OK i have had 2GB RAM in my pc for a while now. they are Samsung 1GB stick each at pc2700. I was wondering if it was time for an upgrade to pc3200 since i also upgraded my CPU to a pentium 4 3.0GHz. think its worth it? would there be a suffcient improvement in performance.
Decent RAM
- Thread starter justinone
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kitty500cat
Posts: 1,391 +6
What motherboard do you have? Some motherboards do not have native PC3200 support.
Cheers
Cheers
Captain828
Posts: 301 +32
For what?
it also matters what you usually do with your PC: gaming, typical home/office or multimedia
gaming -> the higher the RAM's frequency, the better
home/office -> your 2GB of RAM (no matter what speed) is more than enough, but higher RAM frequencies (and smaller latencies) means faster loads
multimedia -> your 2GB of RAM are more than sufficient for viewing videos (including HD); word of caution though, HD content (720p and ESPECIALLY 1080p) also require a fast CPU (preferably a Dual Core) and a video card with good HD decoding (an nVidia 7600GT or an ATI 1650 Pro at least)
it would help very much if you would post your system specs
it also matters what you usually do with your PC: gaming, typical home/office or multimedia
gaming -> the higher the RAM's frequency, the better
home/office -> your 2GB of RAM (no matter what speed) is more than enough, but higher RAM frequencies (and smaller latencies) means faster loads
multimedia -> your 2GB of RAM are more than sufficient for viewing videos (including HD); word of caution though, HD content (720p and ESPECIALLY 1080p) also require a fast CPU (preferably a Dual Core) and a video card with good HD decoding (an nVidia 7600GT or an ATI 1650 Pro at least)
it would help very much if you would post your system specs
dopefisher
Posts: 436 +0
Just one thing to add here: Samsung is bottom of the pile, dirt - cheap, no- name RAM. ANYTHING you put in there will be better than that junk.
dopefisher
Posts: 436 +0
ocz 2 x 1gb kit, any type BUT their "value" line of lower quality ram. OCZ, like their advertising says, is THE BEST memory on the market, PERIOD.
DonNagual
Posts: 2,385 +5
Here in Japan, namebrand ram is EXTREMELY expensive. By namebrand I mean any name brand. OCZ, corsair, kingston, anything. And by expensive I mean about 50% more than what you pay in the U.S.
So, I have used a lot of the no name ram since coming to Japan. My favorite by far is the Samsung original ram. Samsung typically just makes the parts and other companies use them, but they also do have their own line.
Is it good ram? Well, compared to the name brands, absolutely not. It is not overclockable in any way. Don't even think of overclocking it. But is it stable? I have never had a problem with Samsung, and it is the "brand" I look (when shopping for no-name brands
)
Will you notice the difference if you go from 2 gigs of PC2700 samsung to 2 gigs of PC3200 OCZ? A little. Especially if you get some brand name with some real tight timings. The samsung timings tend to be quite loose. If you have the cash to blow, go for it. But don't expect a huge difference.
Unrelated side note: I get my new system in a few days, and have spent the insane cash to get 2Gigs of XMS2 Corsair.
So, I have used a lot of the no name ram since coming to Japan. My favorite by far is the Samsung original ram. Samsung typically just makes the parts and other companies use them, but they also do have their own line.
Is it good ram? Well, compared to the name brands, absolutely not. It is not overclockable in any way. Don't even think of overclocking it. But is it stable? I have never had a problem with Samsung, and it is the "brand" I look (when shopping for no-name brands
)Will you notice the difference if you go from 2 gigs of PC2700 samsung to 2 gigs of PC3200 OCZ? A little. Especially if you get some brand name with some real tight timings. The samsung timings tend to be quite loose. If you have the cash to blow, go for it. But don't expect a huge difference.
Unrelated side note: I get my new system in a few days, and have spent the insane cash to get 2Gigs of XMS2 Corsair.
MetalX
Posts: 1,364 +4
My RAM is no-name... DDR400 dual channel, 2.5,3,3,8 and it performs just fine. It's stable, can overclock to about DDR460, and can go to 2,2,2,5 on higher voltage. Cost me a grand total of $75 canadian for 2 512 sticks. I might get another 2 512 sticks soon. However, most people aren't lucky with no name RAM like I am. Most of the time it's garbage. But you wil probably notice the difference just a little bit if you upgraded. I'd say its not worth it. Just save more money and get a mobo compatible with ddr2, then get some ddr2 667.
Captain828
Posts: 301 +32
Pci-e Gpu?!?
let me get this right, you have an AsRock P4VM800, but you also have an XFX 7600GT?
this is strange, because the 7600GT is on PCI-Express and that mobo has AGP 8x
also, in games having 2GB of RAM is today standard (and also recommended), so the best hunch is to upgrade your mobo, CPU and GPU (which I think is a 7600GS, far slower than the GT)
Recommendations:
mobo -> AsRock 775DUAL-VSTA (cheap, supports Intel Core 2 Duo, AGP x8, PCI-E x4, SATA, DDR2 & DDR1) that sells for about 50$
CPU -> Core 2 Duo E6400 (or E6300) sells for about 255$ (or 190$ for E6300)
GPU -> XFX 7600GT Fatal1ty Edition or (if you have the money) a 7950GT;this will set you back for 180$ or 320$
RAM -> keep it, it should work with this mobo, thus 0$
note: due to the x4 of the PCI-E of this board you will get a 5-8% performance handicap for your GPU
let me get this right, you have an AsRock P4VM800, but you also have an XFX 7600GT?
