Upgrading RAM, Tough decision

[BlueEcho]

Hey guys im just looking for input on what I should do- I want a bit more speed out of my comp and im interested in OC'ing so I figured id upgrade my ram to 2gb. I have 2x 512 of Centon DDR400 in my system right now and im wondering whether its worth it to get 1gb (2x 512) of this Kingston RAM ive been looking at here.

My system supports dual channel but I don't believe the centon ram I have right now is dual channel. Would there be any compatibility issues and is it even worth the money?

Thanks,

Beau

 

[Bobthelost]

Depends if you use more than 1GB of RAM.

 

[BlueEcho]

I am using 1gb currently, id be upgrading to 2gb with that kingston ram, (2x 512 of centon and 2x512 of kingston)

 

[Bobthelost]

*drops head into hands*

You have 1GB of RAM, you might only be using 630mb, in which case upgrading to 2GB would be a complete and utter waste of your time and money. Check your peak usage in the task manager window.

 

[BlueEcho]

Oops, I get your meaning im usually running WoW + 2 browsers + limewire + itunes and some other stuff, ive seen my PF usage at or around 700 - 850mb most of the time.

 

[Bobthelost]

In which case you won't see any improvement by going to 2GB, then again it's possible that you're peaking over 1GB at times, which would benifit from the added RAM. Check the peak useage after a day or so of use, if it's over 1GB then you would benifit from more (hell, maybe just 2x256 if you're on a budget).

 

[BlueEcho]

Cool, thanks for the input

 

[customcoms]

BTW, running two different brands of memory is NOT reconmended, especially if your overclocking. And you will suffer a performance loss with 4 sticks because you will have to run at a 2t command rate!!!!

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

The performance loss isn't that bad. The added RAM will more than make up for that if you're short on RAM. Howver, if that Centon RAM is value RAM with like CAS latency 3, you don't want to buy expensive low latency RAM. Just buy some cheap Corsair ValueSelect CAS latency 3. All your RAM sticks will be forced to the highest latencies and lowest speeds of your slowest RAM.

 

[bob4432]

benefiting from 2GB upgrade. if you don't exceed 1GB then you will never know 2GB is there.

for what do you need more speed - encoding? gaming? maybe we can help you out for your exact issue.

welcome to the forums

 

[BlueEcho]

Thanks for the welcome im looking to get more speed out of my comp really, I was told that upgrading from say my 3000+ to a 3700+ wont be worth the $100 or so and I want to have a machine thats gonna last me in terms of gaming the next year or so... not really sure what to upgrade, my budget is around $200

Thanks!

Beau

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: BlueEcho
Thanks for the welcome im looking to get more speed out of my comp really, I was told that upgrading from say my 3000+ to a 3700+ wont be worth the $100 or so and I want to have a machine thats gonna last me in terms of gaming the next year or so... not really sure what to upgrade, my budget is around $200

Thanks!

Beau

i guess what i am asking is how do you use your computer? my rig in sig was recently upgraded from a single core processor to a dual core because i started to more video work and the extra processor core helped out since my software is multi core aware. before the upgrade i would do video editing here and there but not as much so it wasn't necessary and i could game bf2 @ 1280x1024 with everything on high @ at least 60fps (probably more ~80), with no glitches if the game behaves properly.

depending on which 3000 you have you can probably o/c to a decent speed, near or exceed a 3700 speed.

when you say you want it faster what area? a 10K rpm hdd would make it feel a bit snappier, a dual core will benefit you a bit in everyday computing but not a huge benefit unless you are doing a lot of serious multitasking or encoding either audio or video or using multi threaded apps like photoshop to work on large pics, a new gpu may help you out - i can't remember the entire ati line but if that gpu you have is agp then a move up to a x800xtpe or x850xt/pe would make a difference. any of these would be under $200, but in all reality as fast as stuff is today, you are really not going to see a huge benefit unless you are running certain applications and then tailor your upgrade to that particular setup.

 

[Fishy007]

Originally posted by: BlueEcho
Oops, I get your meaning im usually running WoW + 2 browsers + limewire + itunes and some other stuff, ive seen my PF usage at or around 700 - 850mb most of the time.

I disagree with Bob. I run the same as you. WoW + browser + itunes + random app.
I currently run with 2GB of RAM in 4 sticks of 512mb. In a recent experiment, I removed 1GB of the RAM to experiment a bit with memory timings. Before I even changed anything on the system, I noticed a difference.
Tabbing out from WoW to go to the browser took longer. iTunes was slightly sluggish and starting up another program (Adobe Acrobat at the time) took much longer than usual.

I would say that going to 2GB of RAM would help you. Esp with WoW running.

 

[Fishy007]

Originally posted by: customcoms
BTW, running two different brands of memory is NOT reconmended, especially if your overclocking. And you will suffer a performance loss with 4 sticks because you will have to run at a 2t command rate!!!!

I'm currently running Kingston and OCZ in my machine and I've overclocked the FSB to 300. Small overclock, but it's stable.
However, I may be an anomaly. I am curious what you mean by "run at a 2t command rate". Is running 4 sticks of memory instead of 2 seriously degrading my performance?

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Fishy007

Originally posted by: BlueEcho
Oops, I get your meaning im usually running WoW + 2 browsers + limewire + itunes and some other stuff, ive seen my PF usage at or around 700 - 850mb most of the time.

I disagree with Bob. I run the same as you. WoW + browser + itunes + random app.
I currently run with 2GB of RAM in 4 sticks of 512mb. In a recent experiment, I removed 1GB of the RAM to experiment a bit with memory timings. Before I even changed anything on the system, I noticed a difference.
Tabbing out from WoW to go to the browser took longer. iTunes was slightly sluggish and starting up another program (Adobe Acrobat at the time) took much longer than usual.

