New card, low mark?

what kind of ram do you have?if it is pc133 sdram then that will be what is holding you up.

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

ok, what sort of ram should i get and how much owuld that cost me? also what is that FSB? i seem to be the only one with it on 0mhz, is that a part of the memory or something? sorry for my dumbness

i wouldn't worry about the fsb.whatever is saying 0 is obviously wrong-ignore it.
what mobo do you have?

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

i dont know what u mean by mobo, could u explain please?
and would re-installing windows help?

sorry.what motherboard do you have?that way i can work out what type of memory you have and what you can potentially get.at this stage i don't think re-installing windows would help.

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

im very sorry but how do i find out what motherboard i have? Never really looked at what motherboard i had before.

go to system info on 3dmark.that's the easiest way.

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

Umm before you do any of that make sure you don't have any programs residing in memory that shouldn't be there. Any printer/scanner/digital camera utility's that obviously don't need to be running should be removed, game profilers, icq and msn etc... All you should see in your system trey is the volume icon   Run msnconfig from start->run and make sure there's nothing you don't need checked off in the startup tab.

See how you don't even know what motherboard you have I'd suggest trying this step first, a lot of people don't realize the crap programs these days try to launch at startup is not only useless, but hogs your precious resources (I'm looking at your real player.. lol)

Just as a reference, I've got a Radeon8500LE (stock 230/230) which I've upgraded to a Radeon9100 (bios flash, ati's new way of saying 8500) at 275/275 and I'm getting 8100 3DMarks on my XP1800+, SiS735 Chipset with 256mb 266mhz DDR... You should definatly be getting more than I am... But as long as your games run great why worry?

Sorry dude, you have an eMachines computer, probably with single data rate SDRAM (PC133), an old Williamette processor, and too little power to upgrade. You'll need to replace the whole system if you want performance from that card.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

Good advice Crash. There's nothing wrong with e-machines for casual users but they're not worth (time/money) upgrading.

The Men Behind the GUNS!

<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=32..." target="_new"><b>MY SYSTEM</b></A>

ok so maybe my pc is crap for upgrading but i must be able to get some better ram.

i suppose with a SDR (PC133) system, that's how high the benchmarks will go. im limiting my system with old ram when my processor needs four times the bandwidth (400MHz v. memory @ 100MHz) to be fully performing.
would it be possible to upgrade to this, where from and how much?

if you are in US, head over to newegg.com and look at the ddr motherboards for p4 and the ddr ram.shouldn't set you back much

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

would this fit my pc? and how much owuld it help?

it would help LOTS and it shouldnt be too expensive either it may fit inside your case...what kind of case is it? there is a motherboard that will fit it I gurrantee it. Baby AT? crash said it was an e mahine so I am guessing small.

  Wow, if he's here who's running hell?  

well according to this Belarc Advisor program, i have

Memory Modules c -

256 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot 'J6J1' has 256 MB
Slot 'J6J2' is Empty
Slot 'J7J1' is Empty

yes you have room for MORE ram the problem is you need FASTER ram of a different type, so a different motherboard.

  Wow, if he's here who's running hell?  

Well, the first thing you would need is a Micro ATX board that support DDR. Then you would need DDR memory. That could give you anywhere from 15% to 30% performance improvements. But you're still stuck with a small power supply and no reasonable upgrades. And you'd need to make certain your Williamette is Socket 478 instead of Socket 423.

Now, say you had a Socket 423 CPU...I don't know of any DDR boards for that, so you'd want to buy a new CPU. Not a bad idea since the P4 1.8 Northwood outperforms the 1.9 Williamette by a significant amount, and is overclockable also.

But why limit yourself to micro ATX and a puny power supply? You could get a case and power supply for a reasonable price.

You already have a new video card. If you add the drives and a modem, you have just built a complete system. So like I was saying, the best bet is to replace the thing and resell it.

First things first, check to see if your CPU is Socket 478. If not, you can get a Socket 423 Micro ATX board with the i850 chipset and put some PC800 RDRAM on it. That would actually perform a bit better than DDR SDRAM, but limit your reuse of parts on future machines.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

how do i check to see if my Williamette is Socket 478? I was speaking to one guy who reckons my main board will support DDR. Another thing is im short on cash being a student and all so buying a new CPU and more memory is out of the question unless i can find it anywhere dirt cheap.

how do i check to see if my Williamette is Socket 478? I was speaking to one guy who reckons my main board will support DDR. Another thing is im short on cash being a student and all so buying a new CPU and more memory is out of the question unless i can find it anywhere dirt cheap.

You're going to have to open the thing sooner or later anyway, you might as well LOOK. I'll show you two examples of similar boards with the two different sockets:
1.) <A HREF="http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/th7raid/images/th7r..." target="_new">The Abit TH7-RAID</A>
2.) <A HREF="http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/th7iiraid/images/th..." target="_new">The Abit TH7-II RAID</A>

Now you won't see the socket right away because the CPU cooler and bracket will be in the way. But anyway, I doubt your board has DDR right now, and doubt even more that it would have both types of memory slots. That's right, DDR SDRAM fits a different slot than regular SDRAM.

If you find you're stuck with Socket 423, all is not lost. Even though I can't think of any Socket 423 DDR boards, there were plenty of Socket 423 RDRAM boards in the Micro ATX form factor. And RDRAM outperforms DDR SDRAM.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

I have some problem about my home PC. It has configuration of P4 1.7 Ghz, Intel Original 845 PT card, 40 GB hard disk drive, 256 MB DDR [ 266 Mhz ] ram, OS is Win 98 SE Direct X 8.1. I recently tried to upgrade my Graphics card from RIVA TNT2 M64 [ Perks make ] to Geforce 2 MX 400 [ Lancer make ]. My problem is that the new card is not giving full performance as given in your magzine. I checked with 3D marks SE demo version. It gets only 950 marks at 1024 x 768 , 32 bit colors. Where as my old TNT2 card gets 850 marks at 1024 x 768, 32 bit colors. Geforce 2 MX 400 should get 2700 3D marks. Please tell me what is the problem. I checked it on Athlon 1600+ PC, MSI VIA Kt 400, 256 MB DDR 266 Mhz, 40 GH 7200 RPM Hard Disk but the marks remains the same.