[quote]Nomancer wrote:
Lonnie123 wrote:
Also…1 gig of ram is a ton, even today. VERY few people will utilize more than that (Think HIGH level gaming, 3D rendering, large music projects)… Most avg users need around 512 I would say (if that), and 1 Gig is overkill 90% of the time.
Most users could use a PC with Win 98, and 256 MB RAM, etc. and it would be good for them because all they do is internet and MS Word.
But if you’re upgrading your own PC, you’re going to be doing a bit more. You want to (semi)future-proof youself. 1 Gig of RAM isn’t that much any more, and most importantly, it isn’t that expensive any more.
If I was putting a PC together for myself now (mostly just games, etc), I would do at least 1 gig, possibly 2 gig, depending on the vid card, and other costs. Also, this way, I’m ready for windows Vista (i’d probibly wait till vista came out so i wouldn’t have to buy 2 OSes.[/quote]
You would not be ready for vista to run with all the bells and whistles anyway.
Today’s videocards will not run it fully. There are all sort of special effects that you can enable.
Your best bet would be to wait until it comes out and get the “vista 100% certified” hardware or stuff like that, that will run the system with all the eye candy.
Not only that. But when the new videocards and processors come out for vista. All the old stuff (the hardware now) will cost peanuts because it wil be outdated by 6 months or so.
[quote]Nomancer wrote:
IMPORTANT: If you have dual chanel RAM, you have to get closely matched pairs, at least matched in size.
You may have to get matched pairs if you only have 2 or 4 RAM slots on your motherboard.
I think they also did an option with 3 slots, where if you had 2 matched sticks of RAM in, it did dual chanel, but if you didn’t it went to single chanel.[/quote]
Dual channel makes like a 5% difference in speed and it costs double.
[quote]Big Adam wrote:
Great thread. Question from another computer newbie: If I’m playing an online game and start to lag whenever I hit heavily populated areas, what’s the number one thing I can do to reduce that lag?
I’d appreciate your input…[/quote]
Increase the speed of you internet. The fact that it lags has only a few probably causes:
1 - Your computer is not receiving the information fast enough to display it to the screen
2 - Your computer IS receiving the information, but lacks the power to display it.
I am willing to bet money that, unless your computer is horribly out of date, your internet connection is slower than optimal…Any numbers for us? Download Speed? Processor Speed? Amount of RAM? Type of Video Card?
Games like FEAR, Farcry and Oblivion on the highest settings need a proper powerful machine with a good gpu, I got an Nvidia 7600 which is not bad, but not as good as some.
What Broadband speed you get on average in the States anyway ? I’m on 8mb here, downloads for instance off the MS site at anything from 350kbs to 500 kbs and goes up to 800 odd on a few sites.
For me, its cable @ ~$30/month with 100 - 300 KB/s usual transfer speeds. I don’t think they advertise what it is supposed to be.
Other option is ADSL, ever so slightly slower, same price.
[quote]Nomancer wrote:
For me, its cable @ ~$30/month with 100 - 300 KB/s usual transfer speeds. I don’t think they advertise what it is supposed to be.
Other option is ADSL, ever so slightly slower, same price.[/quote]
There is a price war on here, so I get a phone package with basically free landline calls and 8mb broadband for 10 quid a month… I remember paying 20 quid a month for 3kbs dial up (supposedly 56k) a few years back…and then paying 1p a minute.
I didn’t bother to read all of the responses but I can tell you this… a 1GB ram chip can’t mix with a .5GB ram chip. Just buy two 1GB ram chips if you want to upgrade. Either that or buy a new motherboard which is practically like buying another comp.
If you mix two different sized ram chips the comp will read them all as the lowest one. So even if you install two 1GB and one 512MB the comp will register you as having installed three 512 MB chips. It actually hurts you.
Also, I hear you about the games. My stupid Dell isn’t even upgradeable unless I buy a new motherboard. My solution was to buy an XBOX 360. It priced similiarly to a top-end video card.
