New Memory - Too much for my pc to handle?

[GlimmerMan]

I am going to buy Corsair TWINX1024-4400C25 RAM and am wondering what
kind of effects it will have on my computer, like voltage ,
performance etc.

These are my specs

AMD 64 3500+
Asus A8V Deluxe/ WiFi-G
GeForce FX 5200 256mb
Audigy 2 ZS
512mb Kingston ValueRAM 333mhz ( i think)
Thermaltake 400w PSU

The biggest thing i worried about is if it will make any problems with
the voltage . I read an article that said this type of ram really
chews up power.

 

[John]

On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 14:11:13 +0000,

I am going to buy Corsair TWINX1024-4400C25 RAM and am wondering what
kind of effects it will have on my computer, like voltage ,
performance etc.

These are my specs

AMD 64 3500+
Asus A8V Deluxe/ WiFi-G
GeForce FX 5200 256mb
Audigy 2 ZS
512mb Kingston ValueRAM 333mhz ( i think)
Thermaltake 400w PSU

The biggest thing i worried about is if it will make any problems with
the voltage . I read an article that said this type of ram really
chews up power.

Really? Id like to read that. In most of the power use calculators Ive
seen they just have a slot for the amount of mem and dont have
elaborate choices for different types of memory.

Thats got to be really expensive. I think Id rather get cheaper 3200
mem and upgrade my video card instead to a 6600 GT or something.

If you are running your AMD 64 at 333/166 then just running it at
400/200 will make it noticeably faster. Thats what its supposed to be
set on - 200. Its like of weird it was set on 333 in the first place
unless you have some leftover memory you wanted to use. If thats the
case get some DDR 400/3200 mem which Newegg has been really aggressive
in selling this month. People have been posting deal after deal about
newegg mem deals. Even ZipZoomFly had one corsair or musking deal 1
gig for around 90 or something.

If you get 4400 mem then itll enable you to raise the FSB higher than
the stock 200 to some degree to overclock the CPU vs 3200 but whats
the point? If you want better graphics/game performance you already
have an excellent processor in stock form if you set it to 200 FSB
with 3200 - get at least that. But you have a REALLY wimpy graphics
card. A 5200 is known as the card that can do Direct X 9 at the
lowest price , thats too wimpy to play any Direct X 9 games. Even a
plain old 6600 would be much better for around 100 or so and a 6600 GT
is now falling in price. It was 200 but Ive seen some recent prices in
the 179-189 range.

There have been numerous sales since 3200 mem seems to finally be
falling again after rising and staying high last year. But about 2
months ago seems to be falling. The local chains have been having
sales on mddle of the road brand names for $39-59 per 512 stick with
rebates and newegg and others but mostly newegg - has been selling it
wtih and without rebates for as low as around $38 per 512 stick.

Next week is Compusas sales week they alternate so they might have a
sale again too as well as Circuit City and Microcenter etc if you are
in the US.

 

[John]

Really? Id like to read that. In most of the power use calculators Ive

DUHHHH I missed the voltage part. Its really early here and skimming
over your post I thought you were concerned with power usage. Ignore
that part.

Have no idea about the voltage part especially if you are thinking of
really upping the volts to OC. But if you stick to DDR 400/3200 at
stock settings you shouldnt have any problems unless its incompatible
or poor mem.

 

[kony]

I am going to buy Corsair TWINX1024-4400C25 RAM and am wondering what
kind of effects it will have on my computer, like voltage ,
performance etc.

Do you do things that need more memory?
WIndows' Task Manager will show you the memory load.

These are my specs

AMD 64 3500+
Asus A8V Deluxe/ WiFi-G
GeForce FX 5200 256mb
Audigy 2 ZS
512mb Kingston ValueRAM 333mhz ( i think)
Thermaltake 400w PSU

The biggest thing i worried about is if it will make any problems with
the voltage . I read an article that said this type of ram really
chews up power.

No, that sounds completely wrong.
The memory will have a specific voltage it's spec'd to use
for it's PC(nnnn) speed and timings. Your motherboard
should support that voltage, either already using it or by
user adjustment in bios. "usually" this is not a problem,
you are on the wrong track here... usually the problem is
whether the motherboard is stable running multiple modules
at their spec'd timings, which can be a motherboard and/or
memory (itself) problem. Commonly referred to as
"incompatible" when it otherwise seems compatible. You can
only try it, test it first with "memtest86" for several
hours.

