Upgraded to vista64 with 8GB ram

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Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 23, 2005
Messages
449
Well I'm officially an idiot. I built my PC back in December E6550 with 4GB of memory, installed vista32. I saw the amount of ram these days so I decided to buy some to have 8GB. I got the ram today and went to install it. Looking at the bios on boot I saw 4GB of memory single channel. I'm like uhhhh what?? So I look in the bios for settings to see anything related to dual channel. Then I realize that both of my sticks I had installed were on the left slots together. I assume you have to have one on the left and right side for 2 sticks to have dual channel? Well I install the additional 4GB on the right side and get it booted. Now it shows dual channel interlaced memory, so I guess I've been running the past year at single channel speeds? :confused:
Anyways I got the vista 64 install and holy shit does my system fly now. I clicked shutdown and in 2 seconds my whole system was off. Holy SHIT. Its amazing how much faster it is now, not sure if its the ram/ 64bit OS or a combination. I'm probably gonna upgrade the CPU next, debating a 8500 or a Q9550.

I'll be up to 5terabytes of storage by the end of the week when my 3rd 1.5TB drive arrives. :D
 
Are you primarily gaming on this rig? Your E6550 at 3.0ghz is pretty good. I would upgrade your GPU. How big is you monitor? 19", 22", 24?
 
I use alot of things at once. I have VM's open, games, animation work, video editing, photoshop, streaming video. I was seeing the CPU hit 100% quite a bit, I'm gonna see if the new OS and memory helps out with that. I have a 24inch soyo and a 20inch ferrari with a macbook pro on synergy. Is the GPU I have already that far behind? It was a great GPU when I got it end of last year. I paid $300 for it, kinda suprising how much they have dropped in price. Would the 9800GTX be a big increase? What would you recommend? I'd like to go SLI but I only have PCI-X slot. I may go i7 in a few months with 12GB of ram.
 
A 9800GTX wouldn't be a huge increase, but noticeable. Might be worth it since you can sell the 8800GT and get a (preferably used) 9800GTX for under $50, hopefully. Then you could upgrade the CPU as well, again preferably used, after selling the E6550.
 
Hmm never heard of 448bit. What % of a increase would that be over the 8800GT?
 
Since you have a 24" lcd, expect to see generally at least 30% increase over your 8800GT video card. I plan on making this upgrade myself with my 8800GT card. Here is a review to give you some idea. Note that this was tested with a Intel Quad QX9770 cpu, so, you can;t expect the same results. But, one things for sure, you will do alot better than your 8800GT at 1920 x 1200 res.
 
I use alot of things at once. I have VM's open, games, animation work, video editing, photoshop, streaming video. ...

With all that you're doing, your CPU upgrade should be to a quadcore, like the Q9550.

Don't get any i7 stuff until the mainstream parts come out, unless you have cash burning a whole through your pocket.
 
To give you an idea on where our 8800GT cards stands right now. Here is a quick list in rank from fastest to slowest in video cards. I am not completely right on this but, most of it is correct.

1.Radeon HD 4870X2
2.Radeon HD 4850X2
3.Geforce GTX 280
4.Geforce GTX 260(216)/Radeon HD 4870 1 gig
5.Radeon HD 4870 512MB
6.Geforce GTX 260(192) *This can be tied with or even beat the HD 4870 512 due to Nvidias latest Forceware 180 drivers
7.Radeon HD 3870X2
8.Geforce 9800GTX+
9.Radeon HD 4850
10.Geforce 8800Ulta
11.Geforce 9800GTX
12.Geforce 8800GTX
13.Geforce 8800GTS 512MB
14.Geforce 9800GT/8800GT 512MB/Radeon HD4830
 
I agree with HWGuru on this. Your next CPU upgrade should be to a quad core for what you use your computer for, like enginurd said; and with the set-up you've already got, I think you would be best suited to wait until the i7 components come down in price with more mainstream products.
 
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