aartie

Distinguished
Nov 21, 2008
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18,520
Please help me upgrade my XPS 410 .
I have MOTHERBOARD CT017 , E6600 @2.4 LGA775 Bus speed 1066 Mhz and 2GB Ram , 500 GB in Raid 0 configuration ,GForce 8600 GTS
Basically I’m looking for more speed and memory . I use lot of video-editing software
Question ?
If I got any quad CPU like Q9300 or Q6700 …is that going help me ? or I should get faster dual like E8500
Memory ….what kind of ??
Like Corsair Dual Channel TWINX 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory latencies of 5-5-5-18
Or
Kingston HyperX Dual Channel 4096MB PC8500 DDR2 1066MHz Memory latency timing of 7-7-7-20
Or DDR2 RAM is enough
Any info ,any help will be great
 

Chuck Norris

Distinguished
Jun 26, 2008
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18,510
Your processor really isn't that bad.. (I'm putzing around on a Pentium 4 until Christmas!) A quad-core processor like the Q6600 would help you with video editing software but not with many other software. (And the Q6600 costs about $180, so that's a fairly big investment.)

As for RAM, don't buy anything expensive. It's unnecessary. 2GB of cheap RAM is better than 1GB of expensive RAM.
http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=XPS%20410

I'd recommend just buying two 1GB sticks and installing that for a total of 4GB. If you feel you need more speed after that you can consider buying a new processor but it would be fairly expensive and you'd be better off having someone install it for you (which would cost you more money..) Buying and installing RAM is inexpensive and easy, so just do that.

If you are running 32-bit Vista then if you buy 4GB of RAM you may not be able to use it all. (You may only be able to use about 3.5GB) If you want to use 4GB of RAM or more you need to be running 64-bit XP or 64-bit Vista. If you are running 32-bit Vista then it's not going to be a big deal if you are stuck with only being able to use 3.5GB-- you'd have to buy 64-bit Vista (another $150 or so) and it wouldn't run any faster.