 

[GlimmerMan]

It said in an article it uses 2.8v and my motherboard doesnt allow
that in the bios, i suppose i can just chanhge the voltage in the
bios and presto!

Yes my 5200 FX is a peice of SH!T i get 30fps max on americas army and
liek 16-18fps during shooting , After i buy this ram im gonna up the
graphics to a 6800GT or maybe just 6600 like you said. i was
thihnking of getting a ATI 9800XT from asus, Does that compare to a
6600 U or GT?

The reason why im going for such high performance RAM is because my
system is all good apart from the RAM, its REALLY slowing it down.
My computer cant handle having AA and 1 other program up without
going over my RAM limit. Its reallt pissing me off. The performance
im getting from this ram is anything but satisfactory so im hoping by
going up a whole lot i will get a performance boost. the RAM im
getting is 550mhz

 

[John]

On Sat, 16 Apr 2005 09:21:55 +0000,

It said in an article it uses 2.8v and my motherboard doesnt allow
that in the bios, i suppose i can just chanhge the voltage in the
bios and presto!

Yes my 5200 FX is a peice of SH!T i get 30fps max on americas army and
liek 16-18fps during shooting , After i buy this ram im gonna up the
graphics to a 6800GT or maybe just 6600 like you said. i was
thihnking of getting a ATI 9800XT from asus, Does that compare to a
6600 U or GT?

The reason why im going for such high performance RAM is because my
system is all good apart from the RAM, its REALLY slowing it down.
My computer cant handle having AA and 1 other program up without
going over my RAM limit. Its reallt pissing me off. The performance
im getting from this ram is anything but satisfactory so im hoping by
going up a whole lot i will get a performance boost. the RAM im
getting is 550mhz

I can see going for really expensive mem if you have money to burn ,
already have a decent graphics card and werent running below what you
are supposed to be running at if you really are running at 333. If
you are running at 333 obviously thats the problem. Just running it
at the speed you are supposed to run at would be a big improvement and
the mem is much cheaper leaving more money for the graphics card.

The 9800XT you can see the test results. Its kind of a mixed bag. The
9800XT is still a good card - it keeps up with the Nvidias in some
games and even beats them by a hair in others. But in the games the
nvidias are well known to be good at like Doom a fair sized gap opens
up. So it really depends on the price you get it at. In pricewatch its
$378 which is a gross out price. You can get a 6800GT nowadays for
lower than that and the 800XL ATI with 256 mem is as low as $275 or
so in some recent sales which is around the 6800GT level.


http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/index.html

The tests Ive seen in the past - the 6600GT was pretty close to the
6800GT until you went really high res and start turning on lots of the
extras and at $179 or so prices its getting pretty cheap.

A 3500 64 running at the speed its supposed to is definitely enough
speed for general , the graphics card is going to be the important
factor in games not overclocking the CPU. If you end up spending so
much on the mem that you have to still use the 5200 for the next 6
months or so thats a farce. You can have a super fast system with the
3500 with stock 3200/400 mem and a decent graphics card or try to push
for a bit faster CPU by overclocking using expensive mem and one of
the slowest graphics cards around - thats bizarre and if you have to
wait around another 6-8 months to save for a graphics card in which
you could have been enjoying your system the next gen graphics chips
maybe out by then and of course theyll be really expensive and who
knows maybe the top systems will be moving on to dual core processors.

 

[kony]

It said in an article it uses 2.8v and my motherboard doesnt allow
that in the bios, i suppose i can just chanhge the voltage in the
bios and presto!

That seems a bit excessive, most memory is fine with 2.6V.
If a module needs that much voltage one would wonder if it's
really higher spec memory or is just (essentially) being
overclocked, but tested to be able to do so ahead of time.

Yes my 5200 FX is a peice of SH!T i get 30fps max on americas army and
liek 16-18fps during shooting , After i buy this ram im gonna up the
graphics to a 6800GT or maybe just 6600 like you said. i was
thihnking of getting a ATI 9800XT from asus, Does that compare to a
6600 U or GT?

For many (maybe most) games your video card is a larger
bottleneck than the memory. 6600GT is a good alternative.

The reason why im going for such high performance RAM is because my
system is all good apart from the RAM, its REALLY slowing it down.

That's a reason to get more memory, not necessarily paying
premium for super-spec'd memory. America's Army (for
example) should not need this fancy memory, it is either
bottlenecked by the video card or you have some other system
issues, perhaps a different driver is needed or adjusting
PCI latency (common with integrated sound, sometimes it
stutters and other times it just slows things down).

