Partial Upgrade: Card and Ram

**GophersDay** · 01-01-2012, 08:35 PM

Hi all,

My PC currently hits the minimum specs for CoD: Black Ops. That is:

Core 2 duo 6600
Geforce 8600GT
2 x 1 Gig 800mhz ram
(LGA 775 Mobo)

However, I dislike playing games at lower-end graphics. So, I am considering upgrading my card and ram, as a new processor and mobo are out of my reach at this time. Furthermore, I get very slow loading times on my MMO, Lord of the Rings.

I am thinking about some ram to this effect:
Prophecy.co.za - Corsair CMX12GX3M3A1333C9 XMS3 3x4GB DDR3-1333 1.5v CL9 Desktop

Or
Prophecy.co.za - Corsair CMX4GX3M1A1600C7 XMS 3 4GB DDR3-1600 1.5v CL7 Desktop

Or perhaps

Prophecy.co.za - Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C7R Vengeance Red 2x4GB DDR3-1600 1.5v CL7 Desktop (bit pricey for me

)

And most likely a 520 card of the following:
Prophecy.co.za - Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce GT520 1GB GDDR3 64-bit PCI-E x16

Or
Prophecy.co.za - Asus NVIDIA GeForce GT520 Silent 1GB DDR2 64-bit PCI-E x16

First off, you can see that getting any of the above would be a dramatic upgrade. The question is firstly: would all of that fit on my board (I'm guessing "yes"). Next, should I bother to get these upgrades, without a better processor? (I've always had a general idea of what each component does, but not precisely how it affects game performance)

Thirdly, is it better to get say 4/8 gigs of better ram, than 12/16 gigs of slower ram (I've always been under the impression that it would be).

Finally, does anyone know how much noise difference there is between the silent and non-silent cards?

With many thanks
GD

**SCHUMI_4EVER** · 02-01-2012, 12:12 AM

woah woah woah.....are you sure you can take DDR3 RAM on your mobo? Many LGA775 boards aside from the few towards the end are DDR2 only.
In addition since you're not overclocking you don't need anything faster than DDR2-800 is it's DDR2 limited or DDR3-1333 if it can take DDR3 (and even if it can watch out, some boards can only take DDR3-1066 and nothing stronger). Pump anything you save into a much better GPU choice.
Something like this at the very least or you'll barely be getting an uprgrade.
Prophecy.co.za - Sapphire AMD Radeon HD6570 1GB DDR3 128-bit PCI-E x16
(Dunno exactly how much your budget allows for but by all means pick a stronger ATi card if you can (I love the green team but there's no doubt that low end the best bang for buck comes from ATi))

As for your questions well I'd say yeah, such an upgrade could make a worthy stop-gap till you can finally replace everything especially since the 8600GT was kind of a disspointment and with 2GB you're definitely running into a RAM limitation. BUT limit yourself to 4GB of whatever RAM you need.

And NO....unless you're overclocking there is ZERO benefit from faster RAM. So getting less faster RAM would be quite the silly thing to do.

As for the difference between silent and non-silent. Well silent cards are passively cooled by just a simple heatsink, there's no fan or anything to produce any noise. What that however means is there's no way of dissipating heat from the card beyond what ambient temperatures provide (exactly squat in our south african summer). Non-silent cards are actively cooled by a fan but I still can't really answer the question of noise since it depends on which card you get. As a general rule though the stronger the card the bigger the noise. And then it again depends on whether you allow the card to automatically control it's fan or whether you take over and ramp up the fan speed in order to try an keep the card cooler.
For instance I have my GTX260 (which used to be the 2nd/3rd/4th strongest card nVidia made so it's not in the quiet department) set to a manual fan speed of 75% (in summer) which which makes the card quite loud, I could leave it on automatic control which would make the card wisper quiet during everyday use and only ramp up the fan once the temps start approaching 90C but I find that too inefficient since the ramp up usually occurs very late and it drops off again as soon as it's cooler than 90C and then jumps up again when of course it gets hotter and up and down and up and down and it's just more annoying than a constant roar.
Your current 8600GT also once was near the top of the pile so no matter what you get it shouldn't be louder (especially considering the limit your budget sets in place, which limits you to low-end and thus if anything a quieter card) so no way would I get a silent card since you're used to a bit of fan noise. Silent cards are mainly meant for HTPCs where you want the thing quieter than whisper quiet where the most strenuous thing the card will do is aid HD vid decoding a bit...not gaming systems, even low-end ones.

**R.I.P.P.E.R** · 02-01-2012, 08:12 AM

Well no board takes DDR2 and DDR3 at the same time, correct me if im wrong, but i know of none.
You said you had DDR 800Mhz which means you have DDR2.

If I were you dont just prolong the inevitable of getting to that point where you need to just upgrade everything
save up further and get the full upgrade, sure there will be a time where you just look at your components where
you can do nothing with it until you get the rest but in the end it will be worth it. Also shop around on Carbonite
and im sure you can get some good face to face deals with warranty and save some serious cash.

**SCHUMI_4EVER** · 02-01-2012, 12:16 PM

There were a few dual boards that could take both DDR2 and DDR3 up to 1066 but admittedly I have no clue if that's at the same time. But true, he's already got DDR2 which I'd missed so all he needs then is another cheap 2x1GB sticks to make up his 4GB whist keep dual channel intact.

**OsMoFF** · 03-01-2012, 09:58 AM

Originally Posted by SCHUMI_4EVER

There were a few dual boards that could take both DDR2 and DDR3 up to 1066 but admittedly I have no clue if that's at the same time. But true, he's already got DDR2 which I'd missed so all he needs then is another cheap 2x1GB sticks to make up his 4GB whist keep dual channel intact.

