Which would be more beneficial? New Cpu or more RAM?

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Which would be more beneficial? New Cpu or more RAM?

2007-07-19 20:17:47

r2zoo: Knowledge is power, guard it well; +126|6615|Michigan, USA

Well, in a few days im gonna finally get some money(no summer job, hate my states economy) and I want to upgrade my pc, as it stands here are my specs.

Asus M2V-TVM Mobo
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ AM2
768mb DDR2 RAM
Nvidia 7600GT 256mb
(should be all that matters)

Now, with this money(only around $60ish) I could either go for a new processer, the AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 4000+ X2 Brisbane

Or I could upgrade my ram, current 768mb one 256 stick no name brand and a 512 stick of Kingston.

Now im not an overclocking, and not planning on it either, nor can I afford to dump my mobo and go with something else, so these are more or less my choices currently. Both upgrades would bost my performence, but im not quite sure which would help more, im leaning towards the processer myself, but then again I know single cores pretty well, but no idea on the Dual cores

So what would be your recommendations?

2007-07-19 20:21:01

LividBovine: The Year of the Cow!; +175|6398|MN

I would suggest finding a matching 512 stick of memory and using the rest of the money on the best processor you can get with it. You are not using dual channel RAM with the combo yo have now. It will be your bottle neck with whatever CPU you put in.

"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation" - Barack Obama (a freshman senator from Illinios)

2007-07-19 20:43:52

r2zoo: Knowledge is power, guard it well; +126|6615|Michigan, USA

Hmmm, well it seems theres a combo deal going with the 4000+ X2 for $150 they toss in this ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6820211174 Which looks pretty good, and i might be able to borrow some cash for it, might go that way, or just spend the money on 2gigs of ram, not cost effective to buy a 512 stick.

2007-07-19 21:20:36

LividBovine: The Year of the Cow!; +175|6398|MN

I was trying to stick to your budget. If you can get the extra dough, that sounds like a good deal. My main point before was that you are severely hindering your system with the mis-matched RAM. The 3200+ is a good CPU, and I think overclocking could also be a consideration. If you can't leech some money off the parents, then do as you said and upgrade the RAM.

2007-07-19 21:24:10

Ganko_06: Laughter with an S; +167|6663|Camoran's Paradise

Rrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmm.

2007-07-19 21:25:30

r2zoo: Knowledge is power, guard it well; +126|6615|Michigan, USA

Not a huge fan of overclocking, its helpful, but it also shortens component life and can be dangerous, thats and I dont need the risk(no amtter how small) of messing up a setup i can not afford to replace any of at the moment. Im happy to sit with my current rig as is, plent fast for the games i play, but im almost definatly gonna go with the 2 gig upgrade, just trying to find a decent priced ram setup. Thanks for the help, completly overlooked the bottleneck issue

2007-07-19 21:41:59

LividBovine: The Year of the Cow!; +175|6398|MN

No problem. I have a Sempron 2800+ with 1 gig RAM (2 X 512mb). It is actually faster to run 2 chips instead of 1 large one because of the dual channel thingy. I really need to upgrade sometime though.

2007-07-19 21:44:20

Scorpion0x17: can detect anyone's visible post count...; +691|6784|Cambridge (UK)

r2zoo wrote:
Asus M2V-TVM Mobo
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ AM2
768mb DDR2 RAM
Nvidia 7600GT 256mb
(should be all that matters)

Now, with this money(only around $60ish) I could either go for a new processer, the AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 4000+ X2 Brisbane

Or I could upgrade my ram, current 768mb one 256 stick no name brand and a 512 stick of Kingston.

OK, I sense you're looking for something that will guide you in deciding your priorities, yes?

Well, if that's the case, you need to look where the bottleneck in your system is, and assuming, which I think is fair seeing this is a bf2/2142 site, you're looking to get better in-game performance:

Nvidia 7600GT 256mb - not brilliant, but not the bottlenecking your system.
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ AM2 - again, not brilliant, again, not bottlenecking your system
768mb DDR2 RAM - now, this ain't so great.

BF2/2142 needs 1GB+ to run it on decent settings and your system could handle very decent settings, if only it had a little more memory - 1GB+ minimum, 1.5GB+ would be better, 2GB+ would be ideal.

