MainBoard UpGrade

[Guest]

My Mainboard only support 2gb ddr ram , iwant to upgrade main board so i can
have 4gb ddr2 available !!Will i need to reinstall windows?old mainboard is
a BIOSTAR the New one Will be a ASUS.

 

[Dale White]

Oh yes, you'll need to re-install and more than likely, you'll have to call
Microsofot to re-activate you're windows, if you're changing other parts.

Also, are you running 64bit vista ? If not, then you may not get full usage
of the 4GB of ram. Also, are you doing this upgrade for gaming, as there
really isn't much of a demand for 4GB in ram. I run a 2GB setup and that
seems to be the sweet spot for the time being, though games like Crysis may
change all that

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the Information .Im running 32 bit windows Vista Ultimate .I play
some games like HALO,HALF LIFE 2, Grand Theft Auto SanAndres And Delta Force
Games.I m Experiencing some slow motion on the graphics ,i got Nvidia 5700fx
256ddr ram AGP Video Card, P43.0 Ghz ,2M L2 Cache,1.5GB ddram PC 3200

 

[Dale \Mad_Murdock\ White]

Well, you know that you should expect that Vista is going to run games
roughly 5-10% slower than XP. In some games my numbers are around 15-20%
(namely Doom3), but that might be resolved with later drivers for my card.

1.5GB is a pretty good amount of ram to have. I play BF2, BF2142 and FEAR.
Those last two can munch on some ram. But the most I've seen either use is
1.3GB-1.4GB and that's under Vista.

Also, they are working on a HL2 64bit and I ran the benchmark and it's
40-50fps slower than running the 32bit version. One response I got on the
Steam forums is that 64bit code is substantially slower than 32bit code. I
don't know how true that is and google searches haven't yielded a clear
answer. So if you're thinking going to 4GB and\or 64bit windows is going to
make things better it may not.

If you search this newsgroup, you'll see a thread about BF2 doing excessive
swapping which leads to choppy play. I also get that choppy play, but it's
has nothing to do with the amount of ram I had, as I had 600MB free when it
start doing whatever it was doing.

I'm sure it's in your plans, but instead of the extra ram, I'd be looking to
spend that money on a new video card. The 5700 is getting fairly long in the
tooth. For about the same amount of money you're spending on RAM and a
motherboard, you could get like a 7600GT.

I'm guessing that you're wanting to move to a PCI-e board, so you might be
upgrading anyways. but I would say, try it with 2GB first and then add more
later. Unless you just want to have 4GB of ram. Most systems only report 3GB
under windows, 1Gb is set aside for the hardware or something to that effect

 

[Guest]

Thanks Again!!!
yes i will try to go for a 2GB ram First , about video card this main board
only supports AGP 8x i will try Oclock Video Card just a little and see if
does any better . According to Windows Vista Ultimate My score now is a total
of 3.1:
processor 4.2
ram 4.4
graphics 3.6
GamingGraphics 3.1
Hd 5.3
Im Not to much in a rush to step in yet to 64 bit OS(do to the amount of
programs available in 64Bit) , even that my current mainboard does support 64
bit processors. After the Ram up grade i will see how much better
improvement in benchmark and in Windows scores .The Idea of the PCIe is great
,i know that will be a big jump in performance in the gaming area .For that
i will have to give up My current mother board!!I m very pleased with W.Vista
i want to keep it for my daily computer activities but i also wants the
entertainment in the weekends .Ones i get enought Info i will do the change
all at one time with a good combination of parts to perform my games also
..Again thanks for the over view !
obs : Vista 32bit only can handle 3GB Ram ?

 

[Dale \Mad_Murdock\ White]

If you want to stick it out with AGP a little while longer, you know you
can get a pretty nice cad in the ATI 1950 Pro.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161071

You also have the 7800GS in agp flavors
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143046

It's atough call, because going to a new Mobo, means a new video card. But
the AGP line is all but dead and none of the current cards offer DX10
support. So spending another $230 on an AGP card is putting money into a
dying technology. But if you're looking to minimize cost and prolong the
life of your system, that's probably the cheapest route to take.

 

[Maverick]

Just for your infos, you wont need to reinstall Vista, like everyone thought
with XP.

There is a procedure on MS website.

Simple.


Maverick