Should I upgrade my RAM?

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The Lone Deranger

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Apr 26, 2013
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Hi, about 5yrs ago I bought a budget gaming pc to use as a general pc for at home.
The system specs are:
mobo - Gigabyte GA-780G-UD3H
chip - phenom x4 810
GFX - sparkle GTS250 512mb
memory - ddr2 2000mhz
HD - Raptor 150gb and WD 1TB

I have just decided to dig this computer out and start using it again, and have purchased Starcraft 2. This has got me to thinking about upgrading the machine a little, as there are many cheap upgrades available.
I have just bought from ebay a Gigabyte GTX460 SOC graphics card and am about to buy a Phenom x4 965t BE processor. (Not massive upgrades i know but they are simple and v easy on the pocket), now I am wondering if I should also purchase new RAM? I suppose I am also wondering if any of these upgrades are even worthwhile or am I throwing money at a machine which has had its day? =-) Any help much appreciated.

 
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AzureTech

AzureTech

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Apr 6, 2013
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you should buy new RAM, and totally get a new PC. Your PC is kinda outdated. i'd rather you spend good money on a PC now than keep upgrading along the way. If you heed my advice to buy a new PC, whats your budger?

you can check out the budget gaming pc articles here

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/how_build_kick-ass_gaming_rig_under_700

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/build_pc_blueprints_november_2012

http://www.gamersnexus.net/pc-builds/46-pcbuildupg/1039-february-budget-gaming-pc

http://www.hardware-revolution.com/budget-gaming-pcs-v3-6/
 
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The Lone Deranger

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Apr 26, 2013
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Hi, thankyou for the reply it is much appreciated. I kind of anticipated that I would be advised to buy a new pc. The thing is that I rarely use a pc for gaming, and so am reluctant to spend money. In fact I hadn't actually fired the pc up in at least three yrs, until last night when I started playing Starcraft 2 and found myself enjoying it. So I decided I should spend some small money updating the old machine. I found and ordered the 460GTX SOC graphics card on ebay for £65 and also found the phenom x4 965 processor for £70 new. So as you can see i've already began a v cheap upgrade of this old machine, and suppose I'd better stick with it for a while longer at least until I get the gaming bug again. Guess I should get some new RAM tho?

Thanks again =-)
 
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The Lone Deranger

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Apr 26, 2013
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Ah yeah, I hadn't thought of that, sure does look dusty in there! Any advice as to what RAM I should buy, in keeping with the other hardware I mentioned? Thanks again =-)
 
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toarranre

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Feb 7, 2013
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What ram do you have? I would try try memtest to see how what you have is doing after all this time, if its in perfect working order try to find exactly the same type and run it in dual channel. If you have any issues dump the old one for a new identical stick.
Bear in mind that if you have a 32 bit operating system then it can only use up to 4 GB (not that your going to need that much anyway).
Also I would do a full defrag and check disk (right click C: properties tools check now check both boxes) to check for errors before you fill the hard drive up and realise that somethings wrong and it needs a clean install.
 
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inzone

inzone

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Mar 12, 2011
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With doing all these upgrades the one thing I noticed that you left out was your power supply, getting a new video card and CPU will mean added power demand so you should post what the PSU is.
Finding and paying for DDR2 is going to be a little more expensive then DDR3 because it's not made anymore and is outdated. If you have Win 64 bit then you can get 6gb or 8gb since 4gb will be borderline for gaming.

The old video card that you have can be left in the computer to be used as a PhysX card, you just want to put it in a different slot since the new card will go in the first slot.

Going from a Phenom 11 x4 810 to Phenom 11 x4 965 is not a very big upgrade and if both CPUs are quad core then it might not be a necessary upgrade. You might want to get some more info on that for an upgrade. I'm not all that familiar with AMD so it would be better if someone who knows AMD CPUs could help.
 
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The Lone Deranger

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Apr 26, 2013
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Thankyou for the reply and good advice. I've just run cpu-z and checked my memory it seems its already in dual channel, must be 2x2gb sticks. I've got windows 7 64bit, do you think I would benefit from upgrading the RAM? I'm feeling quite confident I will notice an improvement from the graphics card and processor upgrades I mentioned, but am unsure as to where to go with the RAM.
Again thankyou for helping me, I had no idea I would receive replies so quickly. Top forum =-)

Matt

 
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The Lone Deranger

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Apr 26, 2013
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Ah yes I hadn't considered the power supply, it is a Silver Power 650W, is this likely to be sufficient?

Would you suggest I just try to find any DDR2 8gb RAM?

That is interesting that I could leave the old video card in, I was expecting to put it in the bin. What effect will leaving it in have on the system?

As for the processor, the one I have in currently is 2.6ghz quad core and the replacement is 3.4ghz quad core, and the thing is, I've rushed in and already ordered it lol, but for £70 I suppose even only a small improvement will be fine.

Again thankyou so much for the help it is much appreciated =-)
 
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The Lone Deranger

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Apr 26, 2013
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Yeah CPU-Z shows that I have 4gb of RAM on dual channel, so I'm guessing its 2x2gb, do you think I should try to find 2x4gb's to swap them with?

Thanks

Matt
 
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inzone

inzone

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Since you have 4gb of ram you can take your time and look for a good price on an 8gb kit of DDR2 ram.

In the Nvidia control panel you can specify a video card to be a dedicated PhysX card so that any game that is PhysX accelerated you will have a separate card that will perform that function instead of the one main card doing everything. You will still get some use out of it instead of throwing it away. Leaving it in will not affect the computer as it will be idle most of the time until it kicks in for PhysX.

The 650w PSU should be ok to run all that you have and what your upgrading to. The CPU could have been overclocked to 3.4ghz and you would then have the same thing as what you ordered , but since you have ordered it already then you may as well use it.
 
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The Lone Deranger

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Apr 26, 2013
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Thankyou for all your good advice and info, think I'm pretty clear where I'm headed with dusting off the old machine now. V happy to have found this site.

Matt
 
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toarranre

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With 4GB I would see how you get on, monitor how much is being used while gaming and if what you have is enough stick with what you have. I forgot to mention above that I would try to find second hand RAM if your adding to what you have (since what you have is already old) DDR2 Is a lot more expensive than DDR3 now and it will be obsolete if and when you get a new MOBO.

Personally I would hold out buying new RAM. PC part picker is showing 8GB sets of DDR2 between 150 and 200 bucks, DDR3 @ 50-100.
Why not get a lovely new MOBO AND the same amout of superior DDR3 for the same price?
 
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The Lone Deranger

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Apr 26, 2013
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Hey thanks for this suggestion, I have heeded this advice and bought a new motherboard with 8gb ddr3 for around the same price as I was looking at just for the ddr2 ram =-)
 
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