Queries regarding RAM update and new Graphics Card

[channabasanna]

Hi All,

I already have a Corsair XMS2 kit of 2GB (1GB x 2) 800MHz RAM [CM2X1024-6400]. I would like to upgrade it to 2GB more with the same XMS2 kit. Most of the shops in SP Road does not have it (they only have a 2GB stick, not the 1GB x 2 sticks). Any suggestions where i can get it from and what will its price be, will be using the XP SP3 for somemore time and want to use all the 4 RAM slots .

My Rig: Intel C2Q Q6600 G0, ASUS Maximus Formula, XMS2 800MHz 1GB x2, CM extreme Power 600W, CM Elite 332, WD 320GB HDD, Seagate 80GB HDD, SONY DVD+RW, Viewsonic VA1912wb 19", XFX 7600GS, OCZ Vendetta 2.

Also i am planning to upgrade my Graphics Card to GTX260 series in a couple of months time.

Currently i have Viewsonic VA1912wb 19" with 1440x900 resolution, will be buying a 24" full HD monitor sometime later this year.

I would like to use the card to play the new games in atleast medium-high settings and in full HD if my system supports with good frame rates.

Also would be using to see HD movies.

My queries:

1. Which brand should i opt for the Card and what will be its price? (10-11k would be fine, Ankit Infotech person told me that Zotac is 10,250 and XFX is somewhere near 11k)

2. Which all features should i verify while buying the Card? (Memory, Cores... etc)

3. I wont be overclocking the Card, nor my Proccy. So i don't need to change my PSU right.

4. My PSU has only 4pin 12v Connector, where has the motherboard has 8pin 12V connector, does this cause any problem when i add on the GTX260.

5. Based on query 4. Can i add molex to 8 pin 12v connector instead of the 4 pin one. What will its price be?

6. Will the Card fit into my Elite 332 Cabinet, since i have 2 HDD's already in the Cabinet?

7. Any extra cooling for the System needed with the card, i will be keeping the Cabinet such that it's rear end is directly facing a Open Window.

8. Any idea of price drop of the GTX 260 card's. Because of the Fermi based cards on the way (or in) the market.

Thanks in Advance,

Channabasanna S

 

[Amien]

Firstly, i'd recommend you upgrade your card AFTER you switch to a full HD monitor. Doing so will leave more options open at the time of purchase and will likely get you what you are looking for cheaper.

Secondly, Even if you aren't going to overclock, i woudn't trust a GTX 260 to that CM Extreme Power 600W PSU. Just do a quick search around these forums and you will understand as to why. My suggestion is not to think about upgrading the GPU before you can get a better PSU.

Thirdly, I'd suggest looking at newer, more efficient/better featured cards unless you are getting a very good deal on the GTX 260. If you do decide to still get the GTX 260, get the 216 core/SP version as opposed to the 192 one.

Bottomline:-
Purchase order: PSU > Display > GPU or Display > PSU > GPU.

 

[channabasanna]

Thanks Amien,

But i am missing playing out a lot of new games because of 7600GS. What is the minimum PSU needed for the GTX260 cards.

I have seen many of the people suggest not to go for the CM Extreme Power 600 now. (Means that the current version of these models of these PSU's are a problem, or the whole batch of them)

But when i had upgraded my system almost 2 years go, i had been suggested by most of them at that time as the best PSU.

Also what about the availability of XMS2 2GB kit RAM.

 

[Amien]

Thanks Amien,

But i am missing playing out a lot of new games because of 7600GS. What is the minimum PSU needed for the GTX260 cards.

I have seen many of the people suggest not to go for the CM Extreme Power 600 now. (Means that the current version of these models of these PSU's are a problem, or the whole batch of them)

But when i had upgraded my system almost 2 years go, i had been suggested by most of them at that time as the best PSU.

Also what about the availability of XMS2 2GB kit RAM.

Well, if you must, sell the 7600GS and upgrade to an HD 5670 or so, will max nearly everything on your 19incher. A better card as it is would get bottlenecked by your processor, and would need a decent overclock. Why are you against OCing btw? Both your CPU+Motherboard are capable... anyway,
The 5670, as all midrange cards will hold its value till the end of the year, after which you can sell it and move on to something better when you go Full HD.

