RAM upgrade worth it for me?

[quitetheguymi]

Hey all,

It's been a while since I've built/upgraded my computer so I'm a little outdated now. I know my rig is kinda old, but I'm not in a situation to really build a whole new one now. I'd like to upgrade if possible. Here's what I've got

mobo: ASUS P5Q SE Plus
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 @ 2.67GHz
RAM: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
Graphics: ASUS Radeon HD 6770 DirectX 11 EAH6770/DI/1GD5 1GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
PSU: CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready

Running Win7 Ult. I play games like LoL, Starcraft, some Steam games; nothing too crazy really. I'm not a hardcore gamer, just casual. I figure either adding more RAM or changing it out completely for like 8gb would give me a reasonable boost in performance. (I'm utilizing most of it now) Is that right? If so, can someone point me in the right direction for how I would find the appropriate RAM? (The auto finders on Crucial/Newegg only allow me a max of 4gb (2x2gb) which I don't quite understand why that is the case.)

Finally, is most of this equipment pretty outdated? Is it worth salvaging any of this for a future build? (How is the PSU? Video Card?)

Thanks for your help!

 

[Phyrrus]

I'm not entitled of giving any advice, since I'm just a user waiting for an answer just like you, but I can share my experience, since we are in the same boat. What i would do if I were you: I'd try finding 2 more memory modules of the same model, since you have two free slots. May buy it cheap at second hand. That may help with some applications , but i think it wont be very noticeable. I use 4gb of ram and is enough for casual gaming. Either way, if you want more serious gaming, the processor is the first bottleneck I humbly think. Story: today I made a test with a heavily modded Skyrim. The game itself cant use more than 4gb of ram, and most of the older, 32bit games dont. But even with 120 script-heavy mods installed, 50 NPC-s runing around, I could only get it to use 2,5 Gb of 800 Mhz ram . Meanwhile, the processor, wich is also an old one, was running at 99% all the time. I dunno much about intel, couse I'm an AMD whore, but I think your core 2 duo is similar to my 2 core AMD Athlon II X2 260, 3.2 Mhz. I think people who are buying 32-64 Gb of ram are just sinking money, but that is just a personal opinion, dont take it seriously. Furthermore, you could easily find an older, but good Asus Radeon HD7700 videocard with 2gb of ram or something similar, also refubrished, to have a little bit more graphic memory, that will also help in gaming, but your card is pretty good for what you do. I dunno about prices where you live, but where I live, I could buy all this for around 150 dollars or less. About the processor, I cant say, couse as I said before, i dont know them, I always had AMD platforms.

 

[Tradesman1]

I'd look for a 2x4GB set, something like the Mushkins

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226359

 

[quitetheguymi]

Thanks for your input! I appreciate it. I'll consider it along with other options that hopefully will come by!

 

[Tradesman1]

No worries

 

[quitetheguymi]

Btw, can I add those two 4gb sticks to my current setup? Or should I just swap out my current 4gb for those 8gb?

 

[quitetheguymi]

And wow, that is a bit more expensive than I expected. Any chance you can recommend something similar that's less expensive?

 

[quitetheguymi]

I'm not entitled of giving any advice, since I'm just a user waiting for an answer just like you, but I can share my experience, since we are in the same boat. What i would do if I were you: I'd try finding 2 more memory modules of the same model, since you have two free slots. May buy it cheap at second hand. That may help with some applications , but i think it wont be very noticeable. I use 4gb of ram and is enough for casual gaming. Either way, if you want more serious gaming, the processor is the first bottleneck I humbly think. Story: today I made a test with a heavily modded Skyrim. The game itself cant use more than 4gb of ram, and most of the older, 32bit games dont. But even with 120 script-heavy mods installed, 50 NPC-s runing around, I could only get it to use 2,5 Gb of 800 Mhz ram . Meanwhile, the processor, wich is also an old one, was running at 99% all the time. I dunno much about intel, couse I'm an AMD whore, but I think your core 2 duo is similar to my 2 core AMD Athlon II X2 260, 3.2 Mhz. I think people who are buying 32-64 Gb of ram are just sinking money, but that is just a personal opinion, dont take it seriously. Furthermore, you could easily find an older, but good Asus Radeon HD7700 videocard with 2gb of ram or something similar, also refubrished, to have a little bit more graphic memory, that will also help in gaming, but your card is pretty good for what you do. I dunno about prices where you live, but where I live, I could buy all this for around 150 dollars or less. About the processor, I cant say, couse as I said before, i dont know them, I always had AMD platforms.

Thanks for sharing your experience! Yeah, I'm just trying to get a little extra mileage out of this machine before building a newer rig. (Likely new mobo and cpu at the very least)

 

[Phyrrus]

And wow, that is a bit more expensive than I expected. Any chance you can recommend something similar that's less expensive?

Try searching for only 2x2GB modules, second hand maybe. Me thinks 8GB is enough.There is some risk of buying something faulty, but I usually buy stuff second hand, there is no shame in it, and 98% of the cases I get reliable, good hardware pieces, although bit old, but they will run smooth for another year or two. This is only for you to survive until you buy a brand new PC.

Or here you have new ones - the same page tradesman said, just one tab further:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226214&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-Skimlinks-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=12087162&PID=3899435&SID=skim1402X558040Xbb392f71360c13419f75465016b4160c&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_source=afc-Skimlinks

Just be sure the timings are right, these ones go 5-5-5-18 (just like I'd need, too bad they dont ship in my country)

Update: your OCZ also has 5-5-5-18, but the voltage is different, ank tradesman how to get them to work together with the mushkins.