Upgrading advice

[Vagrant]

First off, sorry if this belongs in the Hacking\Electronics section. I didn't feel this was a very "Underground" subject, and after all it's gaming advice.

So onto it already! My computer has and continues to serve me well but it's starting to show it's age now. Namely, a radeon 9800 pro isn't cuttin' it quite as it used to. And some more ram couldn't hurt. That's the jist of the story, here are the questions:

1) With the video card, I'm stuck AGP which kind of sucks but not too much since I'm not looking to spend all that much anyhow. So what cards would you guys reccomend? Currently I'm looking at the (Sapphire) Radeon HD 3850 512MB AGP for $130 at newegg, what do you think of that deal? Oh, also, does anyone know why ATI cards are often prefixed with things like "Sapphire" or "Diamond", etc.? Feels like I'm buying a Pokemon cartridge.

2) With Ram, can I determine my exact specs without opening up my PC? And why is some Ram seemingly crazy expensive, like the Corsair Dominator series? (Like $300 for 2 x 1gb) Where is a good middle ground with this? By contrast I found Corsair XMS3 2 x 1gb for $65. But now I'm unsure of did I find a good deal or is there something really sucky about that model...

So yes, any advice appreciated. I look forward to learning from you folks.

[Th0r]

First of all on the subject of determining what RAM you have either - Call the manafacturers armed with the model number of your PC... They might be able to help... Or alternately you could do a search using the model number to establish the specs.

Your computer may be like my brothers gaming PC that has the Specs on the front of the case at the bottom. It'll say something like - 1GB Corsair DDR2. In which case to upgrade your RAM you'll need some of the DDR2 variety.

The thing I've found about Corsair memory is it's all about where you buy it from. Without a shadow of a doubt Corsair makes the best RAM available. I've established that from my own experience. I also think it's Kingston that make pretty good RAM... Check them out.

If you are looking for cheap prices I'd buy a computing magazine and do some bargain hunting for RAM, also you can find Video Cards much cheaper there...

I'd try and get that ATI Card for a bit less if possible. I hope my 'advice' helps...

[7eleven mafia]

another thing is that if your computer is using DDR2 and you try to upgrade it to DDR3 it won't work because the size is different from DDR2

[Vagrant]

I wound up getting impatient and opening up my comp to see what sort of ram I have. Also, no luck on finding the card at any cheaper so I think I'll just have to cough it up. Now trying to figure out how the whole motherboard\ram compatibility schtick works.

Regardless, thanks all the same.

[Th0r]

Hint - I've found PC Magazine Tech Support to be invaluable in helping with motherboard compatability problems and giving advice.

[Acid44]

The thing I've found about Corsair memory is it's all about where you buy it from. Without a shadow of a doubt Corsair makes the best RAM available. I've established that from my own experience. I also think it's Kingston that make pretty good RAM... Check them out.

I'd try and get that ATI Card for a bit less if possible. I hope my 'advice' helps...

i'd say to go with kingston RAM it's usually pretty cheap and great quality...

as for a vi card i'd go with nvidia personally, i've always thought nvidia was better and it's more versatile, theres some things that ATI cant do that i need, which would be 3D modeling/rendering/animation with maya...


obviously thats just my opinion though