Upgrading help

[frostedflames]

Hey guys its gonna be my birthday on july 18 and i am considering upgrading my ram that is 512 ddr and adding a gig and i possible might get a ATI x700 PRO 256MB AGP card but i dont know if i can get both so if you had to get one or the other what would you get? my system specs are right now Two pentium 4 processors running at 3.00 ghz each so 6 ghz toatal and a geforce fx 5600 ultra 128 mb ram and 512 pc3200 ddr ram i usally play World of warcraft and and "source" games i can run them fine now i can run source games on high and 1280 by 780 res and wow i have to run on low with 1280 by 1024 res so any help would be great thanks in advance later all

[Indoril Nerevar]

The video card upgrade would give you more of a performance boost, but upgrading the RAM would be cheaper.

Have you considered getting an extra 512Mb of RAM instead of 1Gb, and upgrading the video card as well?

If I had to choose between the two, I'd upgrade the video card. While having more RAM would be good, a better video card will give you the performance boost you're looking for.

[gamerman0203]

Indoril is right. Your vid card upgrade idea will give you more desired results. However, if you can get 512MB of RAM and a vid card, that would be the best. Even for todays best games, 1GB of ram will run them really good so anything more than that would be a waste if you're on a budget. One thing to remember however is if you are going to get more RAM, make sure that you use matched pairs to keep the dual channel ability. the next 512mb should be dual identicle 256mb sticks or if you get 1gb, then make sure to get dual identicle 512mb sticks.

[frostedflames]

http://shop3.outpost.com/product/445...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG thats the ram im going to buy its just one stick and the price isnt that bad and im getting the x700 pro from there for 99$ i think im just going for both

[gamerman0203]

that RAM will do fine, but don't try to overclock it. It will serve it's function, but if you try to get more out of it then its built for (overclocking) then you could run the risk of it getting damaged. Are you going with Fry's because you have a local store or are you ordering the items?

[frostedflames]

ya theres a frys here in vegas but im going to order it online because that price isnt availbile in the store here i have looked and im not trying to over clock anything

[gamerman0203]

ok, look at newegg.com, mwave.com, tigerdirect.com, monarchcomputer.com, zipzoomfly.com, xpcgear.com. They all have good products and might even be a little cheaper meaning you could get more for your money.

[frostedflames]

they're all secure right because some of the sites look a little low end lol

[gamerman0203]

yeah. I've ordered from Mwave, newegg, tigerdirect, and monarch without any problems. Mwave tends to be the cheapest and they actually are very secure! My order got put on hold last time because my shipping address was different from my billing address and I had to call and confirm I was who I said I was and then they shipped the item.

[frostedflames]

ok i found my ram now i need some more help whats the difference and what should i get this x700 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131307 or http://shop3.outpost.com/product/444...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG that one there the same price just what one is better or are they even different

[gamerman0203]

they are essentially the same video card. One is just straight from ATI and the other is ATI technology, but Powercolor has put their name on it because they may have tweaked something or added something to the package. Both are virtually identicle however.

[frostedflames]

so powercolor might be better? what would you get lol thanks for all this help

[gamerman0203]

Hey, it's what we're here for! We love to help!!

It might be better, but I'm willing to bet they are basically the same. It's hard to tell.

edit: Powercolors clock rates are slightly better so it will give slightly better performance.

[frostedflames]

ok im gonna go for the one on newegg because the ram is on there also the ram im getting is AMPO DDR 400 1024MB : PC3200 CL3 184-Pin DIMM but i dont know if i should because ive been reading reviews and theres alot of compatibility issues maybe you would know lol i have a Intel Desktop Board D875PBZ i just want to know if that ram is going to work with my board it should and it better its 70$ bucks for the ram lol

[gamerman0203]

If the budget allows, I would go for a better known brand like Curcial, OCZ, Kingston, Corsair. However if you do get that memory and it doesn't work, by chance, the hardware team should be able to help.

Check this vidcard out. Little bit more expensive, but have a rebate. Clock rates are better so the performance will be better.

[frostedflames]

thats nice im gonna try for that because its same price after rebate basically thanks alot for all the help my final decision is lol http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merch...y_Code=ALL-ATI that video card and http://shop3.outpost.com/product/445...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG that ram sounds good?

[frostedflames]

so this can play bf2 and stuff right lol

[frostedflames]

one more question i was looking at comparisons to the ATI (HIS) Radeon X1600 Pro IceQ 256MB to my Geforce FX 5600 ultra and the geforce i have now has a faster memory clock speed but the is a faster like the core clock Memory Transfer Rate is faster also by 12.48 GB/s on the ati and 12.8 GB/s on my current geforce the pixels per clock is 8 on the x1600 pro so its almost the same. is it going to be that much of a difference? and will the ram help im definatly getting the 1gb and im getting the corsair instead of the wintec

[frostedflames]

if it is the same i found on new egg a GeForce 6800 xtreme for 134 bucks but it has a mail in rebate for 35 bucks and i might go with that nvm its pci-e

[Indoril Nerevar]

You can really only compare clock settings of the same kind of video card - that is, compare an X1600 with an X1600. Different GPU's run a different clock settings, so you can't really compare them.

The X1600 is a good choice, and will be much better than the FX5600. You can't use the 6800 you were looking at, because it's PCI-Express, and your motherboard only supports AGP.

And, yes, the X1600 will play games like Battlefield 2 quite well.