Might do a small upgrade on GPU and memory: need some ebore advice

[Tieno]

Seeing how cheap PC games are, a small upgrade might do some damage. I checked the vista experience index tool and my lowest things are GPU and memory.
I have an HP PC with an ati x300 and 1GB of ram, intel p4 640 3.2ghz.

GPU: From the looks of it, the ATI HD 4850 (169euros) is the best bang for my buck and gets awesome criticism from what little I've googled. It also just came out IIRC.
-Is this a big upgrade from an X300?
-Now that ATI is with AMD and I have an intel CPU and stuff, should I wait for an equivalent NVIDIA card or does this not cause any problems?
-The HD 4850 is a single slot card, but could it give any problems with my cooling (just fans, I think), where it'll run my system hotter with the X300 card?


Regarding memory, I think I have regular old DDR memory (that's what it says on the front of the tower). I checked my store and a stick of 2gb DDR2 is dirt cheap, cheaper than a 1Gb stick of DDR. Does it matter which of the ones below I pick?

Value 2048MB 800Mhz PC6400 PREMIUM Valueram DDR2  34,90euro
CORSAIR TWINX Matched DDR2 2048MB (2x1024MB) 800Mhz XMS2 6400 HSP 5-5-5-12 44,95
OCZ 2048MB Kit (2x1024MB) 800Mhz PC6400 DDR2 Gold EL XTC Series 5-5-5-12  48,00

Everest says I have 4 DDR DIMM slots, so I assume I could add DDR2 to that, not?
 Does it make sense to add DDR2 ram to the DDR one? Or does it slow the DDR2 down and it's best to remove it?
There's also more expensive version of the last two ram sticks, with a 1066mhz frequency? Is that worth it?


I'm most comfortable with changing my GPU as I have some experience with it cause I've put in a TV card once in an older computer (also did some tricky stuff with my xbox). I have changed ram once in a Pent 2, but I can't remember if I borked that one or not.

[Brehvolution]

DDR2 is keyed differently and will not fit in a DDR slot.

[Tieno]

Thanks, sounds like I need to buy a stick of DDR then. Costs me more (50euro) for half the amount (1GB)

[Draft]

GPU: From the looks of it, the ATI HD 4850 (169euros) is the best bang for my buck and gets awesome criticism from what little I've googled. It also just came out IIRC.
-Is this a big upgrade from an X300?
---Huge
-Now that ATI is with AMD and I have an intel CPU and stuff, should I wait for an equivalent NVIDIA card or does this not cause any problems?
---No problems
-The HD 4850 is a single slot card, but could it give any problems with my cooling (just fans, I think), where it'll run my system hotter with the X300 card?
---4850 will be much hotter, but I don't see how you'll have any problems if the case is adequately cooled.

[Tieno]

Merci Draft.

Everest says my current GPU's bustype is PCI express x16, so I should be able to put in the HD 4850, which is also PCI express x16 (or is it PCI express 2..). That's the thing you need to look at, right?

[disgruntled_jojo]

Merci Draft.

Everest says my current GPU's bustype is PCI express x16, so I should be able to put in the HD 4850, which is also PCI express x16 (or is it PCI express 2..). That's the thing you need to look at, right?

Yeah, you're clean on that.  Video cards haven't changed from using PCIx16 slots since the moveover from AGP.

Regarding your RAM, get min of 2gb, more if you can afford it.  DDR is mad cheap, and the difference in performance will be pretty large.  No need to go over 4gb tho.  Make sure you get the right speed of DDR, just check your computer documentation.  If you lost it, you should be able to download it again from the manufacturer's support site.  Also - always best to get it from somewhere that allows returns if you can.  Some motherboards are picky about their RAM. ><

[Tieno]

Merci Draft.

Everest says my current GPU's bustype is PCI express x16, so I should be able to put in the HD 4850, which is also PCI express x16 (or is it PCI express 2..). That's the thing you need to look at, right?

Yeah, you're clean on that.  Video cards haven't changed from using PCIx16 slots since the moveover from AGP.

Regarding your RAM, get min of 2gb, more if you can afford it.  DDR is mad cheap, and the difference in performance will be pretty large.  No need to go over 4gb tho.  Make sure you get the right speed of DDR, just check your computer documentation.  If you lost it, you should be able to download it again from the manufacturer's support site.  Also - always best to get it from somewhere that allows returns if you can.  Some motherboards are picky about their RAM. ><

In the shop I go to DDR (which I need) is more expensive than DDR2 it seems. 49euros for a 1GB DDR stick, compared to 44euro for a 2gb DDR2 stick. Bah.

