Upgrade... or not?

[small256]

Hi all. Would it be beneficial for me to add a second 1gb stick of pc3200 RAM? I'm guessing probably yes, but I thought i'd ask anyway.

Also, i've currently got a 6800 gs extreme version OC'd to 487 core and 1105 memory. With some of the newer games, there's a rather noticeable lag in fps... If I can find one, do you think I should buy a 7900 GTO? And if so, will it even work with my rather pants AMD 3000+ (which was OC'd to about 2.4 at one point but that only lasted a few weeks before it started throwing a wobbly. Currently on about 2.0, I think I can get it to about 2.25 safely.)

I've put this in the general forum because last time I posted anything about all this old kit in the high performance section I got a slapped wrist

Oh and finally, what are thoughts on a couple of 120gb SATA HDDs? RAther than my measly 80gb ide (it's served me well so far)

 

[darksideleader]

anything better will just get bottlenecked by your Sempron. Ram is not incencial if you dont need it. When you go to task manager, does it use more than 1 gig of ram? if so just get 512mb that should be enough. If it doesn't go over 1gig then the other ra would be just wasted. So i suggest also a better CPU as well, their really cheap now what socket do are you using?

 

[small256]

Unfortunately i'm using a skt 775. so there's only one upgrade i can do. which is about 200mhz more. Woohoo... i figured that the processor was going to be the main problem.

I've got a ram optimiser running which tells me how much is being used. And quite often I can come out of games such as Oblivion adn it'll be in the red area telling me it's using about 95% of the ram for it. Which could explain why the game keeps getting choppy now and again...

But anyway, I was thinking of an entire upgrade at some point, i've just got a lot of other things to pay for at the moment. MAybe i'd just be better off saving up for now.

Thanks for your help

 

[kmote]

do you mean 754?
what RAM configuration do you have?
if you have a single 1GB then another 1GB of the same will give dual channel
getting lag in newer games is inevitable with an aging PC-not that yours is so bad really. i would not get the CPU upgrade, as you identified you would not get a massive performance boost-especially since you are able to overclock the one you have now

 

[small256]

oops, yeah sorry, 754.

And yeah it's a single 1gb stick. I think perhaps I might just put up with what I have now for a few months and start saving money for a completely new pc. I've been meaning to for a while, it's just that I've got to pay for a lot of other stuff soon as well.

I expect I'll have made another post soon asking for advice on various new bits and pieces. God i'd kill for an 8800gtx...

Thanks for your help