Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

[tage]

Hi there, Im a complete noob when it comes to computers so please excuse me if i sound a little ignorant. I have at the moment two sticks of DDR2100 (266) ram but I'm playing a game called Planetside and have been told to add another 512meg of ram to my machine to get it up to a gig. I have a third slot and was wondering if it is possible to just add another stick of DDRPC3200 to get a gig ram or do I have to buy a matched pair of them. If anyone can help it would be much appreciated, thanks alot. :)

[casecutter]

Re: Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

You need to list your complete system specs. The names/models and so forth so we know what hardware you have and if it will work.

[tage]

Re: Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

Ok no problems will this do the job? System Information ------------------ Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) System Manufacturer: VIA Technologies, Inc. System Model: VT8366-8233 BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1600+, ~1.4GHz Memory: 512MB RAM Page File: 206MB used, 1043MB available Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) Display Devices --------------- Card name: NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X Manufacturer: NVIDIA Chip type: GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X DAC type: Integrated. I do realise that my machine is ****e but I can't afford a complete upgrade at the moment :P

[casecutter]

Re: Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

I would think you'd be fine to add another stick like you wish. I would try to find one with similar timings to the ram you already have installed. If you look on one of them, there should be a sticker that tells you the timings.

[tage]

Re: Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

Ok thats all good, the only slight problem is that it's very difficult to get the same speed ram that I have as it's very old or so I've been told. I would have to put in a 333 stick rather than a 266 stick which I already have. Is this going to cause a major problem? Thanks alot for your help so far. :)

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

It doesn't matter at all. You can and should purchase a DDR400 stick as there is no price premium over DDR333 or DDR266. It doesn't matter what the timings or speed are, though.

If you're trying to make Planetside run smoother and with higher visual settings, you'd be better off upgrading your video card.

[tuxfreak]

Re: Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

I would have to put in a 333 stick rather than a 266 stick which I already have. Is this going to cause a major problem?

it will be fine, the only thing that will happen is that the DDR333 will run at the same speed as the DDR266 since RAM will only run as fast as the slowest piece

I'm going to have to disagree slightly with Yawgm0th on the video card. Most, if not all, MMORPG's performace depend much more on RAM than they do beefy video cards. Even World of warcraft, with it's stellar graphics, places a higher demand on the RAM than the GPU.

edit: out of curiousity, i looked up planetside and found this, which states:

The game uses, on average, upwards of 750 MB of RAM while running

so upgrading to 1 GB of RAM would indeed be my first suggestion if you are at all serious about this game.

[tage]

Re: Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

Ah thanks a lot for the help everyone. Yes I did ask around and it seems Planetside uses up a huge amount of memory and have been recommended by a lot of people to uprgrade to a 1gig ram. Even though the recommended spec on the "box" is 512meg :$.


I've plumped for the DDR333 as I found it at a pretty good price, so thanks alot. :)

[[email protected]]

Re: Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

Sigh, you should have done what Yawg told you to do. I will say it again: there is no real price difference between ddr333 and ddr400. You should have gone with ddr400.

Anyway, I hope you got a decent brand and you bought it from a good place likeNewegg (USA) or NCIX (Canada).

[orangutang91]

Re: Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

Sigh, you should have done what Yawg told you to do. I will say it again: there is no real price difference between ddr333 and ddr400. You should have gone with ddr400.

Anyway, I hope you got a decent brand and you bought it from a good place likeNewegg (USA) or NCIX (Canada).

But it wont make a dif at the moment, it might pay off later down the road though, but he might want to build a system that uses 240 pin DDR2.
I guess overall it would be smarter. you are right.

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

it will be fine, the only thing that will happen is that the DDR333 will run at the same speed as the DDR266 since RAM will only run as fast as the slowest piece

I'm going to have to disagree slightly with Yawgm0th on the video card. Most, if not all, MMORPG's performace depend much more on RAM than they do beefy video cards. Even World of warcraft, with it's stellar graphics, places a higher demand on the RAM than the GPU.

edit: out of curiousity, i looked up planetside and found this, which states: so upgrading to 1 GB of RAM would indeed be my first suggestion if you are at all serious about this game.

You're right that they do, but 512MB is an acceptable amount of RAM for modern games. A GeForce 4 is not an acceptable video card for the majority of modern games and the majority of those made in the last few years.

[casecutter]

Re: Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

You're right that they do, but 512MB is an acceptable amount of RAM for modern games. A GeForce 4 is not an acceptable video card for the majority of modern games and the majority of those made in the last few years.

I also agree. Video cards are the most important aspect for gaming. Besides, you can upgrade to a second hand card rather cheaply too.

[tuxfreak]

Re: Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

A GeForce 4 is not an acceptable video card for the majority of modern games and the majority of those made in the last few years.

planetside is a dx 8 game, and the Ti4200 was a pretty good dx8 card

planetside is the only game being discussed here. His card far excedes the recommended specs for the game. This game is RAM intensive. Stop trying to get him to waste his money on needless upgadaes. If he was talking about playing HL2-E1 it would be a different story, but he's not.

[tage]

Re: Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

Right I got my 512meg stick of ram today but I'm now experiencing some serious problems with my computer. I bought a DDR PC3200 unbuffered, put the stick in and the memory test says that is fine but my computer keeps crashing to a blue screen very regularly. Also if I try and run any game or app it will crash out back to windows or to the blue error screen. This is the message I get when trying to run Planetside and it crashes to the blue error screen.

Stop nv4_disp:dll - Address BFB45F37 base at DateStamp 44bc3a66

Any ideas?

Thanks for all your help and reccomendations so far I will look into upgrading my card very soon!

[PrairieDawg]

Re: Adding a third stick of ram into my machine?

Prolly could be any number of things. The nv_4 is part of your video driver (although not necessarily the real problem). Maybe try uninstalling and reinstalling the video drivers. Is the extra RAM showing up properly in your "my computer" properties page? Is there another computer to test the new RAM in? I failed to see the power supply specs for you machine. It is remotely possible that the extra RAM was enough to push your PSU to its' limit.