I just checked and the HD4850 is like 4 or 5 generations older than the X300, and has 10x as much transistors (like 800million), that's a lot of transistors.

It'd be cool if I could play Crysis with decent framerate on that. CPU will probably hold me down.

[Draft]

CPU will definitely hold you back. A lot.

But luckily, you somehow managed to snag a P4 mobo with PCI-16, so this video card you're buying can make the trip whenever you get around to upgrading the mobo/CPU/RAM at the same time.

The DDR is more expensive because it's a relic.

[Tieno]

Yeah, I think I'm going to wait and save up till I can afford a mobo (+ a recent CPU) that supports DDR2. Otherwise when I do that upgrade I'd be spending more than twice as much as I would have on ram (antique DDR now and new DDR2).

I've never put a CPU on a motherboard or a motherboard in case. Is there soldering involved with that?

When is the next iteration/generation of ATI cards supposed to come out?

[Tieno]

That's still over the budget I wanted to spend, cause I need wiggle room as I'm going to japan in august for an entire month. After that I'll be more comfortable to do a bigger purchase.

Where are you getting those prices? Because the cheapest store I can find here has the ati 4850 at 169euro. An X2 5000 (64bit?) at over 100euros
http://www.tones.be/shop_producten.php?cat=39010
Tones is actually known to be (one of) the cheapest hardware stores here.

[disgruntled_jojo]

You might be able to snag some used DDR pretty cheap.  Hell I think I have half a gig of it in my closet somewhere that I don't use

[Tieno]

Send and delivery charges for all that stuff from The Netherlands to Belgium might add up though, but I'll check it out.
But in September I'll be in Amsterdam (with my dad) on a 4 day trip there, is there any physical "Electronicagigant" around there that I can get this stuff from? Or another 'physical' store that's cheap. I know the netherlands has better prices than belgium/flanders for this stuff.

http://www.electronicagigant.nl/nl/product/414921

Japan, how cool, what are you going to do there?

Visit my brother! So mainly hang out with him and tour around in Kyoto with him and his friends (and another belgian friend of him who's coming along with me.)

[Draft]

Yeah, I think I'm going to wait and save up till I can afford a mobo (+ a recent CPU) that supports DDR2. Otherwise when I do that upgrade I'd be spending more than twice as much as I would have on ram (antique DDR now and new DDR2).

I've never put a CPU on a motherboard or a motherboard in case. Is there soldering involved with that?

When is the next iteration/generation of ATI cards supposed to come out?

The only hardware you need for all PC work is a philips head screwdriver.

[Tieno]

I just added all those 5 components up to test it and shipping is only 15euros. Very cheap. Also less tax than in Belgium (19% vs 21%). I'll probably order from that website when I'm back as they seem trustworthy.

[Tieno]

I still have another older computer (1ghz) here that isn't used anymore. Going to pick it apart and put it back together one of these days. Better to get some practice before I do it on more expensive equipment, changing it with even more expensive equipment. Any good guides out there you can recommend?

[Brehvolution]

I still have another older computer (1ghz) here that isn't used anymore. Going to pick it apart and put it back together one of these days. Better to get some practice before I do it on more expensive equipment, changing it with even more expensive equipment. Any good guides out there you can recommend?

That would be a good place to start. Think of it as a 5 piece puzzle. I like to put the cpu, cpu fan, and the memory on the mobo outside the case, then lower is in, line it up with the screw holes and screw the mobo down. Hook up the power supply to everything, install the video card, power it up and pray for post.

If you get no post(usually the 1 beep before video comes on), take out a peripheral one at a time to try and isolate the issue.

[Tieno]

I took the old PC apart and put it back together. Everything seems to be working (CPU fan, HDD works, screen, cd-rom opens and closes, etc) except that I get a CMOS checksum error. Which means the battery is kaput or empty (so the bios doesn't get saved). Could be due to me or the fact that it's just old and hasn't been used in more than a few years, cause I didn't bother to check the the PC before I took it apart. Or are there any wires I might have forgotten to connect that could have caused this?

Couldn't get the CPU fan off the motherboard but videos on the web make installing a CPU on a motherboard seem pretty easy.

How far can one go in touching the motherboard or a graphics card? It's full of small stuff, is it bad to (accidentally) touch that?

[Tieno]

Thanks, Borys. I always discharge myself on the PC case before I touch anything. I've never fried anything, but it's reassuring that there's no harm in touching that stuff (while discharged).