Few quick questions...

[thclifted]

Im planning on upgrading my computer this week.

Its an pentium 4 2.8ghz
512mb ram
raedon 9200SE

and well im planning on getting a new video card and double my ram.

if you guys wouldnt mind..heres a link to the card im thinking about buying and if you could tell me if its a good choice.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814102509

As for doubling my ram...what would be required to do so? i want to make it a 1024...

Im planning on playing Americas army and Battlefield 2(when it comes out) mainly...and i think my 2.8 should be good enough to handle it. Im not sure so thats why im asking u guys!

thanks a lot
(also im willing to spend up to 300$ for a video card)

 

[Dishdog]

That card will do you good. for doupling your RAM you should get the exact same kind as you have now so it can be put into dual channel mode. Is the 512mb you have now all in one stick or is there more than one?

 

[thclifted]

im not sure about the one stick question. how can i check what is the exact same kind? so i can check it out at newegg

 

[catalyst1]

Well, I'm not really big on ATI, so I don't know much about them. As an NVIDIA fan, I just gotta suggest one. If I were on your budget, I would get:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127179

Or, if you don't mind going a bit over $300, get a 6800GT instead of just a 6800. Also, the 7800 series is coming out very soon (like a week), so wait until then and get a 6800Ultra.

 

[catalyst1]

im not sure about the one stick question. how can i check what is the exact same kind? so i can check it out at newegg

Just look inside to see how many sticks of RAM you have. If there's one, then you have one 512MB stick. If there are two, they are two 256MB. Also if there are two, you won't be able to use dual channel. In order to use dual channel, you have to have two sticks of RAM that are the same size and speed. If you still wanted to do dual channel, you'd have to get rid of the two 256MB and get two 512MB.

 

[thclifted]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119076

What kind of power supply does that have? is it above a 350w because thats what the video card needs. Also do you think thats a good case? because the other ones are way to complicated with colors and such, i just want a classic black case. Also im looking for a flat screen CRT...for under 200. I see an Envision 19' http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824197002 which looks pretty good.

 

[catalyst1]

If you look a bit further down at the specs, you'll see that it comes with no power supply. You'd have to get one separately.

 

[Kage]

This program might help (though if you take a RAM module out, it might have the amount and speed written on it):

http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en

That program will also be able to tell you the speed of the RAM modules running in your PC too, because you should get exactly the same speed of the stuff already in your PC, and if you can, Brand too (Getting a faster module than you have in there will just slow the newer one down to the speeds of the slower one (for example PC3200/DDR400))

Yeah, that card seems good by the way,

and if you have only 256mb, i would upgrade to 512mb. 1gb is also great, though most people probably wouldn't notice the difference unless they ran alot on there PC (I do notice a bit). One good way of checking would be to go to Control Alt, and Delete and checking how much RAM is being used up when your normal amount of programs are running. If you think it nears the borderline quite alot, upgrade, and with 256mb, you really should anyway.

I hope this helps

 

[alvino]

Although I'm not really for ATI, I have to admit that the X800XL is quite the card, ATI really redeemed themselves for the mess they made out of the X700.

 

[rdcmmnst]

they did that for sure alvino..