Ok first I want to say I have several questions and could not find specific answers to them so thought I would start my own thread, I have an Alienware aurora r3, I would give you more specs but I dont know where to find them as Im not very smart when it comes to computers so any and all help will be great, I did "upgrade" my ram a few months ago and thats where im going to start my questions, I bought 2 corsair vengeance ddr3 8 gb 1866mhz ram sticks, wich replaced 4 sticks 2 1bg sticks and 2 2gb sticks, I do not remember the order they where in, First question is is there a proper way to actually install the sticks to get them to run the best, I have 4 slots, order left to right from cpu is white, black,white,black, I have them in both black slots, However I never really noticed a difference after i installed them and I feel like i should have going from 6gb to 16 gb of ram. Now on the other hand I just recently downloaded the manual for my pc and found that the memory specs say capacities are 1gb 2gb and 4gb, minimum capacitie is 3gb and max is 16gb, So im wondering if I messed up and should have got 4 4gb cards and not 2 8 gb cards. I plan to upgrade this pc to get it back to being able to play any game at max settings with good fps, However I dont know what im doing and never have thats why i bought the alienware in the first place so any help is greatly appreciated, and please note if you need any specs to help answer my question you will have to help me locate them thanks.
Upgrading current pc and have no knowledge need help
- Thread starter sickens
- Start date
Solution
FD2Raptor
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Well, if you're seeing all the 16GB of RAM available in Task Manager (press Alt-Ctrl-Del once) or Start>Control Panel>System then there isn't really any issue with what you did.
When the Sandy Bridge CPU+Chipset in this computer was released 8GB of RAM was a luxury; I mean for example CoD MWF3 released in 2011 and Borderlands 2 released in 2012 both would run on system with just 2GB RAM; so that's what's up with the specs capacities of 1, 2 or 4GB. Having 8GB of RAM back then would be like having 32GB RAM now (twice the general recommended RAM for most game titles of that year/period).
Anyway, the manual of your Aurora R3 stated that the RAM should be in slots:
Or as per its illustration, the 2nd and 4th slot (the black slots, as you described) from the CPU or all 4 slots. While I can't say anything about its stated 16GB max since the memory controller is actually on the CPU and these LGA1155 CPUs per Intel specs all support up to 32GB, so while the OEM motherboard may have such limitation, I don't think you're going to have issue running two 8GB DIMMs with these CPUs instead of four 4GB DIMMs.
Well, because Windows don't really eat up all of your 6GB RAM so unless you were doing a lot of multitasking, unlike the saying of old, having lots of excess RAM doesn't really give you any extra performance.
If you were looking for overall system responsiveness, an SSD would have been the better upgrade, but for your "upgrade to play game at max settings", you'd want to look into a GPU upgrade rather than a RAM upgrade (although 6GB would be rather limited for modern titles); depends on the GPU tier that you are looking to upgrade to, a PSU replacement may be warranted; and since an Sandy Bridge i3 could be one of the options for the Aurora r3, depends on the specific model, your CPU may also be in need of an upgrade to smoothly handle modern titles.
You can see the CPU model and the amount of installed memory that Windows can see by going into Start>Control Panel>System (another thing to take note here is that your Windows is the 64bit version and not 32bit since 32bit version can only address ~3.5-4GB of memory).
When the Sandy Bridge CPU+Chipset in this computer was released 8GB of RAM was a luxury; I mean for example CoD MWF3 released in 2011 and Borderlands 2 released in 2012 both would run on system with just 2GB RAM; so that's what's up with the specs capacities of 1, 2 or 4GB. Having 8GB of RAM back then would be like having 32GB RAM now (twice the general recommended RAM for most game titles of that year/period).
Anyway, the manual of your Aurora R3 stated that the RAM should be in slots:
Or as per its illustration, the 2nd and 4th slot (the black slots, as you described) from the CPU or all 4 slots. While I can't say anything about its stated 16GB max since the memory controller is actually on the CPU and these LGA1155 CPUs per Intel specs all support up to 32GB, so while the OEM motherboard may have such limitation, I don't think you're going to have issue running two 8GB DIMMs with these CPUs instead of four 4GB DIMMs.
