Getting More Ram

[Barbedweir]

I have 2.5 gig in my machine and want to pull the the two 1/4 gig cards and replace them with 2 one gig chips.

I checked newegg and found these 2 as my top choices.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227210

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145575

I have hear great things about Corsair...but the other has better reviews.
Same price but the Corsair has the rebate, but I am more concerned about
reliability etc. I would use these 2 as my primary pairing and move my other
2 to slot 3 and 4.

Thanks for the Help as Usual.
My PC is a Compaq Presario SR1923WM (no laughing)

[Amond]

I have 2.5 gig in my machine and want to pull the the two 1/4 gig cards and replace them with 2 one gig chips.

I checked newegg and found these 2 as my top choices.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227210

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145575

I have hear great things about Corsair...but the other has better reviews.
Same price but the Corsair has the rebate, but I am more concerned about
reliability etc. I would use these 2 as my primary pairing and move my other
2 to slot 3 and 4.

Thanks for the Help as Usual.
My PC is a Compaq Presario SR1923WM (no laughing)


Won't make much difference if you are not running 64-bit OS. While xp/vista claim to support up to 4GB its really only uses 3GB or something like that.

[Savistik]

Both memory brands are good names. As mentioned, you won't see all 4GB in 32 bit windows, but a little under 3.2GB. It will prep you for the future.

What you should be aware of is that when you fill all 4 memory slots on a motherboard, sometimes it can exhibit issues with memory instability. The fix for this is usually to bring up the voltage to the memory's recommended voltage instead of the motherboard default. Having had all 4 slots filled, you probably won't experience this.

Have you examined which brand of memory is currently in your system? You can find out using CPUID (http://www.cpuid.com/) what's currently in your system as far as voltages and memory speed goes.

The other thing to check with CPUID is the memory speed in your system. If it's the same memory it originally came with, makers like HP, Compaq, and other off-the-shelf (i.e. bought from retailers) computers sometimes come with under-clocked RAM. Confirm that the existing memory is DDR400 and running at the full 200 MHz. If not, you're better off replacing all the RAM.

I also just looked at the prices and that's an awful lot to pay for old-tech RAM that's only going to get you a 2/3 of a GB increase in usable RAM.

[Solostaran]

Here's 4Gb DDR2 from OCZ for $60:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227267

Edit: and the same from Mushkin for $45!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010170147%2050001504&name=Mushkin

I like Mushkin, their RAM seems to actually be more reliable than Corsair's. Never tried OCZ, though.

[ThaMan]

I wouldn't bother upgrading unless you are already running a 64 bit operating system. You won't see a difference in 2.5G and 3.1G (usable in 32 bit).

[Solostaran]

But if your commit charge is frequently running between 2.5 and 3.1g while gaming, then it could be very useful. Besides, a performance boost from DDR2 and preparedness for the future with a 2-stick 4gb setup are probably worth the $45.

[Savistik]

Here's 4Gb DDR2 from OCZ for $60:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227267

Edit: and the same from Mushkin for $45!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010170147%2050001504&name=Mushkin

I like Mushkin, their RAM seems to actually be more reliable than Corsair's. Never tried OCZ, though.
DDR2 RAM won't work on a DDR board, which is what's in this computer. DDR has 184 pins and DDR2 has 240.

DDR RAM is more expensive per gigabyte than DDR2 right now because it is older and generally out of production.

[Barbedweir]

On a differnt Idea Base:

Saw one of my Students that graduated a few years back and plays online games.

His recommendation over the Ram for my system was to get a new Ethernet Card.
I am just using what came on the PC when I bought it...... is this true? He said that I could pick up a better Ethernet Card for $20 and would see an improvment in my online gaming. If it is true I have no idea what I would look for in a cheap ethernet card.....dont want to spend too much on this system as I hope to have something better in the next year or so.

[Deviq]

I don't think a network card is going to give you any noticeable difference at all. I wouldn't waste the money on it.

Before you put money into a ddr machine, what kind of problems are you having while gaming? Adding more ram won't make any difference at all if your not using all of the ram you have right now. Also, if your board has a dual channel mode it may actually speed up the memory transfer speed by just leaving it at 2 gig since I don't think it can actually use 2.5 gig in dual channel mode.

[Barbedweir]

Warhammer gets glitchy when lots of people are around. BF2 is a lot better with the new DSL running at 5.3M. But most games I have to run in low graphic mode. I have a 7300GT nVidea card. But with a crappy power box thats about as big as I can go.

[Savistik]

Given how much DDR RAM is, if it were me, I'd save my money and get a newer system. Granted you're looking at a bigger jump having to buy a new motherboard, chip and RAM, but it's good money instead of more after an aging system.

From the looks of the specs, one of your problems may be an integrated video card. The motherboard specs one: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/prodinfoCategory?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3208974

That would make a RAM upgrade useful, but I think your $70 would be better spent on a discrete video card, unless the 7300 GT is actually discrete. The system spec appears to say it's integrated, though.