My computer cant handle having AA and 1 other program up without
going over my RAM limit.

AA is about video card memory and performance, not system
memory. FX5200 just isn't a gamers' card, relatively
speaking.

Its reallt pissing me off. The performance
im getting from this ram is anything but satisfactory so im hoping by
going up a whole lot i will get a performance boost. the RAM im
getting is 550mhz

It's not a matter of ".... performance from this ram". You
simply need a better video card and maybe another 512MB of
same/similar memory and you should see very large FPS
increases.

 

[John]

It's not a matter of ".... performance from this ram". You
simply need a better video card and maybe another 512MB of
same/similar memory and you should see very large FPS
increases.

It may be a mistake but he says he has :

"512mb Kingston ValueRAM 333mhz ( i think)"

If hes really running an AMD 64 3500 at 333 thats his problem right
there. I didnt think any AMD 64s did 333 but apparently the MB he has
does, its listed as 333/400. All he has to do is get 3200/400 mem save
around 150-200 depending on how much he gets and thatll cover most of
the cost of decent graphics card.

If hes mistaken and doesnt have 333 mem then Id still get the graphics
card and if it still feels slow consider the really expensive memory
and overclocking.

 

[kony]

It may be a mistake but he says he has :

"512mb Kingston ValueRAM 333mhz ( i think)"

If hes really running an AMD 64 3500 at 333 thats his problem right
there. I didnt think any AMD 64s did 333 but apparently the MB he has
does, its listed as 333/400. All he has to do is get 3200/400 mem save
around 150-200 depending on how much he gets and thatll cover most of
the cost of decent graphics card.

If hes mistaken and doesnt have 333 mem then Id still get the graphics
card and if it still feels slow consider the really expensive memory
and overclocking.

Yep, he should have/buy PC3200 but even if he were running
PC2700 on an async'd bus I'd still expect the video card to
be the far largest bottleneck.

 

[GlimmerMan]

Meh... to late i have bought the memory and a LCD screen and have $7
left. This memory isnt just for AA its for all games, Do you think i
should go back to my ASUS GF 4 ti 4800 128mb? I think it runs better
than that peice of crap chaintech fx i got. Then again i only
intended the fx as a tempory card which i bought from impulse. I
looked on the corsair site and found the ram im getting is best for
overclocking and i will overclock the machine maybe to a 4000+ if i
can get it that high. In Australia a 6600GT cost about $300- $500 so
i got about 6-7 weeks of saving to do. maybe i will just wait fot a
new video card to come out and then buy the 6800U or X800 as they
will be cheaper.

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

I am going to buy Corsair TWINX1024-4400C25 RAM and am wondering what
kind of effects it will have on my computer, like voltage ,
performance etc.

These are my specs

AMD 64 3500+
Asus A8V Deluxe/ WiFi-G
GeForce FX 5200 256mb
Audigy 2 ZS
512mb Kingston ValueRAM 333mhz ( i think)
Thermaltake 400w PSU

The biggest thing i worried about is if it will make any problems with
the voltage . I read an article that said this type of ram really
chews up power.

There won't be a power problem. However your system has to run all of the
RAM at the same speed so if your current RAM is 333MHz (PC2700) then
that's the speed all of the RAM is going to run at, so buying PC4400 RAM
only makes sense if it's the same price as PC2700. Also faster RAM on a
Athlon 64 makes negligible difference.

 

[kony]

Meh... to late i have bought the memory and a LCD screen and have $7
left. This memory isnt just for AA its for all games, Do you think i
should go back to my ASUS GF 4 ti 4800 128mb? I think it runs better
than that peice of crap chaintech fx i got.

Yes it's probably faster except at certain DX9 functions
(which the FX5200 isn't much faster at either and are pretty
insignificant when the FX5200 can't do anything else fast
enough for a good framerate). TI 4xxx cards overclocked are
definitely faster than FX5200.

Then again i only
intended the fx as a tempory card which i bought from impulse. I
looked on the corsair site and found the ram im getting is best for
overclocking and i will overclock the machine maybe to a 4000+ if i
can get it that high. In Australia a 6600GT cost about $300- $500 so
i got about 6-7 weeks of saving to do. maybe i will just wait fot a
new video card to come out and then buy the 6800U or X800 as they
will be cheaper.

What is the goal here? If you only need faster gaming
you're wasting your time overclocking, as it's the video
card that's the bottleneck. AFTER you get a new vidcard
look into mem or CPU o'c.