I would say that going to 2GB of RAM would help you. Esp with WoW running.

you should see if you are exceeding 1GB of ram, if you are then you will see a definate difference. just because you run a couple of the same apps doesn't mean he will have the same benefit as you, as you may have been exceeding 1GB thus accessing the pagefile to make up the differenc for when you took out the other 1GB.

as far as the 2T and 4 sticks this was pretty much an issue with a64s - the onboard memory controller had issues with 4 sticks, i don't recall there being an issue running 4 sticks on the older p4s and i would doubt there are now. just because you are running 4 stick doesn't mean you running 2t since you are on a entirely different platform and there are vast difference between the 2 cpu architectures.

 

[BlueEcho]

quote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by: customcoms
BTW, running two different brands of memory is NOT reconmended, especially if your overclocking. And you will suffer a performance loss with 4 sticks because you will have to run at a 2t command rate!!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I'm currently running Kingston and OCZ in my machine and I've overclocked the FSB to 300. Small overclock, but it's stable.
However, I may be an anomaly. I am curious what you mean by "run at a 2t command rate". Is running 4 sticks of memory instead of 2 seriously degrading my performance?

Im interested in that as well, as id either be getting (4x512) or (2x1GB)

Also, on the issue of overclocking... my system info is below... for some reason if I bring my computer over 2ghz (it defaults @1836mhz) then it will blue screen on boot up. I am keeping the VCore at 1.55-1.6 (Default is 1.4) ... is there anything I could be doing wrong in this instance? My board allows for easy overclocking but I keep getting reboots after OC'ing.

Thanks in advance!

Beau

 

[Bobthelost]

Hyper transport multiplier? Try using RAM dividers?

There's an excellent guide in the CPU forum, far more and better advice than i can give

2x1GB would be better, but it's not worth the money if you've already got 2x512mb, a % or two difference. (You might go from 100fps to 98fps!)

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: BlueEcho

quote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by: customcoms
BTW, running two different brands of memory is NOT reconmended, especially if your overclocking. And you will suffer a performance loss with 4 sticks because you will have to run at a 2t command rate!!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I'm currently running Kingston and OCZ in my machine and I've overclocked the FSB to 300. Small overclock, but it's stable.
However, I may be an anomaly. I am curious what you mean by "run at a 2t command rate". Is running 4 sticks of memory instead of 2 seriously degrading my performance?

Im interested in that as well, as id either be getting (4x512) or (2x1GB)

Also, on the issue of overclocking... my system info is below... for some reason if I bring my computer over 2ghz (it defaults @1836mhz) then it will blue screen on boot up. I am keeping the VCore at 1.55-1.6 (Default is 1.4) ... is there anything I could be doing wrong in this instance? My board allows for easy overclocking but I keep getting reboots after OC'ing.

Thanks in advance!

Beau

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=1497607&enterthread=y

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Originally posted by: BlueEcho

quote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by: customcoms
BTW, running two different brands of memory is NOT reconmended, especially if your overclocking. And you will suffer a performance loss with 4 sticks because you will have to run at a 2t command rate!!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I'm currently running Kingston and OCZ in my machine and I've overclocked the FSB to 300. Small overclock, but it's stable.
However, I may be an anomaly. I am curious what you mean by "run at a 2t command rate". Is running 4 sticks of memory instead of 2 seriously degrading my performance?

Im interested in that as well, as id either be getting (4x512) or (2x1GB)

Also, on the issue of overclocking... my system info is below... for some reason if I bring my computer over 2ghz (it defaults @1836mhz) then it will blue screen on boot up. I am keeping the VCore at 1.55-1.6 (Default is 1.4) ... is there anything I could be doing wrong in this instance? My board allows for easy overclocking but I keep getting reboots after OC'ing.

Thanks in advance!

Beau

You need to use memory dividers or else your RAM will be overclocked to much. If it can't handle that high of a speed, it'll crash. As for upgrading, 2GB will probably help a lot. WoW eats up quite a bit of RAM.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: t3h l337 n3wb
WoW eats up quite a bit of RAM.

if the op states he only uses 750-800MB peak now can you explain to me how 2000will help him? he is not even maxing out his current setup.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: t3h l337 n3wb
WoW eats up quite a bit of RAM.

if the op states he only uses 750-800MB peak now can you explain to me how 2000will help him? he is not even maxing out his current setup.

Looks like you weren't paying much attention to the post:

Originally posted by: BlueEcho
Oops, I get your meaning im usually running WoW + 2 browsers + limewire + itunes and some other stuff, ive seen my PF usage at or around 700 - 850mb most of the time.

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: t3h l337 n3wb

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: t3h l337 n3wb
WoW eats up quite a bit of RAM.

if the op states he only uses 750-800MB peak now can you explain to me how 2000will help him? he is not even maxing out his current setup.

Looks like you weren't paying much attention to the post:

Originally posted by: BlueEcho
Oops, I get your meaning im usually running WoW + 2 browsers + limewire + itunes and some other stuff, ive seen my PF usage at or around 700 - 850mb most of the time.

By PF he'll be refering to the RAM useage. As such if the highest it ever got to was 800mb then 2GB would be of no improvement. Of course if the peak were 1.1GB then getting 1.5GB or 2GB would make a difference at some points.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

He was referring to the PF usage?

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: t3h l337 n3wb
He was referring to the PF usage?

Page file is your RAM and the virtual RAM on the hard drive together. The number will have been taken from the graph in task manager, which was cunningly written to take into account that you might want more RAM than you have, hence page file. If the PF is @ 800mb in a 1GB system then you can be damned sure it's showing your RAM useage only.

 

[bob4432]

here i am gaming with bf2 - ram usage ~1.10-1.15GB