PC Hardware → Upgrading wifes computer. Memory, OS and Video.

It's was built in 2006. Time to upgrade memory, OS and video card.

The MB is Infinity R5482.
AMD Athlon 64 processor 4000.
Memory is some cheap crap, two sticks at 512 each and been using onboard video. SUCKS!

I have the video card BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. Hardly been used. Going to install Windows 7 64 bit.

Looking for some good but fast memory. Looking at the manual it says it supports up to 4GB. PC2100 DDR266, PC2700 DDR333, PC3200 DDR400. 184 Pin DDR SDRAM DIMMS. Two of the memory slots are black, ones I am using now and two are blue not been used at all.

Need some input about some real good sticks and I want to max out the board.

Thanks for any and all help.

After looking over the manual again I see the MB only supports ATI graphics cards. So onboard graphics it will be. At least it will have a lot more memory to deal with the new OS and the onboard memory.

That is unless someone here might have a good ATI card they like to trade for a good BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB card.

Thanks.

It probably only supports Crossfire (dual ATI cards) but I'm sure one single nVidia card will work just fine.

That's a little hard to believe. Did you actually try the 8800GT?

As for memory -- whatever you can get off of eBay.

I had a couple of AMD mobos several years ago, and I didn't find them particularly reliable.

Well so much for what the manual says. I just put the card in and change the settings in the Bios and I have video. Wonder why the manual says only ATi is supported video. Well that is better for her.

I have built many gaming rigs in the past but not in about 4 or 5 years. Do I need to keep in mind about any timing figures?

Thanks Gordon and aurgathor.

You can keep timing in mind if you really want to, but RAM speed is more important I would say. Current generation RAM (DDR3) is so fast that unless your really into tweaking/precision it's pretty low on your priority list.

Damn with the drivers installed it looks new once again but then I gave her my old monitor Samsung XL2370-1. OLD have had for some time but has about 20 hours on it. Sweet!

Before spending money on ram it would be a good idea to talk about:

1. What game you are doing this for? An old single core athlon isn't going to be up to running modern games. All this upgrading may not get you to where you want to be.

2. Your power supply. You say the card works but I wouldn't try to stress the graphics card until you are sure the power supply can handle the extra demand.

This is the wifes computer no game play. She uses this computer to surf the net and speed my money.

It's been a long time since I gone through her system (7 years). I want to max out the memory 4GB and Windows 7. I don't want to mess with this again for 7 more years. I am the type of person if I buy, I want near the best and do it and forget about it.

The power supply is Seasonic S12-430 It has the 6 pin for the video card. As far as a stress test, I don't figure I need as the only thing that gets any stress is the bank account with her surffing the net. LOL! But she is worth it if she can put up with me.

I just took a few pics of what a computer looks like after 7 years of use. I will post in a few. Can you say I have a new quilt?

Socket 939 chips are rather forgiving in terms of memory timings affecting performance. Cheap (relatively) PC3200 CAS 3 sticks should be fine.

You can also throw an Athlon 64 X2 in there as well. I would highly recommend getting one if you're going to be putting Windows 7 on it. Here's a list of some CPUs that will work in that board. The Opteron equivalents will work as well.

From a fellow DFI/Socket 939 user

I am not familiar with Athlon CPU-s but for Windows 7 I would recommend dual-core. The one you have now seems to be single core.

As far as memory goes - I would recommend keeping what you have and add 2x1GB for the total of 3 GB if your motherboard supports it in this combination. Should be cheaper and 3 GB should be enough for your usage.

for a system like that there is no need for a separate graphics card then. The integrated graphics should be adequate. An 8800gt will only increase the power the system draws. It isn't necessary for web browsing.

The present amount of ram is probably limiting and it wouldn't hurt to increase it.

Depending on the resolution, with Aero enabled, there will likely be a performance benefit. The onboard video is based on the Radeon X300SE, which isn't exactly very fast. The 8800GT also has a better chance of hardware decoding video.

Yes, that 8800GT is the base model of Nvidia that incorporates phys and all the extra fruit etc.
Well worth putting in to help offload graphics functions, if only for playing video.

I would never suggest not putting it into the machine in this situation; unless low power was requested.

A reason I like to use a separate video card - onboard video consumes system memory - depending on your BIOS setting, up to 1 GB. A separate card has its own memory.

Every little bit helps when it comes to memory - the more you can devote to the OS, the better. Also since you already have the card lying around, it's "free".

Solid state drive and call it a day.

+1.