The CM Extreme power has never been a good choice, though at one point it was one of the only few, which may explain the old recommendations.

As for the RAM, quite a few dealers should have XMS sticks in stock, however i think 2x2GB would be more widely available and the better choice.

 

[ALPHA17]

Dude you can go for a ATI Sapphire HD 5770 in that PSU of yours the only reason it is not recommended is bcoz the Cooler MAster Extreme series of PSUs have a poor efficiency rating

 

[St.John]

I already have a Corsair XMS2 kit of 2GB (1GB x 2) 800MHz RAM [CM2X1024-6400]. I would like to upgrade it to 2GB more with the same XMS2 kit. Most of the shops in SP Road does not have it (they only have a 2GB stick, not the 1GB x 2 sticks). Any suggestions where i can get it from and what will its price be, will be using the XP SP3 for somemore time and want to use all the 4 RAM slots .

Corsair CM2X 1024-6400 800 Mhz DDR2 1GB RAM ? Lynx - The Audio , Electronics & Computer Online Superstore In India

here you go... finding 1 GB otherwise is going to be difficult because most people today build a rig with atleast 2 GB of RAM, and makes more sense to have 1 stick and add 1 stick later for 2*2 GB... or what you can do is sell your bundle and get 2*2 GB...

My Rig: Intel C2Q Q6600 G0, ASUS Maximus Formula, XMS2 800MHz 1GB x2, CM extreme Power 600W, CM Elite 332, WD 320GB HDD, Seagate 80GB HDD, SONY DVD+RW, Viewsonic VA1912wb 19", XFX 7600GS, OCZ Vendetta 2.

Also i am planning to upgrade my Graphics Card to GTX260 series in a couple of months time.
Currently i have Viewsonic VA1912wb 19" with 1140x900 resolution, will be buying a 24" full HD monitor sometime later this year.
I would like to use the card to play the new games in atleast medium-high settings and in full HD if my system supports with good frame rates.
Also would be using to see HD movies.

Your CM 600 Watts should do just fine, if you buy a Radeon 5770.. I wouldn't trust a GTX 260 to your SMPS.. But that's just me... My neighbor runs a GTX 260 on the same PSU and it does just about fine... No issues whatsoever, but he intends to upgrade to Corsair VX 550 soon...
My queries:
1. Which brand should i opt for the Card and what will be its price? (10-11k would be fine, Ankit Infotech person told me that Zotac is 10,250 and XFX is somewhere near 11k)

XFX or Zotac buy the 216 core one... In this case if you get Zotac cheaper get the Zotac one

2. Which all features should i verify while buying the Card? (Memory, Cores... etc)


Core Clock (to see which version is it)

3. I wont be overclocking the Card, nor my Proccy. So i don't need to change my PSU right.

Well you need to though it can run fine and hopefully shouldn't give problems but a Corsair 550 Watts is highly recommended..

4. My PSU has only 4pin 12v Connector, where has the motherboard has 8pin 12V connector, does this cause any problem when i add on the GTX260.


Shouldn't but a better PSU is recommended

5. Based on query 4. Can i add molex to 8 pin 12v connector instead of the 4 pin one. What will its price be?


Yup... anything from 25 bucks to 50 bucks..

6. Will the Card fit into my Elite 332 Cabinet, since i have 2 HDD's already in the Cabinet?

Yes, it'll

7. Any extra cooling for the System needed with the card, i will be keeping the Cabinet such that it's rear end is directly facing a Open Window.


Not required... but adding a fan that can blow air directly on the GPU can help in reducing temps by a good 3 to 5 degrees..

8. Any idea of price drop of the GTX 260 card's. Because of the Fermi based cards on the way (or in) the market.

Doesn't look like... GTX 2** still does have a fan following and until and unless Nvidia releases mainstream GTX 4** cards that have to phase out the older series completely...

