Upgrading CPU...Help

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Island Guy

New Member
Hi, I have a Dimension 8200 w/256 RDRAM and 120GB. Unfortunately I am a complete newb when it comes to computers so I need your help. I want to upgrade my computer to a gaming machine, I was wondering how much RAM I should upgrade to and what other parts I should buy to increase the performance. Thanks for the help.
 
S

silicon-thumb

New Member
Im new when it comes to some thing on comps but i do know ram. If you were planning on upgrading to a game machine the things you want to eventually look at are video card(depends on wat you have), processor (also depends on what you have already), and most importantly ram. If you only have 256 megs of ram that is probably not enough for a gaming machine. I have two computers... my newest one has 256 and just running idle i use about half of it. Games like empire earth even recommend 64-128 and that game is fairly old. So i would say you would be all set with another 256 to give you a total of 512megs of ram. If you can try to get the same specs for the ram as the ram already in your system and see if you can do dual channel. If you tell me wat your processor is and your video card is then i can help you more with that. I hope that helped you.
 
I

Island Guy

New Member
Yea thanks for the help, I'm ordering 512 MB of RAM today. I have a Pentium 4 processor w/ 2.54 GHz and a NVidia G Force 4 MX420 w/64 MB.
 
kalson

kalson

New Member
ur cpu is OK , ur video card is so so , if u can , u should get a ATI radeon 9600 XT video card since tat nvidia cards now arent as good =O they've been sukin for months compared to radeon
 
4

4W4K3

VIP Member
for a GAMING machine (intel i believe u said you have) u will want FAST ram...not just alot of it. i suggest AT LEAST PC3200 for intel machines and AT LEAST PC2700 for AMD gaming computers. 512mb of either should be sufficient to run current games (it will soon be required when HL2 and Doom3 style games come out though). later on as you learn more about overclocking you will read about RAM Timings as well. well not as important as size or speed of ram they will increase performance. i suggest OCZ Technology, Kingston, or Corsair ram if you want quality and performance. almost all pure gaming machines use brands like those or as high quality as those. if you cant afford it then i'd say research something close. dont just go for the cheapest brand of ram or you will be upgrading very soon. thats all i can suggest since you dont have a custom built pc. otherwise i would ask about mobo and stuff. make sure whatever you buy is supported by your mobo as well...would be a shame to buy $150 ram and then find out it wont work with ur Dimension desktop lmao.
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
and AT LEAST PC2700 for AMD gaming computers.
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Why slower for AMD? The Bartons (can) run at 400FSB so it would be wise to have the memory run 1:1 with the proc (of course you could always OC the memory....)

512mb of either should be sufficient to run current games
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True although with prices the way they are you might want to bite the bullet and get two sticks of memory (either 256 or ideally 512MB) and go for a Dual Channel configuration :)

it will soon be required when HL2 and Doom3 style games come out though
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HL2/Doom3 use INSANE quantities of memory..... 800MB in the first 6 seconds of loading..... eeek!

i suggest OCZ Technology, Kingston, or Corsair ram if you want quality and performance
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Although I have nothing in particular against Kingston (I'm a Corsair guy and recently an OCz fan myself), Kingston has the "image" of being a budget-midrange oriented company which attempts to market itsefl as a premium company.....might just be me though.

dont just go for the cheapest brand of ram
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And if you do, make sure it says Samsung (or some other company.... starts with an "H" on the chips).

Island Guy
Bad news. RDRAM has all but been shafted by the industry. You will be very hardpressed to get your hands on the stuff :( A good idea however far more expensive than it should be
 
4

4W4K3

VIP Member
Praetor said:
Why slower for AMD? The Bartons (can) run at 400FSB so it would be wise to have the memory run 1:1 with the proc (of course you could always OC the memory....)
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i said at LEAST pc2700..not just pc2700. i would not go anylower than pc2700 because then your ratio would be like 3:4 or something bad. the slowest i have ever had was PC2700 ram with my AMD and i didnt like it. right now i use PC3200 OCZ @ 440mhz (soon to be 460 once i get RMA back) and it works 1:1 perfectly. but if he cant afford $150 ram then PC2700 is the least he should buy correct?

Praetor said:
True although with prices the way they are you might want to bite the bullet and get two sticks of memory (either 256 or ideally 512MB) and go for a Dual Channel configuration :)
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i said 512 in hoped he would buy 2*256 kit. most times they are cheaper and they perform great. although for AMD you wont see a HUGE difference in performance with a DC kit...tis more noticable for Intels. mine ar 2*256 OCZ and i really dont see a dfference except maybe a few expra points in benchmarking.
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
i said at LEAST pc2700..not just pc2700. I would not go anylower than pc2700 because then your ratio would be like 3:4 or something bad. the slowest I have ever had was PC2700 ram with my AMD and I didnt like it. right now I use PC3200 OCZ @ 440mhz (soon to be 460 once I get RMA back) and it works 1:1 perfectly. but if he cant afford $150 ram then PC2700 is the least he should buy correct?
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Good call I figured as much, just wanted to make sure I wasnt missing out on some fancy performance treasure chest in the nF2 chipset :)
 
4

4W4K3

VIP Member
Praetor said:
Good call I figured as much, just wanted to make sure I wasnt missing out on some fancy performance treasure chest in the nF2 chipset :)
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you should check out www.insanetek.com it sounds like you know your stuff better than me. we could really use more members with alot of know-how.
 
4

4W4K3

VIP Member
Praetor said:
2 schools ... 1 job .... that's the easy part..... 1 girl. :p
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2 skools??? im on vacation now and no job...but i got 1 girl :p 10 months 2 dayz ago to be exact ;)
 
P

PcBoss

New Member
Samsung is a good brand, but as kalson wrote.. try radeon 9600 XT OR i would say XP, It will have big time effect in your gaming life! It has specially been designed for cinematic gameplay... :cool:

I have 9600xp and when i play games it feels like iam in hollywood studios :D You can also try to overclock it but i dont think you will really need to as it already gives good performance!

The only thing that you will need which really p me off was that you need a dvd drive to setup the software, when i bought mine and i tryied to install the software on my cd-rw driver a error message came up.

I went back to the store and told them about the error message and the guy told me that i needed a dvd drive, i started to laugh and told him he should't be working as a support because he did't know anything about computers.

But the guy turn around to me and said ''seems like you are no better then me!!! read the requirements on the box''... and when i did my face was red as a cherry! :eek:

Regards

PcBoss
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
Samsung is a good brand, but as kalson wrote.. try radeon 9600 XT OR I would say XP, It will have big time effect in your gaming life! It has specially been designed for cinematic gameplay...
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???!!??!! 9600XT is not RAM. It's a video card.
 
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