Budget gaming system 4GB or 8GB? and vga cooler?

ntrlsmrt

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Apr 26, 2010
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I have these questions
1. do I go to 8GB(buy one more kit)
2. do I need a cooler on the VGA card, read alot about that.
3. Should I disable virtual ram if I go to 8GB... Is it needed if you have enough ram?
4. Do you get any real benefit out of having a card for ready boost, and if you do what USB, or sdhc should you use?

The questions above I have not found a decisive answer on by reading the forums. That's why I'm here, also any additional input is appreciated.

This is my build. It was hyper linked in word, but lost when I pasted??
I chose everything basically from the guides here, or from answers to post that others made. Everything is from newegg, unless otherwise stated.
I am rebuilding my son's old computer, he really wanted to keep the case, so we worked around that.

I am leaning towards purchasing the 4 more gig of ram, I just wanted to make sure it would make a difference. Two games my son plays are the new COD(call of duty) and the new left for dead. I cannot think of other titles at the moment. But they all involve shooting and running. ;)

I have it built and running, with OS loaded, BIOS updated, just started to tweak windows.

1 x Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664AA800

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor

GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ500MXSP 500W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7

HP 24X Multiformat DVD Writer Black SATA Model 1260i

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit from Student discount download.

MSI ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB PCI-EXPRESS VIDEO CARD Was $129 at store, after $20 MIR at Fry's.

Zalman CNPS9700 Was clearance, so bought it at Fry's.

Windows 7 professional 64 bit, bought with student discount.

Hope that this was enough info, and not to much, always notice that you have to keep asking for more info.. Whatcha got? What ya use it for? Trying to cover the bases.

I just am adding that I have spent about $615 so far, and would be about $725 or so with 8GB RAM (4GB more).
I have bought things over the last month or so, trying to save where I could, but have a good computer for him. Thanks, Dan.
 
Solution
For shooting and running games, you wont see a performance increase with more DDR2 800 RAM.

You will see a performance increase with a 5850 GPU or a x3 or x4 CPU.

As long as you arent using a SSD, let windows assign "virtual memory" as it sees fit.

No you dont need a VGA cooler. All Gfx cards come with some sort of cooling. usually a beefy sink and a powerful fan with some sort of enclosure to move the air in the proper dynamic.

cmcghee358

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For shooting and running games, you wont see a performance increase with more DDR2 800 RAM.

You will see a performance increase with a 5850 GPU or a x3 or x4 CPU.

As long as you arent using a SSD, let windows assign "virtual memory" as it sees fit.

No you dont need a VGA cooler. All Gfx cards come with some sort of cooling. usually a beefy sink and a powerful fan with some sort of enclosure to move the air in the proper dynamic.
 
Solution

ntrlsmrt

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Apr 26, 2010
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Thank you. We were trying to stay as cheap as possible with good upgrade options. We were hoping to upgrade processor and ram later, since the board has lots of room for moving up in processors, and we can move to DDR3 when we get a phenom something cpu.

Thanks again for the help, that's a hundred dollars saved. This whole forum has been so helpful. I had no idea what quality components were until I started reading all the valuable info here. It's a real repository, and people like you make it happen!

Thanks, again.