this is strange, because the 7600GT is on PCI-Express and that mobo has AGP 8x
also, in games having 2GB of RAM is today standard (and also recommended), so the best hunch is to upgrade your mobo, CPU and GPU (which I think is a 7600GS, far slower than the GT)
Recommendations:
mobo -> AsRock 775DUAL-VSTA (cheap, supports Intel Core 2 Duo, AGP x8, PCI-E x4, SATA, DDR2 & DDR1) that sells for about 50$
CPU -> Core 2 Duo E6400 (or E6300) sells for about 255$ (or 190$ for E6300)
GPU -> XFX 7600GT Fatal1ty Edition or (if you have the money) a 7950GT;this will set you back for 180$ or 320$
RAM -> keep it, it should work with this mobo, thus 0$
note: due to the x4 of the PCI-E of this board you will get a 5-8% performance handicap for your GPU
DonNagual
Posts: 2,385 +5
Captain828 said:
The 7600GT also comes in AGP.
Also, for MOST of the games out today, there is no difference in going to 2Gb of ram. There are a few exceptions, like BF2 for example. However, the games that are coming out from this point on look like they are all going to be making use of 2Gb. In other words if you want a machine that will be able to play the newest games (and the rest of your components are also high performance parts), then yes, 2Gb of ram is definitely recommended.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/2gb-ram_7.html
Captain828
Posts: 301 +32
wow, I didn't know about that
However 2GB of RAM isn't the only thing you need, as I pointed above your post
However 2GB of RAM isn't the only thing you need, as I pointed above your post
Captain828
Posts: 301 +32
usually it's not about firepower when upgrading, but technology
it also matters what games you're running; newer ones require all sort of other "extras" besides a speedy GPU
reffering to the mobo, the motherboard holds all your PC's components (RAM, CPU, GPU, HDD, etc) and it tells you what kind of hardware you can put on it, thus how powerful your PC could become in the future thru upgrades
it also matters what games you're running; newer ones require all sort of other "extras" besides a speedy GPU
reffering to the mobo, the motherboard holds all your PC's components (RAM, CPU, GPU, HDD, etc) and it tells you what kind of hardware you can put on it, thus how powerful your PC could become in the future thru upgrades
Captain828
Posts: 301 +32
there is really no point in going for "named" RAM as it has, at PC2-3200 level at least, only minor differences in performance
to be noted is the fact that some Brands of RAM (such as Corsair and OCZ) offer Lifetime Warranty
but besides that, there is absolutely no point in getting new RAM
I have 2x 512 MB DDR400 (PC2-3200) Kingmax memory DIMMs and plan on getting (somewhere near late January) 2GB of DDR2 Corsair 800MHz (PC2-6400) 6400C3, a new ASUS P5N32-SLI E mobo and an EVGA 8800GTX
to be noted is the fact that some Brands of RAM (such as Corsair and OCZ) offer Lifetime Warranty
but besides that, there is absolutely no point in getting new RAM
I have 2x 512 MB DDR400 (PC2-3200) Kingmax memory DIMMs and plan on getting (somewhere near late January) 2GB of DDR2 Corsair 800MHz (PC2-6400) 6400C3, a new ASUS P5N32-SLI E mobo and an EVGA 8800GTX
Captain828
Posts: 301 +32
i haven't heard of Elixir; I suggest you should get Kingmax or Kingstone as they are cheap and good
but I really don't advise you to buy 400MHz, as you will get a very small (if any) performance boost, unless you have problems with your current RAM
for a performance boost that you could actually see, I suggest you buy 667MHz RAM or higher
EDIT: actually from your current 166MHz of RAM to 200MHz (200MHz effectively, 400 actually) RAM is only a minor 34MHz difference
when I upgraded my RAM from 133MHz (266) to 200MHz (400) there was just a small increase of performance (mostly during loading times), but when I moved from 512MB to 1GB the difference was notable (about 40%)
but I really don't advise you to buy 400MHz, as you will get a very small (if any) performance boost, unless you have problems with your current RAM
for a performance boost that you could actually see, I suggest you buy 667MHz RAM or higher
EDIT: actually from your current 166MHz of RAM to 200MHz (200MHz effectively, 400 actually) RAM is only a minor 34MHz difference
when I upgraded my RAM from 133MHz (266) to 200MHz (400) there was just a small increase of performance (mostly during loading times), but when I moved from 512MB to 1GB the difference was notable (about 40%)
Captain828
Posts: 301 +32
pabvr81 said:
sorry about that, I was in a hurry when I wrote it down; I was talking about 166MHz versus 200MHz (already modified last post), however I didn't say anything about OC'ing it to 200
@justinone Now I think I get what you're trying to point out: you have RAM at 166MHz and you want RAM at 400MHz, however 400MHz is only the effective speed, the real one is 200MHz, so there you have it, only a 34MHz difference
this is similar to the FSB of a CPU:
Intel uses a Quad Pumped FSB (eg: 1067 translates in 267MHz)
AMD uses a Dual Pumped FSB (eg: 800 actually is 400MHz)
hope this helps :grinthumb
Captain828
Posts: 301 +32
the point is: save up more money, go for a Core 2 Duo and DDR2 RAM, that should certainly lead to better performance
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