pc until i installed civilization iv ...

strikefreedom SG

By using PC3200 the mem will not run at 400Mhz instead it will only run at ur top speed of 266Mhz. Also i don't think it worth upgrading to 1G of RAM as for ur currrent spec of PC 512M is more then enough.

As for video card, you cna go ahead and upgrade but you gotta know ur pc limitation as it belong somewhere around the 1st and 2nd generation of DDR RAM mboard. Therefore, don't get graphic card that is above Radeon 9600 or nvidia equivalent because ur comp can never let ur video card perform to it best as limitation such as ur cpu speed restrain it. Finally, i think for ur computer spec, 128M video card is good enough there no need to get 256M video card.

Anyway the part that suit ur comp spec now is pretty obsolete and to get the better one is wasteful since you won't be able to utilize the full ability of the components. But that just my two cent.

OldMan SG

my current spec:
amd xp 1500+
512mb pc-133 ram
agp 64mb

i intend to add 1 gb pc-2100 ram ($175) and upgrade to agp radeon 9550 256mb ($131) so total cost is $306. if i upgrade the entire system then it'll cost me at least $800.

strikefreedom SG

Dun go for 9550 becos it really suck to the core in term of performance. Pay a little bit more and get a 128M 9600 will be more then sufficient for ur current spec. As for 1G of RAM you can go ahead if you want to but few years down the road if you intent to upgrade ur cpu etc, ur RAM will be useless as you will be looking at DDR 400 etc kind of RAM.

Also if your chipset is nforce chipset, please get a pair of RAM and not just a single module. (ie: 2 x 512M) nforce chipset allow higher mem bandwidth output when the mem are in pairs. As for other like VIA and SIS go ahead and get a single module if you want to.

As for mem brand, go for the cheaper one like Hyuudai or generic brand. No point going for branded one like Kingston, Cosaire and Trancends. From experience, they work just as good and it much cheaper too.

OldMan SG

thanks for your advice Very Happy

wats the diff btw XT, PRO & SE? i read their comparison table but couldn't really tell.

http://apps.ati.com/ATIcompare/

strikefreedom SG

For each series of video card, they have different grade as in performance wise. For ATI it XT > Pro > SE and for Nvidia i think it Pro > XT > SE (can't remember). Simply put they are different in some aspect when come to manufacturing of it, (eg: slower clock speed). Basically their price range also varies by little to alot.

My advise is never to purchase SE edition of video card because they are the very low end version of it and normally they tends to underperform to those older series video card. Basically, you need to run benchmarking to actually see how much it affect the performance.

Anyway civ4 is a pretty taxing game and in my own opinion in what affect the game performance is in this order: CPU > Video Card > RAM.

So till now i am still using my old and faithful ASUS TI 4200 Super Fast edition video card but it never fail me till now Laughing

Ah sometime you will come across certain series that are not within this three cat simply becos they are the faster version of it whereby they increase the Core and Mem Speed to make it run faster, but they are generally expensive as compare to the original series.

OldMan SG

thanks again for your advice.

nbz, i bot the card for civ iv and end up incompatible.

http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support_ati.htm

strikefreedom SG

Incompatible issue can normally be solve by updating the driver and also make sure that ur DirectX is the latest which i think is DirectX9c. Can’t remember cos not into computer stuffs for a while already. Anyway it should get ur card working so dun worry abt it.

OldMan SG

updated both and yet cant play, guess i have to go buy the original liao Laughing