Hope that helps...

2007-07-19 21:53:33

r2zoo: Knowledge is power, guard it well; +126|6615|Michigan, USA

Scorpion0x17 wrote:
r2zoo wrote:
Asus M2V-TVM Mobo
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ AM2
768mb DDR2 RAM
Nvidia 7600GT 256mb
(should be all that matters)

Now, with this money(only around $60ish) I could either go for a new processer, the AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 4000+ X2 Brisbane

Or I could upgrade my ram, current 768mb one 256 stick no name brand and a 512 stick of Kingston.
OK, I sense you're looking for something that will guide you in deciding your priorities, yes?

Well, if that's the case, you need to look where the bottleneck in your system is, and assuming, which I think is fair seeing this is a bf2/2142 site, you're looking to get better in-game performance:

Nvidia 7600GT 256mb - not brilliant, but not the bottlenecking your system.
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ AM2 - again, not brilliant, again, not bottlenecking your system
768mb DDR2 RAM - now, this ain't so great.

BF2/2142 needs 1GB+ to run it on decent settings and your system could handle very decent settings, if only it had a little more memory - 1GB+ minimum, 1.5GB+ would be better, 2GB+ would be ideal.

Hope that helps...

7600GT can more then handle the graphis on BF, on SP I can easily max out nearly all settings with smoothgameplay and FPS, but the second i get online it chugs. Not intrested in graphics update. I currently run 2142/BF2 on all medium pretty smooth(though BF2 chugs alot, while 2142 is smooth, no idea why) so would the 2gb in dual channel allow me to go towards the higher settings? And are the timings really that important? I know it gets discussed alot, and my knowledge(well in depth knowledge) of components persists more of Video and Power supply area so im lost at ram.

Basically would a ram with 4 timings be worth the extra money versus those with 5 timings? The price difference is small, but on my budget its pretty big. Currently looking at the 2 gigs i linked earlier.

2007-07-19 23:27:34

Scorpion0x17: can detect anyone's visible post count...; +691|6784|Cambridge (UK)

r2zoo wrote:
Scorpion0x17 wrote:
r2zoo wrote:
Asus M2V-TVM Mobo
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ AM2
768mb DDR2 RAM
Nvidia 7600GT 256mb
(should be all that matters)

Now, with this money(only around $60ish) I could either go for a new processer, the AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 4000+ X2 Brisbane

Or I could upgrade my ram, current 768mb one 256 stick no name brand and a 512 stick of Kingston.
OK, I sense you're looking for something that will guide you in deciding your priorities, yes?

Well, if that's the case, you need to look where the bottleneck in your system is, and assuming, which I think is fair seeing this is a bf2/2142 site, you're looking to get better in-game performance:

Nvidia 7600GT 256mb - not brilliant, but not the bottlenecking your system.
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ AM2 - again, not brilliant, again, not bottlenecking your system
768mb DDR2 RAM - now, this ain't so great.

BF2/2142 needs 1GB+ to run it on decent settings and your system could handle very decent settings, if only it had a little more memory - 1GB+ minimum, 1.5GB+ would be better, 2GB+ would be ideal.

Hope that helps...
7600GT can more then handle the graphis on BF, on SP I can easily max out nearly all settings with smoothgameplay and FPS, but the second i get online it chugs. Not intrested in graphics update. I currently run 2142/BF2 on all medium pretty smooth(though BF2 chugs alot, while 2142 is smooth, no idea why) so would the 2gb in dual channel allow me to go towards the higher settings? And are the timings really that important? I know it gets discussed alot, and my knowledge(well in depth knowledge) of components persists more of Video and Power supply area so im lost at ram.

Basically would a ram with 4 timings be worth the extra money versus those with 5 timings? The price difference is small, but on my budget its pretty big. Currently looking at the 2 gigs i linked earlier.

OK, first up, I've not used the 7600GT, but, according to my sources it's about as powerful as, if not better than, an X800XT PE AGP (which is what I have, but on a XP3200+, with 2GB of DDR1).

