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Topic Starter Topic: need some help with upgrade
blakjack
The Illuminated
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PostPosted: 02-28-2005 12:53 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


i hate upgrading. i dont keep up to date with latest tech and trends until i need to, and then it confuses the bejeez outta me and im afraid of making a bad purchase. little help? :icon32:

firstly, my current system is:
gigabyte ga-7vax1394 motherboard (kt400)
athlon 2400+
512mb pc2700
leadtek 6800GT (agp)
80Gb wd w/8mb

The vid card is held back as you can see, I bought it not too long ago with the idea of upgrading the rest later (IE now). Whilst i score fairly high in benchmarks my game performance still suffers and stutters a fair bit.
I will probably not be overclocking. i like quality products, but not the latest and greatest (ie most expensive :) ). I hope to get outta this spending as little as necessary.

based on the research i've done i'm looking at:
athlon 64 3500+ <-- good price/performance point
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum

firstly, any alternative suggestions for me to check out?

secondly, ram :icon33: i want 1Gb, thats all Im certain of.
The mobo supports DDR up to 500Mhz (PC4000) but reading the amd site says that Athlon 64 has "An integrated memory controller with peak memory bandwidth of up to 6.4 GB/sec, supporting PC3200, PC2700, PC2100, or PC1600 DDR SDRAM"

WTF? so does this mean that getting PC4000 would be a waste, unless Im overclocking? Or is there a performance gain to be had regardless...or is there a future-proofing reason to go with the PC4000 now.

also, everywhere ppl recommend corsair or other expensive shit but as long as Im not overclocking, is there any need for it? I know enough to stay away from generic no-name stuff (so I at least know what im dealing with) but I can save a ton going a lesser brand, any reason not to?

sorry for the length, tia.
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U4EA
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PostPosted: 02-28-2005 12:58 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


I do believe it means the memory will be slowed to PC3200 speeds if that's the highest supported by the motherboard. Of course, FSB overclocking with definitely yield benefits without having to overclock the memory if you go for PC4000. Personally, I don't buy into the whole high-end brand thing. They supposedly have tighter timings and whatnot but the differences are generally negligible. As you said, I'd go for a solid reputation middle-of-the-road brand instead of splurging.
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SOAPboy
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Joined: 12 Apr 2003
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PostPosted: 02-28-2005 01:12 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


U4EA wrote:
I do believe it means the memory will be slowed to PC3200 speeds if that's the highest supported by the motherboard. Of course, FSB overclocking with definitely yield benefits without having to overclock the memory if you go for PC4000. Personally, I don't buy into the whole high-end brand thing. They supposedly have tighter timings and whatnot but the differences are generally negligible. As you said, I'd go for a solid reputation middle-of-the-road brand instead of splurging.


Bling.. :up:
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Tormentius
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PostPosted: 02-28-2005 11:54 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


If you want some reasonably priced performance RAM check out Kington's HyperX.
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blakjack
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PostPosted: 02-28-2005 03:44 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


thanks guys
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blakjack
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PostPosted: 03-18-2005 06:08 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


received and installed
went with the kingston hyperX cl 2 1gb (2x512).
xp cracked the shits and wouldnt boot, so i had to repair that and redo drivers/antivirus/patches, but its back to normal now. might consider format some time in the future but its sooo much work to backup :|

anyway cant get through a full 3dmark03, it freezes up at some random point on the sound test (default clock/timings, cpu-z even says the ram is at cl 2.5), but without the sound test i get about 11000

doom3 1024 ultra 4x 4x precached gives me 67.8
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Tormentius
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PostPosted: 03-18-2005 08:12 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Try bumping up the RAM voltage one notch; that RAM is power hungry. Failing that call Kingston's tech support because instability is definitely something you should not be experiencing.

Upgrading RAM should not require a reinstall.

Speaking of upgrades I finally got around to upgrading to 1GB of OCZ Performance C2 this past week. I'm liking it so far.
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blakjack
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PostPosted: 03-19-2005 05:38 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


the game freezes came down to a b0rked directx install following the mobo switch...afaik they are fixed now.
I've bumped the ram voltage up to 2.6 (if thats what AUTO wasnt using, dunno) and the cas latency down to 2. to what effect i dont know, as 3dmark is still freezing in the sound test :\ Afaict it might be a problem with the sb live value card. I managed to complete it once and got 11247. Might try grabbing '05 later if i can be arsed to see what performance boost it has. Otherwise it seems to be working now.

edit: doom3 timedemo now gives ~ 70.8
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4g3nt_Smith
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PostPosted: 03-19-2005 07:12 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


You should definately reinstall XP, otherwise you'll end up noticing more instability. That and you'll probably increase your 3dmarks and timedemos.
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Tormentius
The voices in your head
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Joined: 14 Dec 2002
Posts: 10054
PostPosted: 03-19-2005 10:17 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


4g3nt_Smith wrote:
You should definately reinstall XP, otherwise you'll end up noticing more instability. That and you'll probably increase your 3dmarks and timedemos.


Quite agreed.
Reinstalling after a mobo switch is alway a good idea.
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