 

[channabasanna]

Well, if you must, sell the 7600GS and upgrade to an HD 5670 or so, will max nearly everything on your 19incher. A better card as it is would get bottlenecked by your processor, and would need a decent overclock. Why are you against OCing btw? Both your CPU+Motherboard are capable... anyway,

Can i know how bottleneck happens, will it be fine when i upgrade to a 24" full HD monitor.

As for the RAM, quite a few dealers should have XMS sticks in stock, however i think 2x2GB would be more widely available and the better choice.

I already have 2x1GB kit, hence i will not be adding 2x2GB more.

I already have a Corsair XMS2 kit of 2GB (1GB x 2) 800MHz RAM [CM2X1024-6400]. I would like to upgrade it to 2GB more with the same XMS2 kit. Most of the shops in SP Road does not have it (they only have a 2GB stick, not the 1GB x 2 sticks). Any suggestions where i can get it from and what will its price be, will be using the XP SP3 for somemore time and want to use all the 4 RAM slots .

Corsair CM2X 1024-6400 800 Mhz DDR2 1GB RAM ? Lynx - The Audio , Electronics & Computer Online Superstore In India

here you go... finding 1 GB otherwise is going to be difficult because most people today build a rig with atleast 2 GB of RAM, and makes more sense to have 1 stick and add 1 stick later for 2*2 GB... or what you can do is sell your bundle and get 2*2 GB...

Thanks St.John will soon try for that, and only sell my 1GB kit if i am unable to get.

Your CM 600 Watts should do just fine, if you buy a Radeon 5770.. I wouldn't trust a GTX 260 to your SMPS.. But that's just me... My neighbor runs a GTX 260 on the same PSU and it does just about fine... No issues whatsoever, but he intends to upgrade to Corsair VX 550 soon...

Will do update my PSU if very necessary, i.e. if my PSU struggles.

Not required... but adding a fan that can blow air directly on the GPU can help in reducing temps by a good 3 to 5 degrees..

Already i do have a CPU Cooler, OCZ Vendetta 2. So no probs of my CPU. Since i already have brought a new Laptop Cooler, i will open my old Laptop cooler and use its two coolers, to the side of my Cabinet.

 

[St.John]

Can i know how bottleneck happens, will it be fine when i upgrade to a 24" full HD monitor.

Bottleneck in simple terms means "When a certain component in a rig is not able to perform to its full potential because it has not been mated with a equally good component"... And that my friend you have nothing to worry about, a RAM upgrade to 4 GB and you'll be just fine...


Already i do have a CPU Cooler, OCZ Vendetta 2. So no probs of my CPU. Since i already have brought a new Laptop Cooler, i will open my old Laptop cooler and use its two coolers, to the side of my Cabinet.

GPU mate not CPU.... I meant Graphics Card, a 120 mm fan blowing air directly on the Card will help reduce temps... of the Graphics Card..

 

[channabasanna]

St.John thanks for the information, i would need some more information please do suggest me

Can i know how bottleneck happens, will it be fine when i upgrade to a 24" full HD monitor.

Bottleneck in simple terms means "When a certain component in a rig is not able to perform to its full potential because it has not been mated with a equally good component"... And that my friend you have nothing to worry about, a RAM upgrade to 4 GB and you'll be just fine...

So you mean that if i have RAM of 4GB then it wont be a bottleneck for the Graphics Card. Ok i understand that bottleneck happens due to memory accessing which might cause Deadlock situations, hence requires more main memory. Correct me if i am wrong.

Few more queries:
1. Suppose if i do add a 2GB single RAM module, does that affect anything, since i have 1GB x2 RAM's in dual channel.
2. Currently i am using 32 bit Windows XP with SP3, and i am not updating the OS in the current situation, so does this still come under Bottleneck.
3. Can i add a different branded RAM (say Kingston) with same speed (800MHz) which has different clock running. Will that do affect it. I have pasted the RAM details taken from PC Wizard 2010 in the following quote to show my system's RAM timing and frequency:

