Should I increase my ram ????

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Mfusick

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Here is my current system:

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1532226

would it be worth it ?


I have been having issue with my PC for quite some time. It crashes, and upon restart it often "forgets" stuff and has missing stuff so I have to constantly use the restore feature... untill finally that stops working. Then I clean install again... and start all over.

To date I have never been able to solve it. But I recently upgraded to windows 7 and it asked me to perform a memory test on restart. After the test it rebooted and said I have a memory problem.

That is all. lol.

Now I have 4 sticks of crucial ballistix overclocking memory in my mobo.. and the memory is speed rated much higher than the stock mobo runs it.

My biggest question is should I simple purchase 4 totally new sticks ??? and upgrade from 4gig to 8 gig ???

Or should I just replace the bad stick ???

and MOST IMPORTANT- How do I know which stick is bad?????

Is there a test program I can use to test my memory ???

Help me solve and trouble shoot this problem.

I am fed up with this and have a new SSD drive coming (vertex2 120gig)

So I plan a clean install on that of windows 7 64bit, and fixing this memory problem now is what I need to do all at the same time so I can enjoy crash free computing.

Happy Holidays to everyone (especially those who help me fix this!!!)
 
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jaquith

jaquith

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Interesting, the HD 3870 is a Direct X 10 GPU. If you did upgrade you'll need a 64-bit OS and more than likely replace all of your RAM e.g. 4X2GB your MOBO supports 2GB modules - "4 x DIMM, Max. 8 GB, DDR2 1200*/1066/800/667 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory"

4GB is good for 64-bit OS and 8GB is good for Rendering Apps {e.g. Photoshop, Premier, CAD, etc} - so unless that's the case yes; otherwise no.
 
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Psychoteddy

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Most modern games don't use more than 2GB total along with the system processes. Unless you're planning on running 2 instances of CoD, streaming movies and browsing the web with twelve different instances of Firefox, you'll be fine.
 
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jaquith

jaquith

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Since my smallest and slowest rigs ALL are X58 with at least 6GB or 12GB 'I' don't have ANY issues. As I mentioned I've personally answered CoD Black Ops that kept on running out and the Black Ops App crashed.

Google { Black Ops +memory +crash -driver }
 
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jaquith

jaquith

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Most to the Driver issues are eliminated form my search; in Google a {negative sign "-"} eliminates pages with the word immediately following:

Google { Black Ops +memory +crash -driver }
Keyword = Black Ops
Required word = +memory
Required word = +crash
Omit Results = -driver

Does this mean ALL results are correct - of course no, there some that are indeed 'driver' issues, there are some conflicts -> BUT there are plenty with Memory issues. Most of the results are 4GB configurations.

Bottom-line, I 'really' don't care. There's less harm in having more memory than less.
 
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Hawkeye22

Hawkeye22

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It's very possible. When Battlefield 2 was first released it contained a memory leak. After playing for a while it would come close to the 2 gig per process memory limit of XP and crash.

I believe Bioshock also had this problem when first released. Luckily these are problems that can normally be fixed with a patch.

That said, 4 gig is perfectly fine for win7 x64 as long as you're happy with it. It does seem to run a lot smoother with 8 gigs though and you can definately have a lot more apps running simultaneously with more ram.
 
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sportsfanboy

sportsfanboy

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Not arguing that more ram is better, hell I would have 12gb if I had a crap load extra cash to sink into my computer. Never said Jaquith is wrong, however in my experience, I have never been ram limited, and the most I have ever run is 4gb.

Crysis, COD modern warefare, left 4 dead 2, Dragon age, and a ton more have run with out issue on 4gb. Hell I ran Crysis on 2gb before I upgraded a year or so ago.
 
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jaquith

jaquith

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...and I never said it was FREE; it is cheap. You need to think ahead, and everyone is different.

Since X58 and Tri Channel, I've built only a few AM3 rigs and in every case I recommend 2X4GB vs 2X2GB {in this forum I 'get' the budgets so unless rendering 2X2GB}, and X58 I typically recommend 3X2GB ... many 3X4GB. This has more to do with upgrade paths. While a 4X2GB is okay a 2X4GB is better, and using 2X2GB + 2X4GB {Ditto with any Size disparity permutation} often can cause problems.

Further, IF Rendering is ever a thought or possibility then I strongly recommend putting the maximum slot capacity; all rigs I build are 4GB/DIMM. Yes, I know 'some' server and workstations support 8GB sticks.
20-161-379-TS
 
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jaquith

jaquith

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The discussion is interesting... ;) No one's wrong - just points of view.

I'm certain we all would agree "for most 64-bit users" that Dual Channel 2X2GB and Tri Channel 3X2GB minimums. Anything, more is 'nice' if needed. Rendering 64-bit use 4GB sticks.

32-bit 2GB recommended and 4GB maximum {~3.5GB usable}; I recommend 2X2GB if 64-bit will be a possibility - leaving +4GB option open.
 
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M

Mfusick

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I have been having issue with my PC for quite some time. It crashes, and upon restart it often "forgets" stuff and has missing stuff so I have to constantly use the restore feature... untill finally that stops working. Then I clean install again... and start all over.

To date I have never been able to solve it. But I recently upgraded to windows 7 and it asked me to perform a memory test on restart. After the test it rebooted and said I have a memory problem.

That is all. lol.

Now I have 4 sticks of crucial ballistix overclocking memory in my mobo.. and the memory is speed rated much higher than the stock mobo runs it.

My biggest question is should I simple purchase 4 totally new sticks ??? and upgrade from 4gig to 8 gig ???

Or should I just replace the bad stick ???

and MOST IMPORTANT- How do I know which stick is bad?????

Is there a test program I can use to test my memory ???

Help me solve and trouble shoot this problem.

I am fed up with this and have a new SSD drive coming (vertex2 120gig)

So I plan a clean install on that of windows 7 64bit, and fixing this memory problem now is what I need to do all at the same time so I can enjoy crash free computing.

Happy Holidays to everyone (especially those who help me fix this!!!)
 
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sportsfanboy

sportsfanboy

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The only way to find the bad stick is to run one at a time and run memtest on it for a half hour or so. You can download and run memstest as a boot disk, it's quicker and easier than having to boot to windows every time you change something.

I would wait on an OS install until you get your ram figured out, bad ram or unstable ram can corrupt data, so you might have to reinstall all over again in the near future.

I still think 4gb is plenty for gaming, if COD Black ops doesn't run well on 4gb, the problem is with that particular game not the computer with 4 gb.
 
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sportsfanboy

sportsfanboy

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Here's a link to it, download this one-------> Memtest86+ V4.00 (22/09/2009)

http://www.memtest.org/

What you need to do is unpack the zip file, then burn the contents as an image. At that point restart and boot into bios and change your boot order to cd first. Save and exit and memtest will automatically start.

I think it's one of the best ways to test memory,certainly the best way to start when trying to find out if you have a bad stick. I usually run Prime95 on Blend for a couple hours if memtest comes out with no errors. Keep in mind, if you do get errors, it may be a matter of motherboard setting and not bad ram. Let us know how it goes, GL.
 
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