I'm going to do a rebuild on one of my desktop machines, I only have a question regarding Ram, I have looked over my motherboard specs being a older good spec unit I have a choice of going 2 ways with ram setup either 4X 1gig sticks @ 800 MHz or 4 X 2gig sticks of 667MHz I know theres not much difference in it, it's not going to be pushed with much more than some graphic package (design/PS/Lightroom) & almost nil gaming (all my games are old!!) all the reading I've done doesn't lead me either way! system is a 64bit win 7, which will have OS on a SSD
Morning Chris. Ram will only work as fast as your CPU can push it. Why not 4x2Gb 800mhz? You may as well go for the 800mhz (PC6400) and try to get 8Gb. Faster ram should run lower latency timings and run a little quicker. Either way, if your Cpu does not need to run a FSB of 400, it will clock the ram down automatically to 333 (667) Go for the 800, it will probably be cheaper anyway
from the mother board specs, thats what it want either the 1Gig per stick at higher baud 800's or the larger stick sizes at lower speed good job I checked or'd just of kept an eye out for 2gig 800's finding the Bios has a hissy fit, as decribed on a google search result!! The CPU is a 1066htz Intel unclocked at the moment, it's like cars do we go for BHP or Torque, where is the balance! but reading a review on various rams tested with the same processor it did fly with 800, but not by much with good quality / low latency
If you find the manual for your MB it normally gives a list of the memory supported. Its only a guide though but normally a bios update opens up the options. Im currently running 16GB at standard speeds, I cant be arsed with OC'ing and dont understand alot of it!
Ok a 1066 Fsb CPU. You could even look at PC8500. Would enable you to run a 1:1 ratio at 266 with very low timings Plus your motherboard may let you divide the ram so with PC8500 you could probably run it at 533mhz instead of 266, 333 or 400
sometimes with overclocking it's trial and error - I found out that running a lower RAM speed with tighter timings actually netted me more performance than standard speed and standard timings. As you say OP, if you're not using it for intensive programs like video encoding/rendering or top end games (i.e. whatever your machine can run) then you probably won't notice much performance difference. I'd definitely find your motherboard model number and do some research - i built mine about 18 months ago and check the manufacturer's website from time to time for updates etc.
Chris With the computer you want to upgrade, go to www.crucial.com/uk. Use the scanner tool, and it will tell you what's supported.
Always had a great service from Crucial, most of the time their stuff is good or competatively priced & next day delivery is superb.
Yep Gone for the 4Gb @ 800Mhz set up, as not that many progs use higher - the PC never fell over so far! bought one pair from e-beg 2GB Corsair XMS2 with change from tenner! looking out for another pair the same deciding which SSD to go with Dabs has a kingston 128GB for 59 inc P&P last week,so I'm expecting for prices on them to drop off
Can someone give me a quick education lesson on SSDS? Is the idea to add an SSD and keep the existing hard drive? System and apps on the SSD, storage on the HD? Does SSD improve performance?
Yep, use the SSD for the Operating system, storage on your old drive/s Noticable speed difference yes, booting windows, programs loading! Good upgrade for older systems like
The HDD has been holding back systems for years. Even on an old system an SSD helps (assuming it has sata). I have a 128gb ssd for windows 7 and program's and 2 1tb HDD's in a raid 1 so I can't loose any data as if a drive goes down it is copied onto the other one. You need to have windows 7 really for an SSD and there are several things the OS cannot do to an SSD or it will ruin it. Defrag for one, you never defrag an SSD.
and there's me still running 10k U320 SCSI drives in raids lol still gives SATA a run for it's money it loads up windows in half the time of my other systems.
SSD? solid state? How exactly would you do that? How big is the SSD? And how much quicker/more reliable would it make a system? How much would one cost? (I have a dual core AMD something or other, with 4gb RAM - would it make my system any better?)
far as I have gathered it's a big memory card 64-128Gb common. About the size of a hard drive nit- hence why it's quicker with no moving parts & perfect replacment it appears to be best with fresh installs of software, and booting up programs rather than storage can be mega quick windows loads in 1/2 the time etc