[Barbedweir]

I added the Vid Card its a PCI-E..

[ThaMan]

Considering network cards run at 10/100, and possibly 1000 now, upgrading won't make a hill of beans. Considering you are using 5.3 of that. Even running at the lowest setting of 10, you are only using half it's capacity.

As for the one on the motherboard being poor quality, that may be a possibility, but I seriously doubt it. I am using the integrated NIC on our server, and it isn't slowing it down at all. That's a lot more traffic than an MMO.

Typically, when you are in an area with a lot of people in an MMO, it is the video card that is causing the problem. It can't handle all the extra drawing of the people in there. Upgrading ram won't make a difference, 90% of the time. That's one reason you want a video card with the most memory on it you can have. All those textures of the armor and people will bog it down bigtime if it runs out of memory.

[Amond]

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-Totals,795.html


Check out where Your video card is at the in the rankings. That is probably the best place to start for performance.

[Barbedweir]

so more than likely I could do a little better with some additional Ram...but not much.

My power supply cant handle a bigger vid card than I have etc....so all in all I would be better off to save up my pennies until I can get a better system to work with... The Dell with 7 gig of ram at Wal-Mart with the 22" wide screen looked nice...but not made for gaming....

I figure I already have a good keyboard, gaming mouse and 22" monitor...so I just need to find/make a better unit to go with it.

[ThaMan]

[QUOTE=Barbedweir;3857]so more than likely I could do a little better with some additional Ram...but not much.[QUOTE] I'd say, minimize your game, and check your ram usage. Your improvement going from 2.5 to 3.1 would be negligible, if at all.

[Barbedweir]

I am getting ready to fire up a game and see what my commit charges are etc.

I am going to look over my Vid Card software to see if there is anything that lets me know how its doing other than temp.... I have it overclocked a bit but not much since its a 7300GT

[Barbedweir]

OK..

What is the difference is the CPU% and the PF Usage?

The CPU seemed to fluctulate while the PC seemed to hold at around 1.5Mg while playing Warhammer.

[ThaMan]

PF is Pagefile. That is how much disk space it is actually using as memory. The larger that number, the slower you will run.

The number you are interested in is the Physical Memory. It shows Total Memory, and Available memory. If your page file is low, and you have a lot of available Physical Memory, then a memory upgrade will do you no good what-so-ever, because your system isn't using all the memory it has.

Another thing that may increase your speed is setting up the page file manually, instead of letting the system control it.

Right click on My Computer.
Choose Advanced.
Under Performance, click Settings.
Click on the Advanced tab.
Under Virtual Memory, click Change. (note the system default)
Typically, your Initial size (MB): should be 1.5 times your system ram. If you have more than 2 Gigs of ram, I use how ever much system ram you have. If you want to speed it up, and force it to use more memory, make it half your system ram. Make the Maximum size (MB): 1.5-2 times your system ram.

These are just my recommendations, and people will probably disagree with them, but they seem to work for me.

[Barbedweir]

Just learned about Electromagnetic Fields and how they can mess with your modem from an AT&T tech. Couple times a night my modem DLS light blinks red ....letting me know that I have lost my DSL connection.
Called to see if they knew what might be causing it. She said since it was working at that moment it would be hard to test. But that it sounded like my modem might be too close to something causing interfernece. Like my PC thats 2 feet away our the Flor. Light thats on my desk. So I moved my modem to the other side of the room as she said being 6 feet away is all it needed. So we will see.

[Barbedweir]

PF is Pagefile. That is how much disk space it is actually using as memory. The larger that number, the slower you will run.

The number you are interested in is the Physical Memory. It shows Total Memory, and Available memory. If your page file is low, and you have a lot of available Physical Memory, then a memory upgrade will do you no good what-so-ever, because your system isn't using all the memory it has.

So while In-Game I need to see how much Physical Memory is Availailable... low means its using it all....gotcha...will try that again to see what it shows.

Just working here it shows

Total 2095600
Available 1511276
System Cache 923840

[Amond]

If you haven't lately DEFRAG'd your harddrive do so. If your harddrive is over near 90% full you could be loosing a lot of performance too.

.

[Amond]

Typically, your Initial size (MB): should be 1.5 times your system ram. If you have more than 2 Gigs of ram, I use how ever much system ram you have. If you want to speed it up, and force it to use more memory, make it half your system ram. Make the Maximum size (MB): 1.5-2 times your system ram.

These are just my recommendations, and people will probably disagree with them, but they seem to work for me.

You are right on the money. You only want the page file on your primary drive. Turn off others. I always make my Min=Max at the same (1.5-2.0x) so it doesn't allocate the diff when the hoards are rushing.

[Barbedweir]

will defrag when I get home....been a while since I did that.

[Barbedweir]

Did DeFrag Last night...and started Compression of old files this morning before I left for work.