Well, because Windows don't really eat up all of your 6GB RAM so unless you were doing a lot of multitasking, unlike the saying of old, having lots of excess RAM doesn't really give you any extra performance.
If you were looking for overall system responsiveness, an SSD would have been the better upgrade, but for your "upgrade to play game at max settings", you'd want to look into a GPU upgrade rather than a RAM upgrade (although 6GB would be rather limited for modern titles); depends on the GPU tier that you are looking to upgrade to, a PSU replacement may be warranted; and since an Sandy Bridge i3 could be one of the options for the Aurora r3, depends on the specific model, your CPU may also be in need of an upgrade to smoothly handle modern titles.
You can see the CPU model and the amount of installed memory that Windows can see by going into Start>Control Panel>System (another thing to take note here is that your Windows is the 64bit version and not 32bit since 32bit version can only address ~3.5-4GB of memory).
Thanks for the response, Actually the Gpu is the next item I am going to replace, unless replacing it with what I think I want will then make me have to replace cpu, and motherboard and all that jazz, and if thats the case I may as well leave this alone and just build a new computer entirely, I currently have two nvidia geforce gts 450 running sli, However on say battlefield 1 Its almost unplayable on medium settings and only slightly tolerable on low settings, I am considering getting the nvidia 1060 and then another in a few months and again running sli, again i dont know if the rest of the computer can handle it and I dont know how to find out, I am running 64 bit. and this is basically the only thing i can find as far as a build sheet for my pc
Processor(s)
•Processor
◦CPU_Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz
◦CPU_Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
◦CPU_Caption: Intel64 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
◦CPU_Version:
◦CPU_ProcessorId: BFEBFBFF000206A7
◦CPU_CurrentClockSpeed: 1598MHz
◦CPU_AddressWidth: 64Bits
◦CPU_DataWidth: 64Bits
◦CPU_SocketDesignation: CPU 1
•Verified Hardware Device against Order: VARIABLEXYZ
•Verify Correct Processor Frequency
System Memory
BIOS Information
•BIOS_Manufacturer: Alienware
•BIOS_Name: BIOS Date: 05/25/11 09:41:30 Ver: 04.06.04
•BIOS_Version1: A06
•BIOS_Version2: ALWARE - 1072009
Motherboard Information
•MB_Manufacturer: Alienware
•MB_Product: 046MHW
•MB_SerialNumber: ..CN697021740361.
•MB_Version: A00
Video Adapter
•Video_Caption: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
•Video_AdapterRAM: 1536MB
•Video_DriverVersion: 8.17.12.7057
Hard Drive(s)
•WDC WD10EALX-759BA1
◦Disk_Model: WDC WD10EALX-759BA1
◦Disk_Size: 1000 GB
◦Disk_Partitions: 3
◦Disk_TotalHeads: 255
◦Disk_TotalCylinders: 121601
◦Disk_TotalTracks: 31008255
◦Disk_TracksPerCylinder: 255
Optical Drives / Other Storage
•PLDS DVDRWBD DH-12E3S
OperatingSystem: MS Windows 7 Home Premium Edition
DirectXVersion: DirectX 11
IRQ Configuration
• 0 System timer
• 1 -empty-
• 2 -empty-
• 3 -empty-
• 4 -empty-
• 5 Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller - 1C22
• 6 -empty-
• 7 -empty-
• 8 System CMOS/real time clock
• 9 -empty-
• 10 -empty-
• 11 -empty-
• 12 -empty-
• 13 Numeric data processor
• 14 -empty-
• 15 -empty-
• 16 NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
• 16 Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 1C2D
• 17 NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
• 18 VIA 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller
• 19 Intel(R) Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA AHCI Controller
• 19 JMicron JMB36X Controller
• 22 High Definition Audio Controller
• 23 Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 1C26
•190 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System
Miscellaneous
Final Checks
Installed Devices Drivers
•Generic volume shadow copy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•Realtek High Definition Audio, 2-15-2011, 6.0.1.6309
•Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•NVIDIA High Definition Audio, 3-3-2011, 1.2.22.1
•Generic volume shadow copy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•Microsoft Streaming Tee/Sink-to-Sink Converter, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450, 4-3-2011, 8.17.12.7057
•Intel(R) Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA AHCI Controller, 9-13-2010, 10.0.0.1046
•USB Input Device, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7601.17514
•Generic volume shadow copy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•NVIDIA High Definition Audio, 3-3-2011, 1.2.22.1
•NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450, 4-3-2011, 8.17.12.7057
•HID-compliant device, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7601.17514
•Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•Microsoft Streaming Tee/Sink-to-Sink Converter, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•Generic volume shadow copy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•PLDS DVDRWBD DH-12E3S, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7601.17514
•Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller, 3-22-2010, 7.18.322.2010
•Generic volume shadow copy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•NVIDIA High Definition Audio, 3-3-2011, 1.2.22.1
•Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•Generic volume shadow copy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•VIA 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7601.17514
•WDC WD10EALX-759BA1, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•NVIDIA High Definition Audio, 3-3-2011, 1.2.22.1
•Generic volume shadow copy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•JMicron JMB36X Controller, 8-10-2010, 1.17.58.2
•Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•Generic volume shadow copy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•NVIDIA High Definition Audio, 3-3-2011, 1.2.22.1
•NVIDIA High Definition Audio, 3-3-2011, 1.2.22.1
•Microsoft Streaming Service Proxy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•NVIDIA High Definition Audio, 3-3-2011, 1.2.22.1
•Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
•NVIDIA High Definition Audio, 3-3-2011, 1.2.22.1
Burn-In/Benchmarks
FD2Raptor
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Okay you do have an i7 2600, so you still have a fairly capable CPU; while it is a bit lacking compare to more modern CPU in single threaded performance due to its lower clock, being a Hyper-threaded i7 still allow it to provide pretty good performance for multi-threaded optimized games (for these titles you can pair the CPU with up to GTX 1080 tier and it'd still do fine).
So, I'd say a GTX 1060 upgrade will give you that 1080p@60hz max settings; but, nVidia limited SLI support for this generation of GPU to the GTX 1070 or higher so you can't do a GTX 1060 SLI. Plus, the way GPU are designed nowadays mean they can go from idling @ ~10-30W to fully powered up @ avg ~120W (1060) to 330W (1080Ti), and PSU of old design aren't really equipped to deal with this rapidly changing power load, so personally, if you're going for higher power draw GPU/GPU config, then replacing the PSU would be my recommendation.
Anyway, just take proper measurement of the amount of space you actually have for the graphic card and buy a GTX1060 that will fit into that space and you're golden (you'll want to remove both GTS 450 since they can't do anything for the 1060 other than maybe providing extra ports for using more monitors in Windows).
So basically I need to change more than just my gpu to make it run like a nowday machine right? Because again if I have to gut this one to get it up to par then Ill just build a new one and let my kids have this one or something.... Or not..... Any way if i do build one what could 1200-1500 get me? usd...
FD2Raptor
Admirable
- Mar 5, 2014
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No. Unless you're looking at gaming at high refresh rate (the 144hz or higher), otherwise your i7 should serve you just fine, especially for pairing with a GTX1060; for that GPU, even a 2c/4t @ 3.5Ghz part like the Pentium G4560 would deliver similar fps to the top tier CPU.
If you're wondering what 1200-1500 USD can get you:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel - Core i5-8600K 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor ($279.89 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen 5 RevB (SCMG-5100) ($47.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI - Z370 SLI PLUS ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($141.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($146.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB PC SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s 2.5"/7mm Solid State ($154.68 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.78 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB AMP Edition Video Card ($468.99 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair - SPEC-ALPHA (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - TXM Gold 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1409.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-13 19:40 EST-0500
The Gskill DDR4 kit and the Corsair case is on sale for ~7 hours more.
So, in simple term, it'd get you a 1080p@144hz / 1440p@60hz gaming system.
If you're wondering what 1200-1500 USD can get you:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel - Core i5-8600K 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor ($279.89 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen 5 RevB (SCMG-5100) ($47.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI - Z370 SLI PLUS ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($141.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($146.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB PC SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s 2.5"/7mm Solid State ($154.68 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.78 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB AMP Edition Video Card ($468.99 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair - SPEC-ALPHA (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - TXM Gold 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1409.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-13 19:40 EST-0500
The Gskill DDR4 kit and the Corsair case is on sale for ~7 hours more.
So, in simple term, it'd get you a 1080p@144hz / 1440p@60hz gaming system.
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