Now, I have a worse CPU than you, and slower RAM. I started playing bf2 with 512MB - it sucked (some Med, most Low). I upgraded to 1GB dual-channel - it got better (most Med, some High). I upgraded to 2GB - OMG! 8O IT'S LIKE A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT GAME! - seriously, I thought "nah, the difference can't be that great..." - it is - I now play with smoother frame-rates, only very very rare turbulence (low-level lag), and on higher settings (most High, some Med).

OH, and I've not had BF2 crash (he says cursing it for the next time he plays) since upgrading.

Windows works smoother.

I have a bigger penis.

And I just won the lottery.

^{(not all of the above statements are true (but I think you'll get the picture))}

Last edited by Scorpion0x17 (2007-07-19 23:30:29)

2007-07-20 01:11:28

r2zoo: Knowledge is power, guard it well; +126|6615|Michigan, USA

Doesnt quite answer the timing question, but RAM has me lost... I can get 2gb of pc3200 with latencys of 3 or go with pc5400(or whatever) with 5s, which is better? Does it matter? But it does answer my question of performence, 2gigs of ram will be ordered asap. Thanks for your assistance.

2007-07-20 01:53:32

Crypto_420: Member; +25|6862|Portland

you can run preformance counters to answer that question. If you have a long proc que length then upgrade proc, but if your having alot of page faults more memory & possibly hard drive too.

2007-07-20 02:44:31

kylef: Gone; +1,352|6512|N. Ireland

Honestly, save up a bit more and get a Core 2 Duo bundle! No point in upgrading CPUs that aren't very good compared with Core 2 Duo.

2007-07-20 03:09:35

CrapHand: Member; +6|6145|Dominican Republic

I suggest you go for the processor. The memory can wait. Now if you tell me that you're getting a 2 GB dual channel kit, then i would say go for the memory. Not worthy to upgrade for just 256 extra, trust me. Go for the processor.

And save for a 2 GB dual channel kit and sell your current memory after

Also prices for the processors are dropping, and Intel will do a mass price drop in 2 days (July 22) so it will be better for you.

Last edited by CrapHand (2007-07-20 03:11:05)

2007-07-20 09:25:58

-101-InvaderZim: Member; +42|6862|Waikato, Aotearoa

BAAA BAAA BAA BA...... 90% of "slow" or "lagging" problems can be solved by adding more sheep.

Put a total of 2GB DDR800Mhz RAM and watch the amazing difference

Last edited by -101-InvaderZim (2007-07-30 23:26:24)

2007-07-20 09:46:58

[DK]130978: Member; +3|6244|somewhere in Denmark

yes get some more ram

2007-07-20 14:48:34

r2zoo: Knowledge is power, guard it well; +126|6615|Michigan, USA

Well, seems the opinion is for RAM wich is definatly what im gonna order next week. Now i need some help again guys, I want to go with this ram
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a … 6820211174 recommened ocz and cosair all you want, but for the price and reviews is a good value on my budget. However my mobo (Asus M2V-TVM) only runs DDR2 at 667/533. I cant afford a mobo upgrade at this point(it would involve a processer upgrade to go to C2D) so thats not an option, however, would this ram work, just clock it down a speed? Also would it would still work in dual channel if it was clocked down? Dont want to spend the money on a set of 667 RAM if I can go higher for a few bucks more and have it for my next mobo.

2007-07-21 21:12:24

Scorpion0x17: can detect anyone's visible post count...; +691|6784|Cambridge (UK)

r2zoo wrote:
Well, seems the opinion is for RAM wich is definatly what im gonna order next week. Now i need some help again guys, I want to go with this ram
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a … 6820211174 recommened ocz and cosair all you want, but for the price and reviews is a good value on my budget. However my mobo (Asus M2V-TVM) only runs DDR2 at 667/533. I cant afford a mobo upgrade at this point(it would involve a processer upgrade to go to C2D) so thats not an option, however, would this ram work, just clock it down a speed? Also would it would still work in dual channel if it was clocked down? Dont want to spend the money on a set of 667 RAM if I can go higher for a few bucks more and have it for my next mobo.

Unfortunately, the only way to be sure is to buy some.

It should be fine, but some RAM modules just don't like running at the wrong speed.

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r2zoo wrote:

Scorpion0x17 wrote:

r2zoo wrote:

r2zoo wrote:

Scorpion0x17 wrote:

r2zoo wrote:

r2zoo wrote:

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