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Would like some Ram advice.


Raziel
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I am in the process of upgrading my comps piddly about of ram into something more suitable for gaming. My preffered source is from Crucial.com, however a note in their FAQ has given me some pause.

Namely in my system, has 4 Ram slots (2 banks of 2) and Crucial states that you should fill a bank entirely, instead of partially....I've never heard of this before....but to be honest I rarely dabble in hardware and the last time I installed ram was many many many years ago on a system with only one slot.

Is there any legitmate reason why I shouldn't install one Ram stick (1gb) instead of 2 (512mb each)?

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First of all,

What type of RAM does your system use?

If it's the dual channel type, you will need to install matched pairs. It's a speed thing. Also, depending on the architecture of your machine, you may have dummy cards in some of the empty slots. Most manufacturers recommend keeping these dummies installed in any empty slots to maintain circuit integrity.

If you are truly interested in learning more about how your rig moves electrons around to perform work, check out Ask.com They have some very comprehensive articles on How Things Work.

I have one final question for you Raz....

Why does your system profile link point to a web address that isn't part of 3000AD?

FYI: It doesn't take a huge amount of time to edit your system profile, even if the information is going to be temporary you are still required to have this information stored in "your" profile. Not some offsite web page.

I will be checking back on this issue in a short amount of time and I trust you will fix this poste haste. Otherwise I will.

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quote:

Originally posted by Raziel:

Is there any legitmate reason why I shouldn't install one Ram stick (1gb) instead of 2 (512mb each)?

Most DDR motherboards require that both slots in a bank be filled in for optimal performance. As an example, if you're using DDR400 RAM, it basically operates at 400Mhz, however, if you only use one stick it will downgrade to operate at 200Mhz instead.

However, upon inspection of your system profile, it looks like your system probably uses SDRAM, If I were you, I wouldn't spend the 120+ Dollars that it would take to upgrade a 700Mhz system, because it would be too slow to run anything other than BCM Freeware or BCM Gold. Especially with a GForce2 card.

For $221.00, you cold get a Socket 939 Abit Board along with a AMD64 3000+ Processor and 512 Megs of RAM.

This system would blow your current system away and that particular motherboard comes with a built in card that will blow your current card away as well. Basically you're only looking to spend $100.00 more with this setup.

You could also go with an AM2 Socket Motherboard instead, but the only problem with that is that the new DDR2 Memory that it uses doesn't develope a speed advantage until you're using a 4800+ Processor instead. Some sort of design screw up with the AM2 socket, but it does have a better upgrade path than the 939. Both would give you about the same price, I think the AM2 socket motherboard might be slightly less. Also, for about $20.00 more, you could get the Motherboard with the built in 6150 card instead, which has a slightly faster processor, but you would probably be better off upgrading to a stand alone card later, so just stick with the cheaper one for now.

The only other thing you would probably need with this is a new power supply, since your old one probably doesn't have enough power for the newer chips and boards, but you can pick up a 400 watt power supply from New Egg for like $10.00 or something like that, though you might want to call to make sure it's compatible with that particular board.

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DDR memory of all types (original, 2, 3, etc.) require two MATCHED(BUY a pair in a package TOGETHER(!)) to operate that the double data rate, ow. your's just getting a bit faster single rate RAM which will bottleneck even more than DDR.

Also you need to verify which 2 slots are in which bank. Sometimes the mb markings(if any) and/or the mb manual are WRONG.

If these are plain old DDR(socket 939, etc.) systems I'd just go for 1G, esp. if you plan to replace them w/in a year(or less) or so as you will undoubtedly be moving to a mb that no longer supports plain old DDR. If it's a system that you plan to keep for a while, or is already DDR2, I'd hazard that 2G, esp if you plan to go to Vista will be necessary... If you go 2G, get 2 1G sticks ow you're likely to have to go to slower memory timings for most AMD systems...

If you're NOT overclocking or anything you could go with cheaper(lower specced) RAM, but I'd still get some sort of brand name like Kingston, Crucial, Mushkin, OCZ, etc. 2 512M should be under $100. Check the usual pricing sites pricewatch, pricegrabber, etc.