I had a MSI X48C LGA775 mobo which had 4 DDR2 slots and 2 DDR3 slots. You can only use either DDR2 or DDR3, NOT AT THE SAME TIME. When using DDR3 you had to insert ram switch cards in the DDR2 slots.

**GophersDay** · 03-01-2012, 08:46 PM

Originally Posted by SCHUMI_4EVER

Something like this at the very least or you'll barely be getting an uprgrade.
Prophecy.co.za - Sapphire AMD Radeon HD6570 1GB DDR3 128-bit PCI-E x16
(Dunno exactly how much your budget allows for but by all means pick a stronger ATi card if you can (I love the green team but there's no doubt that low end the best bang for buck comes from ATi))

As for your questions well I'd say yeah, such an upgrade could make a worthy stop-gap till you can finally replace everything especially since the 8600GT was kind of a disspointment and with 2GB you're definitely running into a RAM limitation. BUT limit yourself to 4GB of whatever RAM you need.

And NO....unless you're overclocking there is ZERO benefit from faster RAM. So getting less faster RAM would be quite the silly thing to do.

Hey folks,

Thanks for the replies!

I will likely get a bit of DDR 2 ram then. Until I get a raise, and stuff.

Clearly I need to find out some more about ram lol! Likewise with the cards.

Thanks again

**SCHUMI_4EVER** · 03-01-2012, 08:53 PM

Based on what you were planning to spend you should get:
Prophecy.co.za - Transcend JetRam JM800QLU-1G Desktop 1GB DDR2-800 1.8v CL5 Desktop X2
and
Prophecy.co.za - Club3D CGAX-67724I AMD Radeon HD6770 1GB GDDR5 128-bit PCI-E x16 (This card may be limited by your processor but this way you won't have to get a new graphics card again when you finally have the dough for a new system)

**GophersDay** · 11-01-2012, 07:37 PM

Yeah, I reckon I'll likely get the Ram soonish. Would be nice to get some better load speeds! The card will have to wait heh.

**SCHUMI_4EVER** · 11-01-2012, 09:55 PM

I'd do it the other way round. Card first, then RAM.

**GophersDay** · 10-04-2012, 09:37 PM

Hey folks, time to necro this!

I received some funding and I am looking at buying this card (on recommendation that it is very good for the cost): Prophecy.co.za - EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX550 Ti 1GB GDDR5 192-bit PCI-E x16

Any comments or advice please?

PS: What would the delivery cost for a card be?

**SCHUMI_4EVER** · 10-04-2012, 10:00 PM

Yeah that's a pretty good price for the card. Can't see anything much better close by.

**GophersDay** · 13-04-2012, 08:11 PM

Hi again

Prophecy.co.za - Inno3D NVIDIA GeForce GTX560 Ti 1GB GDDR5 - Used once - Full warranty

I spotted this deal for only a few hundred more. What exactly does the "used once" mean please? Just that it was unpacked, put into a machine, used for a few minutes/hours, then taken out and repackaged?

PS: I see it says full warranty, but I couldn't find the length of the warranty here or on the new on- is it 3 years, like the 550?

Many thanks!

**GophersDay** · 13-04-2012, 09:06 PM

PPS: I currently have a euroTEK 400W PSU, so apparently an upgrade on that is also needed

**Firestar** · 19-04-2012, 10:14 AM

Hi Gophersday,

Sorry, but that's been sold. But you were correct in your assumption. It's been used only for a short period of time (say a couple of hours), and then removed and sent back. Customer didn't think it was a big enough upgrade for him. It's a 2 year warranty.

Yes, you would need to get a PSU upgrade for that

We do still have the new versions on the site, over here:
Prophecy.co.za - Inno3D NVIDIA GeForce GTX560 Ti 1GB GDDR5 256-bit PCI-E x16

**GophersDay** · 23-04-2012, 10:37 AM

Thanks for the reply

Unfortunately the new one is outside of my budget, and I am looking to make purchase and payment today (currently running onboard, which is beginning to chafe me

- Geforce 8600 finally packed in ).

Seeing as I"m going with a lesser card, I'll give the Prophecy.co.za - Thermaltake LitePower 700Watt PSU a go. It seems to have an overrated supply Wattage and not that amazing overall, but the price is within reach (R900.00 budget). But seeing as my pc will be drawing about 305W overall @90% load as per eXtreme Power Supply Calculator, I'm thinking that it will hold up as that is about 50% of the PSU capacity.

**SCHUMI_4EVER** · 23-04-2012, 02:20 PM

Personally I'd rather get the CoolerMaster Extreme Power 650W at the very least since that Thermaltake is way outside of it's power range suggesting it only has half the power it says it does.

As for the card for a sub 1.5K card now I'd get this
Prophecy.co.za - Club3D CGAX-67924 AMD Radeon HD6790 1GB GDDR5 256-bit PCI-E x16
or return to the original plan of getting a 6770.

**GophersDay** · 23-04-2012, 05:22 PM

Originally Posted by SCHUMI_4EVER

Personally I'd rather get the CoolerMaster Extreme Power 650W at the very least since that Thermaltake is way outside of it's power range suggesting it only has half the power it says it does.

As for the card for a sub 1.5K card now I'd get this
Prophecy.co.za - Club3D CGAX-67924 AMD Radeon HD6790 1GB GDDR5 256-bit PCI-E x16
or return to the original plan of getting a 6770.

Yeah, it looks like you're right about the card

. I would want to get a Corsair PSU but they are all out of stock, which is incredibly irritating.

How do i go about asking for different stuff to be sent? I ordered and paid today, but would like to swap the two cards.

**GophersDay** · 02-05-2012, 08:14 PM

I'd like to thank everyone who assisted me in this, from the folks here on the forum to those who processed my order and even changed it for me! I got the card and psu a couple of days back and they are working like a charm!

Many thanks!