Information SPD EEPROM (DIMM0) :
Manufacturer : Corsair
Part Number : CM2X1024-6400
Serial Number : Unspecified
Type : DDR2-SDRAM PC2-6400 (399 MHz) - [DDR2-800]
Format : Regular UDIMM (133.35 x 3)
Size : 1024 MB (2 ranks, 4 banks)
Module Buffered : No
Module Registered : No
Module SLi Ready (EPP) : No
Width : 64-bit
Error Correction Capability (EC... No
Max. Burst Length : 8
Refresh : Reduced (.5x)7.8 µs, Self Refresh
Voltage : SSTL 1.8v
Prefetch Buffer : 4-bit
Manufacture : Week 23 of 2006
Supported Frequencies : 270 MHz, 400 MHz
CAS Latency (tCL) : 4 clocks @270 MHz, 5 clocks @400 MHz
RAS to CAS (tRCD) : 4 clocks @270 MHz, 5 clocks @400 MHz
RAS Precharge (tRP) : 4 clocks @270 MHz, 5 clocks @400 MHz
Cycle Time (tRAS) : 13 clocks @270 MHz, 18 clocks @400 MHz
Min TRC : 15 clocks @270 MHz, 22 clocks @400 MHz

Information SPD EEPROM (DIMM2) :
Manufacturer : Corsair
Part Number : CM2X1024-6400
Serial Number : Unspecified
Type : DDR2-SDRAM PC2-6400 (399 MHz) - [DDR2-800]
Format : Regular UDIMM (133.35 x 3)
Size : 1024 MB (2 ranks, 4 banks)
Module Buffered : No
Module Registered : No
Module SLi Ready (EPP) : No
Width : 64-bit
Error Correction Capability (EC... No
Max. Burst Length : 8
Refresh : Reduced (.5x)7.8 µs, Self Refresh
Voltage : SSTL 1.8v
Prefetch Buffer : 4-bit
Manufacture : Week 23 of 2006
Supported Frequencies : 270 MHz, 400 MHz
CAS Latency (tCL) : 4 clocks @270 MHz, 5 clocks @400 MHz
RAS to CAS (tRCD) : 4 clocks @270 MHz, 5 clocks @400 MHz
RAS Precharge (tRP) : 4 clocks @270 MHz, 5 clocks @400 MHz
Cycle Time (tRAS) : 13 clocks @270 MHz, 18 clocks @400 MHz
Min TRC : 15 clocks @270 MHz, 22 clocks @400 MHz

Already i do have a CPU Cooler, OCZ Vendetta 2. So no probs of my CPU. Since i already have brought a new Laptop Cooler, i will open my old Laptop cooler and use its two coolers, to the side of my Cabinet.[/COLOR]

GPU mate not CPU.... I meant Graphics Card, a 120 mm fan blowing air directly on the Card will help reduce temps... of the Graphics Card..

Yeah so only i mentioned i will be adding 2 Laptop coolers fan to it
Or will try to mod my Cabinet to be able to have a 120 or 140mm silent fan running as intake directly towards the Graphics card.

Also i am adding another request here.
My brother want's to get a complete system to his wife (budget 10-15k) main purpose is to use Microsoft Office, and some games for my brother's kid.
My dealer Pragathi Computers (SP Road, Bangalore) told me last saturday when i had been there that there is ASUS EP20 system which he will get me for 15k in total. So is that worth, no idea which OS comes with that. Somewhere i had read that it contains DOS OS or linux, do i get Windows XP drivers for that. Or does it come with Windows XP by default.

 

[St.John]

I would need some more information please do suggest me
So you mean that if i have RAM of 4GB then it wont be a bottleneck for the Graphics Card. Ok i understand that bottleneck happens due to memory accessing which might cause Deadlock situations, hence requires more main memory. Correct me if i am wrong.


Bottleneck can happen due to many reasons, one of them is the one that you have mentioned. It can also happen due to:
a) Inadequate amount of Memory (Less RAM)
b) Less Cache of the CPU
c) Slow Processor

In simplistic terms if I just consider PC Games, a simple example is a Radeon 5850 mated with a Pentium 4 2.4 GHz and 1 GB of RAM and running COD MW2 on a 22" LCD. Even though the Radeon 5850 is capable enough of running the game at the maximum resolution supported by the LCD with full eye candy since the other hardware is incapable of discerning the software (in this case a PC Game), at the rate the Graphics Card can.. As a result unplayable FPS...


