IS 1600Mhz 8GB DDR3 "MUCH MUCH" better than 400Mhz DDR2 8GB - BUT ..

[Hever]

IS 1600Mhz 8GB DDR3 ram - much much better than a 400Mhz DDR2 8gb ram ?

I want to get more memory. I have a AMD X4 630 right now with 3GB DDR2 @400MHZ.

I could buy the ddr3 but for that i will have to leave this system at all and just buy a new whole system - around minimum $400+ for the new rig.


So whats the choice -

a) A complete system - COST - $400+ to $500

or

b) Buy 4GB more DDR2 ram running at 400Mhz - (so that total ram becomes 7GB ddr2 @ 400Mhz in my current pc) - COST will come to be - $60+



Right now my current system is -

Cpu - amd x4 630 2.8Ghz ( 4 core )
Mobo - biostar ta785ge 128m
Ram - 3gb ddr2 400mhz
Os - windows 7 home premium 64-bit.


So is 8GB DDR3 @1600Mhz ram much much better than a DDR2 8gb @400Mhz ?

 

[itzdanielp]

Is an i7 better than a 486?

Yes, it is much better. It has much higher bandwidth, uses less energy and creates less heat.

Is it worth it to upgrade your whole system? That is a choice you and your bank account need to make...

However if you do want to upgrade you only have to replace the MB and RAM, not nearly 400 - 500.

Just get any AM3 or AM3+ MB that supports DDR3 RAM, and then a DDR3 RAM kit (which are cheaper than DDR2 RAM)

 

[akxpckwb]

The new RAM will be faster than your current one however you will notice a bigger difference with a new system

 

[Hever]

It is mainly surfing and general usage - not gaming much. Although have to say - i keep open some like 8-12 softwares open most of the time - like pim software, 2 browser windows with 25+ tabs each, some or more explorer window folders, and likewise.


DO also tell me what will i gain from buying a new pc at 1600MHz DDR3 vs 400Mhz ddr2 right now - keeping this thing in mind -

That also consider the cost - $60 vs $450+ -

And can u tell me a bit accurately - what difference i will notice in these 2 , stated above ?

for eg. in terms of using a browser like firefox or chrome - for say surfing - some 10 - 20 sites opened ? I know there will be difference - but just tell me what kind of feel really - when doing this particular task ?

Will it be like 1600Mhz DDR3 will make firefox / chrome feel 1 second faster in most aspects, viz, tabs open 'SOME' faster, sites load 'SOME' faster ?

I know that depends on isp speed but what will this DDR3 ram do WHAT EFFECT REALLY in things like browsing multiple tabs / sites ?

 

[itzdanielp]

Your system will be faster overall. Tabs will change quicker, new windows will open quicker. You will notice less lag than with your 400MHz.

As I said before you do NOT need to buy a whole computer just to get DDR3 Memory...

Just a Motherboard and Ram.

This motherboard will let you use all of your current parts, and also put in DDR3 memory.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157292

 

[Guest]

as stated you do not need to upgrade the whole system. as much as the previous suggested motherboard is good; i'd like to suggest this one:
ASRock 990FX Extreme4 $144.99
or a cheaper:
Biostar TA990FXE $119.98

i am suggesting the 990FX chipset so you will be able to upgrade to a piledriver cpu when those come out. but one second on that. what you can do is then get 1866 RAM even though you present cpu support up to 1333. here is a thread of someone doing that [Solved] Will athlon II 630 CPU x4 work with ddr3 1866
now you got the option later of upgrading to an entry level piledriver cpu and being able to increase the RAM speed for most likely under $250 total.

that will have you set at doing any amount of mulitasking for quite sometime. really you need to get off that old platform. buying more ddr2 ram is just putting a band aide on a large gash.

 

[Hever]

I am thinking of another thing - Will readyboost be a good alternate to ddr2 running at 400mhz ? cos this ddr2 4gb more that i would buy onto this existing system only wud be not very fast compared to the pen drive.

Allocating 4 gb of pen drive as readyboost.

No ?

+

And when i was using xp-32-bit - i could use my system without major slowness till upto 85-90% ram utilized. this slow responsiveness of system i think has started with windows 7 only. Also at fresh restart, my windows 7 uses 900mb ram used up while it was only like 300-400 mb in xp 32-bit. I have 3 GB ddr2 total.

Is there a very fine built or vlited windows 7 - or an easy way to do the vliting or reducing - i dont want to get the reduction / vliting of windows 7 a bit quick way - dont want to spend too much time in vliting it. Any quick guides for this tiny windows 7 ?

 

[itzdanielp]

Readyboost is pretty much worthless, you will not notice any performance increase.

Just a reminder using a 32bit OS (XP or 7) you can only use about 3.5GB, so even if you upgrade your RAM you won't be able to use more than that unless you upgrade to the 64bit version.

Windows 7 in general is always going to use more RAM than XP, all new software is always going to use more resources than previous versions...

One thing you can do to lower the amount of resources used in Win 7 is to turn off the Windows Aero Theme.

Right Click Desktop > Personalize. Scroll down and choose Either "Windows 7 Basic" or "Windows Classic" theme. Both of these will use less RAM.

 

[jaquith]

First the AMD Athlon II X4 630 (ADX630WFK42GI) won't support DDR3-1600 without a FSB OC and off the top of my head DDR3-1333 is pushing it. Clearly you'd need a new MOBO e.g. ASRock 760GM-GS3 for DDR3 support and one which supports your CPU.

DDR2-400 vs DDR3-1600 for surfing the Web will do nothing noticeable. Complex sites and media are CPU/GPU bound.

If you are running XP then 3GB is plenty and if running Widows 7 unless there's no 'FREE' memory listed (see below) then you don't need more memory. Also >4GB of RAM requires a 64-bit OS e.g. Vista/7. See Memory limits - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx

If you want or need more & faster then I'd recommend starting from scratch and building/buying a new system. Obviously my recommendation is building.