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Upgrading my computer help
Hey guys, I am looking to do a cheap upgrade to my computer, less than $100 and I wanted to get 1gb of ram additional and a new video card. Right now I have:
amd athlon 64 3500
1gb corsair ram
geforce 6600gt
Do you guys think the geforce 9400/9500gt video cards will run the game okay (medium settings maybe) if I also add a gb of ram (2gb total) ??
I really can't afford anything above 9500, since they are pushing $100 a card and I am on such a tight budget. I also hope this small upgrade will let me play 2 future games, Star Wars Old Republic and Diablo III
Any help would be really appreciated.
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HD 4770 FTW!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Make sure you have a pci xpress 2.0 slot. Its been awhile since I have used AMD, but i thought the 3500 fit mostly into boards with agp slots.
Geforge 6600GT comes in two different flavours: PCI express OR AGP slot.
If you running the AGP slot, only upgrade I recommend atm is checkin on Sapphire site for a cheap AGP card supporting Directx10.
If you have PCI express instead, you have more choises, just try to find some cheap card who supports Directx10, as long your actual one is suited for Directx9.
Please don't be tricked by cards claiming "directx10 ready", you need to get cards who FULLY support Directx10, read well in packages
About RAM, it is so cheap nowadays that I suggest you to buy a couple of 2GB chips and trash the 1GB you have now, using 2 chips you can benefit the DDR feature and your O.S. (Vista? XP? whatever...) will see at least 3GB and use it all. Just be sure to attach chips on correct slots to get the DDR boost (read your MB manual).
Don't worry about the waste of 1GB, Win7 is around the corner and it seems the 3GB limit will be removed. Not sure btw
Anyway, 3GB better than 1GB, and as long I don't think any single 1,5GB chip exists, you have no other choises left heh.
You can also get 3GB with three DDR3 1GB chip slots, but if you upgrading some old PC, I don't think your MB supports DDR3. What mainboard you have??
If you, instead, go for another 1GB chip, be sure to buy same brand AND model of the chip already installed. Mixing RAM brands and models is always source of troubles... The DDR boost hint still apply here;)
Have fun!
Edit: geez... previewed countless times and I see errors only when posted..
Cheers^^
I can't really make a good recommendation when it comes to other's computer, all I can say is pay special attention to the GPU of the graphics card. Read up on different cards of the same price range and decide one that will give you the most compatibility and stability. Overclocking is always an option in the future if the hardware start to feel underpowered, but overclocking is best done when your hardware setup is stable, which is why you want stability and compatibility before power.
RAM is pretty much straight forward, so not much to say about it other than get the right type.
The 64 3500 is socket 939 - which was widely available with PCI Express x16. I can appreciate that your on a very tight budget - and would recommend upgrading to 4gb of ram. On a socket 939 board your most likely using DDR memory, not DDR2 or DDR3, so be careful to buy the correct memory for your board. You probably want 2-4gb, and with a 64 bit processor, assuming your running a x64 OS... all your memory in excess of 3gb should be fully supported. For a free OS upgrade, get the Win7 x64 release candidate - though be aware you wont be able to use it forever.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145575
Make sure your board supports PCI Express 2.0 before you purchase a GPU.
Honestly, your running a fairly old chipset - it might be time to consider a new build.
The difference between a dual core CPU and single core is huge. If there is any way you can scrape together an Athlon X2 7750 ($50), 2 GB DDR2 800 ram ($40), a cheapass AM2+ mobo ($50) and a Geforce 9600gt ($80) you absolutely should. (prices from newegg.com)
Disregarding the above, having 2 GB ram *would* help but another 1gb of DDR 400 ram is $27 + shipping which is pretty much a waste of money. The Geforce 9600gt will help a bit - anything less than a 9600 GT is not worth the investment however.
If you grab a 9600 GT then you can eventually pick up the other 3 things (cpu, mobo, ram) that you would need to get your system somewhat updated so that would be my course of action. If you will never be able to afford to upgrade your cpu/mobo/ram then a 9600gt wouldn't even be worth it because an athlon 3500 can't push it.
