The Quad Core Party...

[DigitalDude]

I clearly warn you against doing that... there is good possibility of screwing things even by PC technicians... its a headache.. why would you want to do this ?? any compelling reason ??

 

[vebk]

Well I just ordered a Geforce 8600GT DDR3 512MB RAM graphics card, and also am planning on buying 1GB (or more ) of DDR2 RAM. I basically want to get into gaming (specifically Gears of War, and Call of Duty 4). And while I'll wait to install everything and see how things go, I feel that maybe my processor will be a bottleneck. (My Processor btw is Intel 4 3.00 GHz). Do you think I would need an upgrade to the processor / motherboard. AFAIK 30 fps is good enough for gaming, and anything above that is gravy, so that's my target.

I have a PC from work, and it makes sense to temporarily upgrade it, rather than build a whole new PC.

 

[power]

One of my relative is bringing ATI RADEON HD2600 PRO gcard from visiontek . At $99 it was damn cheap at bestbuy so i decided to buy it since i hardly play games . Card has hardware HD support , 512 mb DDR2-800 memory and pci-e . It's a good deal at that price and card is not very high end either . Anyone got this card ? Any reviews ?

 

[netfreak]

Well I just ordered a Geforce 8600GT DDR3 512MB RAM graphics card, and also am planning on buying 1GB (or more ) of DDR2 RAM ...... My Processor btw is Intel 4 3.00 GHz

First make sure P4 motherboard will work with DDR2 (not all of them do).

And P4 3.0 GHz should not be a bottleneck with such a high end card.

 

[DigitalDude]

@vebmetal P4 will definitely meet your 'target' need not worry. first use the existing setup and see if you are satisfied. If not build a new one because you already got graphics card, 1 GB ram. even if you are upgrading you will get a new processor and mother board. and there is nothing else to buy. just get a cabinet+PSU and 1 gb ram. (at the max 4~5k) but if you really want to keep it as a single system, nothing wrong, try to upgrade it. but you have to consider other factors also like wat do you mean by work PC, is it just a perk from the company or you du have office work to be done on it ?? for how long will you have the PC ?? etc

 

[vebk]

The motherboard does support DDR2 - I know that for a fact because I added 512MB of DDR2 533 to it some time back. It already had 256MB of DDR2-533, so now I have 768MB RAM. Would adding 1GB be enough? Techtree reports that 2GB comes for Rs. 2,200 only know, so since things are cheap, should I just sell my 512 chip, and get 2x1GB RAM? Would it add much benefit or is 2.7GB RAM overkill?Good to know that P4 won't be a bottleneck!! @digitaldude, I'd rather not get into all that. Suffice it to say that if it's not an issue that I don't have core2 duo/extreme/quad, then I won't be upgrading anything.

 

---

[power]

Remove 512 and 256 and get 2 x 1 GB or else remove 256 and get 2x512 , that way u can have dual channel RAM . Avoid sticking in ram's of diff size and frequency , that reduces overall system performance .

 

[vebk]

I only have a vague idea of what dual channel is. Do all motherboards support it? If not, does it still make sense to avoid sticking in RAM of different sizes (but same frequency)?Let's say I get 2 x 1GB, and sell/return the 512MB. The 256MB came with the PC so I have to keep it, but would it be better if I set it aside and don't put it in the motherboard, and only use 2GB? In other words, frequencies being the same, is it better to have (2 x 1GB) or (2 x 1GB and 1 x 256MB)?

 

[DigitalDude]

it is better to have 2 X 1 GB that is more than enough. the additional 256 MB would indeed be a bottleneck

 

[power]

Well if you mobo does support DDR2 or even DDR-400 then most probably it will definitely use dual channel . Just use 2 x 512 mb or 2 x 1 GB chips as u please . dont add other single chip coz that will break dual channel an overall ram will run on lowest frequency of 3 modules .