Help out a guy? :D

[Mutant Corn]

4MB is pretty bad, lol. 4 GB, however, is pretty much standard now.

Two 2GB sticks is what most people use.

 

[foothead]

^ You knew what he meant.

I will clarify that most people use two 2GB sticks because it offers better performance than a single 4GB stick with the same clock and timings.

In fact it will be twice as fast because it enables dual channel. This is something worth researching if you haven't.

 

[Bagzli]

lol yes 2gb i don't know why I typed 2mb and I haven't heard of dual channel but I'll look into it. You said wow is not an intensive game? I thought it was a game that required quite a good pc to play? I never played it to be honest but these are only rumors from what I hear. I don't plan to play it but I thought if you can support wow then you can support quite a few good games then. I am wrong aren't I?

So if I am to start this whole thing today (learning) I would start with processor? Can you guys tell me few key things I should know about a processor when buying one and what I should look out for?

 

[foothead]

You just can't play it on a POS Dell. What gamers consider an intensive game is crysis, STALKER, and the likes.

 

[Bagzli]

so when buying a part, should I buy motherboard or processor first? and why?

 

[mike90t09]

Well in terms of processor and motherboard, the motherboard has a certain socket type that fits only certain processors of the same socket type.

So if you buy the motherboard first you have to buy a processor that will fit that socket type.

If you buy the processor first you must find a motherboard that supports that processor's socket type.

 

[Bagzli]

so should I first be deciding on the socket type or the parts? lol

 

[wol-va-rine]

^ You knew what he meant.

I will clarify that most people use two 2GB sticks because it offers better performance than a single 4GB stick with the same clock and timings.

In fact it will be twice as fast because it enables dual channel. This is something worth researching if you haven't.

actually, no, it won't be twice as fast, not even close to twice as fast, it'll be faster, especially for benchmarking, but in most cases the differences are minimal, for just everyday use on the computer you won't even be able to notice...

 

[foothead]

I meant the RAM will be ~ twice as fast, not the whole computer.

I have seen some games where it makes a difference as well.

 

[wol-va-rine]

I meant the RAM will be ~ twice as fast, not the whole computer.

I have seen some games where it makes a difference as well.

the RAM will not be anywhere near twice as fast, the only instance where it is actually twice as fast is in copying files, games are more dependent on cpu and graphics cards, there is little difference in gaming performance and applications with dual and single channel RAM...

got any benchmarks that show that it's twice as fast in anything besides copying files, more specifically in games...? you won't find any...