AM2: DDR2 w/the current AMD AM2 CPUs will only get you 2-5% more bandwidth at the expense of a slight increasein latency no matter what AM2 CPU you get. They appear to not have done a great job on the integrated DDR2 controller... Of course Intel CPUs, while tending to squeeze out a little more bandwidth still don't get as close to the theoretical max as AMD did with DDR, which was still quite a bit lower than max...

All memory subsystems other than onboard CPU caches(and even those, but to a MUCH lower extent) bottleneck the CPU for memory intensive apps.

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quote:

Originally posted by cutterjohn:

AM2: DDR2 w/the current AMD AM2 CPUs will only get you 2-5% more bandwidth at the expense of a slight increasein latency no matter what AM2 CPU you get. They appear to not have done a great job on the integrated DDR2 controller...

Actually, because of the latency, in anything lower than 4200+ processor, DDR2-800 is actually SLOWER than DDR-400, you basically need a 4800+ Processor or better to make up for the deficient latency, and that's actually using the more expensive "Low Latency" versions of the DDR2-800 chips.

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quote:

Originally posted by Darkling:

For $221.00, you cold get a
along with a
and
.

This system would blow your current system away and that particular motherboard comes with a built in card that will blow your current card away as well. Basically you're only looking to spend $100.00 more with this setup.

I just realized I made a mistake with this, it's actually closer to 175.00, so basically it would cost you approximately $55.00 more than buying a gig of SDRAM. Even if you have to get a new Power Supply, you're still only looking at no more than $70.00 More than a gig of SDRAM. If you really want to stick with a Gig of DDR400 RAM, it's only about $30.00 more than that, so in total for about 200.00 you can have a system, that would totally kick your old system's butt.

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Guest HorseloverFat

Plus, NewEgg has been pushing this special for the last couple of weeks.Add a 512 or 1024 stick of ram and you'r good to go.

Except for a better video card.

And maybe a new copy of XP, depending on your current version.

Two of those boards have built in video, but highly unlikey they would play this game.Maybe BCM/Gold.

Yep, the 'ol upgrade quandary.

Edit: plus that processor is OEM. Need to add a heatsink /fan. Another 30 bucks. Or a cheapy for 10 bucks.

Oh well...

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My system specs links to an offsite page because , Unfortunatly I don't have an offical UC/BC game. So far I've only been mooching off the free editions and since they aren't supported, I don't have any way of accessing that particular page...unless I am mistaken.

Secondly, the info is horribly out of date (I should have updated a while ago...but been a tad lazy)

the Rig I am using right now is a Dell Dimension 5100

Pentium 4 3.0 ghz

512mb ram (2 banks of 256...not sure what type. Im assuming Dimm DDR2)

Ati Radeon X600 (256mb)

Specific Details are in my new Profile.

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Guest HorseloverFat

I see (said the blind man).

Buy a gig of whatever your motherboard supports.

And, to make sure it works, remove the old ram, install the new. Test.

Then add the old.

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quote:


Originally posted by Raziel:

My system specs links to an offsite page because , Unfortunatly I don't have an offical UC/BC game. So far I've only been mooching off the free editions and since they aren't supported, I don't have any way of accessing that particular page...unless I am mistaken.

Secondly, the info is horribly out of date (I should have updated a while ago...but been a tad lazy)

the Rig I am using right now is a Dell Dimension 5100

Pentium 4 3.0 ghz

512mb ram (2 banks of 256...not sure what type. Im assuming Dimm DDR2)

Ati Radeon X600 (256mb)

Specific Details are in my new Profile.


"I see" said the blind man. It's just that I get a little leary of downloading documents from unknown websites.

As for your Memory needs, I am somewhat familiar with Dell PCs. Two sticks of 512 MB should do the trick. You can access Dell's site and input your service number to find out exactly what type of memory modules your rig uses. I'm partial to Mushkin but, Crucial also offers a lifetime warranty I believe.

Oh, and stop being a cheapskate and go get a copy of UC AWA. You may not have the rig to run it on yet but at least you can get your system profile fixed up.

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