I didn’t bother to read all of the responses but I can tell you this… a 1GB ram chip can’t mix with a .5GB ram chip. Just buy two 1GB ram chips if you want to upgrade. Either that or buy a new motherboard which is practically like buying another comp.
If you mix two different sized ram chips the comp will read them all as the lowest one. So even if you install two 1GB and one 512MB the comp will register you as having installed three 512 MB chips. It actually hurts you.[/quote]
I’ve never heard this before, and my comptuer recognised 2 different sized chips fine…
Seems PC advice is more widespread than bodybuilding, at least people agree on most things in bodybuilding…pc stuff everybody disagrees. I guess its suck it and see.
As for changing the motherboard…firms like Dell and HP lock you out of the BIOS so you can’t fuck about overclocking and stuff, so I might buy this ASUS motherboard and bits for my Compaq and a new case and PSU.
I got a 3dMark06 for those who know what that is of 3500 approx on current setup.
Current system is a Compaq P4 HT 2.93, 1gb DDR2 RAM, 533 bus, Western Digital Raptor hard drive, PNY Nvidia 7600 graphics card overclocked a bit and the standard Compaq motherboard which frankly along with the low-ish clock and bus and probably the RAM amount (hence topic) is the weak link.
I never used to care about PC Spec but since I got bored of tuning cars and just bought a fast one stock and a 4WD I turned into this geek who fucks with PC’s and has several mobile phones, pocket pc’s and other geeky stuff.
[quote]Stigg. wrote:
Seems PC advice is more widespread than bodybuilding, at least people agree on most things in bodybuilding…pc stuff everybody disagrees. I guess its suck it and see. [/quote]
I’m just going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there…
If you go to the big sites like Anandtech, Techreport and Hexus, you can get quantified benchmarks where there is very little subjectivity and make comparisions much easier.
Its cheaper… But things change so fast.
I kind of turned the other way, but right now I’ve got money for neither.
[quote]Nomancer wrote:
Stigg. wrote:
Seems PC advice is more widespread than bodybuilding, at least people agree on most things in bodybuilding…pc stuff everybody disagrees. I guess its suck it and see.
I’m just going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there…
If you go to the big sites like Anandtech, Techreport and Hexus, you can get quantified benchmarks where there is very little subjectivity and make comparisions much easier.
I never used to care about PC Spec but since I got bored of tuning cars and just bought a fast one stock and a 4WD I turned into this geek who fucks with PC’s and has several mobile phones, pocket pc’s and other geeky stuff.
Its cheaper… But things change so fast.
I kind of turned the other way, but right now I’ve got money for neither.[/quote]
I also started watching loads of tv as well, think its my age.
I didn’t bother to read all of the responses but I can tell you this… a 1GB ram chip can’t mix with a .5GB ram chip. Just buy two 1GB ram chips if you want to upgrade. Either that or buy a new motherboard which is practically like buying another comp.
If you mix two different sized ram chips the comp will read them all as the lowest one. So even if you install two 1GB and one 512MB the comp will register you as having installed three 512 MB chips. It actually hurts you.[/quote]
No, its just not good to mix a .5g with a 1g because it will slow the computer down a bit.
It will still have the same total memory, but my guess as to why it slows is: it has to balance what memory goes where more because the sticks are of uneven size.
[quote]Magarhe wrote:
brucevangeorge wrote:
Nomancer wrote:
Dual channel makes like a 5% difference in speed and it costs double.
But it makes 5% difference to EVERYTHING you do. And it doesn’t cost double.
But it is not really worth it for most people - going for big numbers of RAM is the key. 1.5 gig at least, that’s where things start speeding up.
[/quote]
When I was hunting for ram, the difference between matched pairs (you need matched ones for dualchannel) and just regular ram from a respected brand like Samsung WAS double.
Maybe it was the stores I went to… point is, dualchannel is WAY too expensive for that extra 5%. It’s not worth the $$$$$.