Another Ram Question

[loonsluv]

I am wondering what you guys think..

I currently have a p4 2.5ghz, 6800 gt, and I currently have 1.5 gig's of ram.. it is the 2100 ddr, crucial is telling me now that I can put 2 gigs of 3200 ddr in my comp. My motherboard is old.. Intel Db45ept2, and they say the 2 gigs I will notice a huge differnce.. Is it worth spending the 200 buck..??

[LoD]

Re: Another Ram Question

First 2GB of PC2100 is not $200, its closer to $100, secondly you won't notice a huge difference. 1.5GB is the sweet spot for BF2, 2GB is not going to buy you much of a difference.

[Alm()nd J()y]

Re: Another Ram Question

If you're motherboard came with pc2100 ram, you'r comptuer will most likely not support pc3200. You can probably get 2 gigs of pc2700 for about $120 - 140 or so.

[loonsluv]

Re: Another Ram Question

do you think i will see a huge difference in the 2700 compared to the 2100?

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Another Ram Question

do you think i will see a huge difference in the 2700 compared to the 2100?

Not if you MOBO only runs at 2100 speed. It won't make a diffrence.

[Laike]

Re: Another Ram Question

http://www.totalbf2.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73696

Please post in the right spot.

[Kapyong]

Re: Another Ram Question

Greetings,

Before buying,
I suggest you determine what your mobo can handle.

Who are "crucial" ?
How do they know what your PC can handle?

Look at is this way -
if your PC can run at 3200,
why was it installed with 2100?

K.

[RAF92_Warhawk]

Re: Another Ram Question

Who are "crucial" ?
How do they know what your PC can handle?

Crucial is a memory company named Crucial Memory...

I suggest googling your exact mobo model and look for the specs!

[abtomat74]

Re: Another Ram Question

First 2GB of PC2100 is not $200, its closer to $100, secondly you won't notice a huge difference. 1.5GB is the sweet spot for BF2, 2GB is not going to buy you much of a difference.

The reason why we all say 2 gigs...is because more of us run AMD's which do not like having all 4 slots filled. So 2x1024 is the optimal choice over 4x512.

Also, for Pentium users it seems silly to have 2x512 and then add 2x256 later...why not add another equal matching pair of 2x512's?

Lastly, 2 gigs(2x1024) also allows you to keep dual channel so you don't go 2x512 + 512.
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pc2100 is much more expensive than pc3200. Why? Supply and demand. Supply is high, demand is nil.

[LoD]

Re: Another Ram Question

The reason why we all say 2 gigs...is because more of us run AMD's which do not like having all 4 slots filled. So 2x1024 is the optimal choice over 4x512.

Also, for Pentium users it seems silly to have 2x512 and then add 2x256 later...why not add another equal matching pair of 2x512's?

Lastly, 2 gigs(2x1024) also allows you to keep dual channel so you don't go 2x512 + 512.
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pc2100 is much more expensive than pc3200. Why? Supply and demand. Supply is high, demand is nil.

The prices are less than $145 for 2GB of PC3200/2700/2100 ram right now. It's irrelevent which he gets, but I would advice PC3200 since its the fastest and usually the cheapest.

I agree with what you're saying about the 4 slots, and dropping to a 2T command speed, but there is not a tremendous amount of performance to be gained there. If he currently has 1GB + 512MB, or 3x 512MB he is going to be getting almost all the benefits of 2GB for BF2 right now. Blowing another $150 to drop to a 1T speed, and gain 512MB of capactity isn't going to make his computer much faster, esspecially for BF2.

Though you are right on the priciple, I think they are largly irrelevent in this case.

[abtomat74]

Re: Another Ram Question

I mentioned dual vs single channel, not 1T/2T which I agree with you on.

You mention 1GB + 512MB, or 3x 512MB specifically...neither of which offers dual channel. Running in single channel vs dual will make an enormous difference.

I had several friends take my mobo recomendation for new builds within the last year...all of them initially inserted the ram as single channel due to the manual being slightly vague(I did it right though).
They had issues until placing the ram correctly. Keep in mind the same ram was used, and same amount...just simply making it run in dual channel made a world of difference. Basically it felt as if single channel performed like having 1GB instead of the 2GB that was installed.

Hence my suggestion to go ahead with the 2nd ram purchase of 2x512. Yes, the 2nd purchase could be 2x256, but here we disagree on BF2 ram useage.

According to my CachemanXP, I startup to desktop with 1730MB free from my total of 2048. I load BF2 along with TeamSpeak(15-20mb's), and at my lowest point from ALT+tabbing out to desktop shows me with 180 remaining. Not all maps are the same, some use more juice.

Adding the 20 from TS back to my total brings us to 200 remaining. BF2 on my machine uses up to 1530MB's in this case.

So for someone who only has 1.5GB, it leaves nothing for the O/S. Therefore it is my contention that BF2's sweet spot is actually 1.75GB's. And when you factor in my dual vs single channel, no one should have 1.75 and should instead have the full 2GB and keep dual channel and have a little overhead remaining.