Few more queries:
1. Suppose if i do add a 2GB single RAM module, does that affect anything, since i have 1GB x2 RAM's in dual channel.

Yes, it'll but since you want to stick to XP 32 bit. 4 GB is out of question, because 32-bit OS's are incapable of addressing more than 3.2 GB of RAM. And since, you have mentioned that you are running XP and intend to do so. 2 GB of RAM is quite enough. 3 GB will make a small noticeable difference but nothing out of the ordinary.

2. Currently i am using 32 bit Windows XP with SP3, and i am not updating the OS in the current situation, so does this still come under Bottleneck.


Nopes it does not. Infact, among the Microsoft's current OS's, Windows XP is still the speed king... Just so as you know as Windows XP is in it's EOL cycle, newer games & softwares might simply start dropping support for it.. eg: Just Cause 2 (Windows XP not supported)

3. Can i add a different branded RAM (say Kingston) with same speed (800MHz) which has different clock running. Will that do affect it. I have pasted the RAM details taken from PC Wizard 2010 in the following quote to show my system's RAM timing and frequency:


If you are just planning to add 1 GB of RAM, It'll just start running in Asymmetric mode... If you intend to go upto 4 GB, I suggest going to a 64 bit OS... And either get 4 * 1 GB or 2 * 2 GB to be still running Dual Channel.
Also i am adding another request here.
My brother want's to get a complete system to his wife (budget 10-15k) main purpose is to use Microsoft Office, and some games for my brother's kid.
My dealer Pragathi Computers (SP Road, Bangalore) told me last saturday when i had been there that there is ASUS EP20 system which he will get me for 15k in total. So is that worth, no idea which OS comes with that. Somewhere i had read that it contains DOS OS or linux, do i get Windows XP drivers for that. Or does it come with Windows XP by default.[/QUOTE]


Asus EEPC, no ways.. It comes with LINUX BTW...

ASUS M2N68-AM PLUS : 2,200
AMD Athlon II X2 245 : 3,000
2 GB DDR2 : 2,500
Generic Cabinet : 500
DVD Writer : 1,100
WD Blue 160 GB : 1,700
17" CRT Moniter : 2,200
Microsoft 700 Keyboard+ Mouse : 700
CM eXtreme Power Plus 350W PSU : 1,600

15,000 give or take a few hundred's...

 

[channabasanna]

Nopes it does not. Infact, among the Microsoft's current OS's, Windows XP is still the speed king... Just so as you know as Windows XP is in it's EOL cycle, newer games & softwares might simply start dropping support for it.. eg: Just Cause 2 (Windows XP not supported)

Looks like i will be happy with XP for sometime now. Along with 2GB Memory.

Asus EEPC, no ways.. It comes with LINUX BTW...

ASUS M2N68-AM PLUS : 2,200

AMD Athlon II X2 245 : 3,000

2 GB DDR2 : 2,500

Generic Cabinet : 500

DVD Writer : 1,100

WD Blue 160 GB : 1,700

17" CRT Moniter : 2,200

Microsoft 700 Keyboard+ Mouse : 700

CM eXtreme Power Plus 350W PSU : 1,600

15,000 give or take a few hundred's...

Hmmm is there any Intel counterpart with this one. This looks like i can make a deal with my brother for my current Cabinet and PSU, hope i will give him my CM extremePower 600 and CM Elite 332 to buy a new Corsair VX550 along with CM690.

 

[Arun.P]

^ if u are happy with xp but windows 7 is most stable and reliable and it can work new dx 10 and dx 11 games for eye candy graphic

then why can to hunt second hand gpu card if u need gtx 280 version or ati 5770

where i am having this card right now so i am coming to Bangalore at 1 week for holiday soon

so let me know if u need this deal offer even i already create the market thread before

 

[channabasanna]

@Arun.P

Thanks buddy, but i would not prefer buying a second product.