Need a suggestion

[Kodiak1779]

Ok I'm new to this forum, so I'm sorry if this question has already been asked. I do appreciate any help with this though.

Well for starters I bought a new computer about a month ago. It was a huge step up from what I was useing. It has a Q8200 quad strapped to a foxconn G31mx 2.0 motherboard with 4 gigs of ram and a 8400gs evga gpu. I'm loving this machine so far.

I've ran a cpuid on it and can't seem to find the manufacture of the sticks of ram. I'm not a fan of generic ram being that I don't find it to be as reliable as patriot or crucial. The ram is running at 1.8v. I'd like to use patriot or a gameing grade of ram, which I've found for a decent price but don't want to buy it if my machine can't use it. My question is the ram that I found requires 1.9v - 2.0v. Will my mobo auto detect and adjust for it? If not I'm very new to any OCing and have no clue how to change the settings in the bios. Any help there would be wounderful.

Just had another question pop in my head. (sorry trying to do 100 things at once) I'd love to upgrade the gpu card in it but I'm not sure if my psu can handle it. The psu is a 480w. I would like to put a 250 gts gpu in it. So I was thinking of useing a Sparkle brand. Oh yes my OS is vista x64.

Anyhelp would be much apprieciated. Thank you all for your time.

 

[GhislainG]

Replacing the RAM will not improve performance by much (0-1%). If the new RAM requires 1.9-2.0V, you'll have to set the voltage and timings manually. Use CPU-Z to see who manufactured your RAM, it's current timings and available SPD values. If you're a gamer, a faster GPU would be a better investment.

 

[Kodiak1779]

I ran the cpuz and it still doesn't list a manufacter for the ram. That's ok though, because if putting a better grade in it will not noticably make it better then I'm not going to worry to much about it till one of the sticks dies. The ram I currently have is running at 400 mhz fsb 5:6 6-6-6-18 2t. Yes I do a bit of gameing and would like to increase the graphics settings with better frame rates. In your opinion is the Sparkle brand of GPU decent enough? Seems to be the only one with a dsub onboard.

Thank you for your help in this matter.

 

[GhislainG]

Your RAM is not very fast, but again buying a faster GPU is a better investment. I'll let owners of a Sparkle GPU answer your question. You could also google for reviews of the model you're interested in.

 

[Kodiak1779]

Again thank you very much for your help. The RAM is running in dual channel so I'm guessing that it's actually 800 mhz. But I do thank you for the help.

 

[Shadow703793]

The psu is a 480w.

The amount of watts have little to do with if your PSU can support a faster card. If your PSU has the enough amps on the +12 rail you can easily power a good card. For example, a 400W Corsair PSU can power a 9800GT easily. The quality of the PSU and the amount of Amps are really what you need to worry about.

Remember:
W=A*V
W= Watts
A= Amps
V= Voltage (+12,5,3.3 for PSU)

 

[fullmetall]

Which type of PSU do you have Wattage etc.. Need to check to make sure that the railing will power a gts 250.

 

[GhislainG]

PSU is the acronym for Power Supply Unit.

 

[fullmetall]

Noo thats not my question lol, I meant What is the brand name of the PSU/wattage.

 

[Shadow703793]

^+1. Good brands:

Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, Antec, OCZ, SeaSonic (OEM for Corsair, PC Power).

 

[fullmetall]

Yes they are but, what im trying to figure out is, what is the Brand PSU he has right now, he's wanting to put a gts 250 in his new system, I need to know what the PSU is to find out if its okay to run a single gts 250.

 

[GhislainG]

Noo thats not my question lol, I meant What is the brand name of the PSU/wattage.

I replied to someone in a different thread who was asking what PSU meant. I can't explain why my answer is here where it obviously doesn't make sense.

 

[fullmetall]

LOL, no problem. Kind of confused me.

 

[Shadow703793]

Yes they are but, what im trying to figure out is, what is the Brand PSU he has right now, he's wanting to put a gts 250 in his new system, I need to know what the PSU is to find out if its okay to run a single gts 250.

Yes, what I meant was that if OP has the brands listed, chances are he's good to go.

 

[Kodiak1779]

the psu on the sticker says cg black steel as a name brand.

3.3v=28amp
5v=34amp
+12v=18amp
-12v=.8amp
+5vsb=2amp

I hope this helps out in the the discussion. I found a gigabyte gts 250 for a decent price with 1gb on on and 256 bit. Two reasons I'd like this card is that fact that it has on-board d-sub, and it comes with a molex to 6 pin adapter. It only requires the use of two 4pin molex which is all I have open.

Again ty very much in everyones aid.

 

[fullmetall]

Your psu will not power it. If you plan to get a GTS 250, Plan to get a new 500-600w is max, 600w could be just at the tip of an overkill on a single rail, if its multiple railing, you can go up to 650-700w.

 

[Kodiak1779]

Thank you very much for your info. Wasn't planning up upgrading the PSU yet but looks like I'll have to. Thanks for takeing the time to help me resolve this matter.

 

[fullmetall]

No problem,

You have any idea's on this?

 

[Kodiak1779]

Sorry for taking time to reply again, I've been away on buisness. I'm not really sure which PSU would be good for this. I'm looking for something really affordable yet very powerful. Enough power that I wont have to worry if I decide to upgrade (someday) further as in better mobo and RAM as well as GPU. Now I'm not looking to OC at all as I'm not sure how to do this, and I don't want to fry anything. I'd like to try it but would preffer to have a better understanding of it first.

Thank you for your time.