will more memory improve this system ?

[Eps]

athlon xp 2100 (1.73 ghz)
512 mb pc2100
epox 8rda+
maxtor 120 GB HD
Geforce 4 ti4200 64 MB

I have about £50 to spend, would and stick of 512 mb memory make any
noticeable difference ?, should I throw out the old memory and replace it
with 2700 or higher ?

any help appreciated.

 

[LiveWire]

athlon xp 2100 (1.73 ghz)

512 mb pc2100
epox 8rda+
maxtor 120 GB HD
Geforce 4 ti4200 64 MB

I have about £50 to spend, would and stick of 512 mb memory make any
noticeable difference ?, should I throw out the old memory and replace it
with 2700 or higher ?

any help appreciated.

Really depends on what you are doing with that computer.

Generally speaking of course, 512MB is usually more than sufficient for most
applications and upgrading to 1024MB will not likely result in much of a
performance gain. If you are doing some serious video work, then yes, maybe
1024MB should be considered.

I would only go for the PC2700 if you plan to overclock by raising the FSB,
as you will not achieve a performance gain by simply replacing the PC2100
with PC2700. Keep in mind you want to keep the CPU and memory frequencies
synchronized with the nforce2 for stability.

 

[S.Heenan]

athlon xp 2100 (1.73 ghz)
512 mb pc2100
epox 8rda+
maxtor 120 GB HD
Geforce 4 ti4200 64 MB

I have about £50 to spend, would and stick of 512 mb memory make any
noticeable difference ?, should I throw out the old memory and
replace it with 2700 or higher ?

any help appreciated.

The Epox uses the Nforce2 chipset. It's also a favourite of overclockers. If
you plan to raise the FSB of the processor to 166MHz or higher,
PC3200(200MHz) would be a solid choice. Crucial UK lists 512MB PC3200 at £70
VAT in. Overclockers.co.uk has Twin-MOS 512MB PC3200 for the same price.

 

[kony]

athlon xp 2100 (1.73 ghz)
512 mb pc2100
epox 8rda+
maxtor 120 GB HD
Geforce 4 ti4200 64 MB

I have about £50 to spend, would and stick of 512 mb memory make any
noticeable difference ?, should I throw out the old memory and replace it
with 2700 or higher ?

any help appreciated.

As other posters have mentioned, it depends on what you do with the
computer, if you utilize in excess of 512MB more often than rarely.
Rasing FSB is also beneficial, so if your current memory still has a
bit of headroom to it you might find that simply raising the FSB (and
keeping synchronous memory bus) more is beneficial, unless you are CPU
limited... if it's a Palomino or T'Bred 'A" it probably doesn't have
much left in it, but a T'Bred "B" would.

Since you already seem to be o'c the CPU, I'll assume you have no
aversion to overclocking and suggest that unless you actually need
more than 512MB memory, the best performance gain for near £50 would
be buying an XP1700 "B" step CPU, then rasing the FSB as far as the
memory will tolerate, and if the memory isn't tolerant of >= 166MHz
(or maybe even if it is), it'd also be pretty worthwhile to raise the
CPU multiplier, voltage, to get the chip to around 2.3GHz. Of course
it goes without saying that extensive testing is necessary to
determine viability of such an o'c system.


Dave

 

[Eps]

Since you already seem to be o'c the CPU, I'll assume you have no
aversion to overclocking and suggest that unless you actually need
more than 512MB memory, the best performance gain for near £50 would
be buying an XP1700 "B" step CPU, then rasing the FSB as far as the
memory will tolerate, and if the memory isn't tolerant of >= 166MHz
(or maybe even if it is), it'd also be pretty worthwhile to raise the
CPU multiplier, voltage, to get the chip to around 2.3GHz. Of course
it goes without saying that extensive testing is necessary to
determine viability of such an o'c system.

ok thanks everybody, you were very helpful, think I'm going keep it the way
it is and spend the dosh on something else.