If your local store is selling a 9500 for $100 you should REALLY start shopping online because that is overpriced.
thanks for all the replies fellas, I should have mentioned these factors yesterday. Yes I have the socket 939 nforce4 motherboard with pci-express 1.0, but I was told by different representatives that the pcie 2.0 boards are backwards compatible, only they won't operate at full capacity. The motherboard I have supports dual channel memory and right now I have 2x512 sticks, I am kind of disappointed in the price of ram (184 pin DDR400 PC3200) its a bit pricy still.. I will definitely look into a 9600 series.
Yes, pcie 2.0 is backwards compatible. I have an amd 4400+ socket 939 on an asus a8n32-sli with 2 gig of ram and just replaced my vid card. I went from a 7900gt to a gtx260 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130433 ) The increase in performance was night and day. I am in the same boat you are, need to upgrade, but on a tight budget so I went with my weakest piece first which was my vid card. It could be used in my old system and my new system. Only things i need now are a new cpu, mobo and ram. I would like to stick with AMD as that's all i have ever used and the price is cheaper, anyone got any suggestions? I was looking at maybe the 3.0ghz quad phenom.
Currently Playing: Toying around with AoC and bored with Darkfall
Thinking of Playing: Fallen Earth or Darkfall after this months update.
Have Played: EQ1, EQ2, WoW, WAR, Vanguard, EvE, Requiem, PW, Lotro, Lineage2, AoC, SWG...
yea I totally swear by AMD after switching to them for my current computer. I just didn't get any response or reliability out of past intels I had.. I'm looking at my mobo manual right now and trying to figure out how to run dual channel memory
I have 4 slots, right now slots 1 and 3 are used by by 2 512 sticks, and I am trying to figure out if I need to get 2 more 512 sticks for the dual channel to work, or if I can use 2 1gb sticks as well in addition to my 2 512sticks...
also I buy all my stuff from newegg as well, but tax (5 bucks) + shipping (6 or 7 bucks) can totally kill a good deal.. that's why i'm trying to wait on a solid special with free shipping or what not, for the better models 9600gt, and more ram..
okay so I just saw in my mobo manual that if I use 4 memory modules, they all need to be the same capacity for dual channel to work. Right now I have 2 512 sticks and I wanted to add 2 more sticks but can't afford to buy 4gb (4 1gb sticks or 2 2gb sticks). Will my memory work still if I have 2 1gb sticks and 2 512 sticks, even if dual channel isn't working?
so basically the question is, will my computer run better at 4 512 sticks in dual channel, or 2 1gb sticks and 2 512 sticks in regular mode (if this combination works.. I just emailed gigabyte for technical help)
It'd work, and being out of ram is worse than being in slow ram
Personally I'd try to keep the investment into your old architecture at a minimum and just pick up the 2 512mb sticks for ~$35 shipped, that way you get enough ram to work with, dual channel, and don't drop $70 into something you'll have to replace soon enough anyway.
Pci 2.0 boards will work in Pci 1.0 mobos, I know the 8800's had some compatibility probs but everything is fine now, and generally a single GPU (especially a low end like the 9600) benchmarks the same in 1.0 or 2.0 just cuz the extra bandwidth is only useful for top end or SLI configs.
Also if you're interested I know I have some DDR ram sitting around, definitely some 512mb sticks but I dunno the speed.. I could send them to you for real cheap if you want me to check them out, so you can save some money for the real upgrade you'll need to do later.
definitely noquarter, if you have 2 512 sticks that are 184 pin PC3200 DDR400 with latency of 2.5, which is what I have for my corsair values I would gladly take them. Thanks for the info also, I really thought getting 2gb for $70+ would not really be worth it for an outdated system.
Yea I got 2 sticks of 512mb, for some reason they don't have the speed on the label but google'd the chips and they are suppose to be PNY 512mb DDR400 pc3200 2.5-3-3-5 timing, I'll hook up a mobo to test them on later tonight and double check, and run memtest86+ on them too.
very cool man, thanks so much for the effort.
Hey quarter, any update on that ram