Upgrding from 2x256 to 2x512 worth the $$$?

2

2k2_zx2

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 13, 2003
Messages
1,250
I currently have 2x256 pc3200 in my system:

eVGA 7800GT
eVGA NV41 board (The freebie that came with above card)
146 Opteron (10x200, I know, I know, thats why I am posting)

I would like to know if swapping my 2x256 for a 2x512 kit would be worth my $$$. 1:1 ratio would be nice for oc'ing my Opt. but dividers arent a problem. Also, which kit is the best "value", looking for something in the $100ish range? I see Newegg has a Corsair XMS kit for $99 shipped?

Thanks
 
Depends what you're doing. DO you do anything that hits RAM hard? Are you a gamer? Then upgrade, it'll make a nice difference.

2*512 MB Ballistix PC3200 is less than $120 now over at the Egg.
 
Yeah, games and the wife does Photoshop. Have a feeling I will be playing Fear and Quake 4 after Xmas.
 
An upgrade will make a big difference. Most good games call for a minimum amount of RAM, or "Minimum System Requirements" for basic game play but if you look at games with "Recommended System Requirements" listed, many call for at least 512MB and often more. A full Gig or 2x512 matching will make a big difference. I think Kingston even sells a matched ValueRam DDR400 Kit for @ $100 but for a little more there are better options, like the suggestion to go with Ballistic.
 
2k2_zx2 said:
the wife does Photoshop.
Click to expand...

Yup, get some extra memory to please the wife. photoshop loves more memory (as do most new games.)

 
(cf)Eclipse said:
say no more, get two of these. might not be the best clockers of the bunch, but FEAR will thank you for having 2gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231036
Click to expand...

OMG, thats gotta be the best price on a 1 gig stick I have seen. For $150ish I think I can scrape an extra $50 and get the 2 gigs instead of 1 gig for $100ish. Heck, I might just as well get one stick and then get the 2nd stick when I have the rest of the $$$.

I dont really care about using dividers with my 146 when I decide to see how far it can go.
 
The sweet spot for modern performance before you're just wasting money seems to be 2x512 dual channel.
This all depends on what your'e using the computer for. It's my understanding that at this point windows xp install and common tasks sucks up about 256mb. In office situations you then have about 256 mb to handle loading anything else : running MSoffice while you are playing a dvd and and surfing internet porn etc etc. Its common to dedicate half your ram to agp aperture via bios settings if youre doing some lite gaming. If you only have 2x256mb installed in the first place that doesn't leave you alot to work with. so 2x512mb or with dual channel added seems just about right for the average home user/lite gamer. I can't really comment on high performace ram. That seems more important for heavy gaming/OCing. the only reason I have any machines with 2gigs of ram is because I do a massive amount of back-up and archiving on it which puts an enormous amount of load on the cpus. Other than server work I haven't seen a reasonable excuse for 1.5gigs up. Its seems that if your doing heavy gaming and getting slow down you need a faster cpu rather than more than a gig of ram. Keep in mind this is general guess work based on legacy A+ info.

I didn't see difference between 1gig and 2gig when I played lost coast this morning but, I imagine theres some difference when playing higher than 1024x768.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top