So here's what I just bought from some dude locally:
Dell Inspiron 530
Processor:
Pentium Core 2 Duo Processor E4400 (2MB L2 Cache,2.00GHz,800 FSB)
Memory:
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
Graphics Card:
128mb 8300 GS
Here's what I'm looking at doing:
-Replacing the 8300GS with my current vid card, an EVGA 512mb 7900GT KO (which is PCI-E)
-Changing out the 2 dimms of 512ddr2 to either 2 or 4gb of ddr2 @ 800mhz
-Switching out the stock psu w/ my enermax psu to support my 7900GT.
My questions:
1) Is it worth going to 4gb instead of 2gb of ddr2? The money isn't really an issue, I just wonder if I should actually do it. I game a lot...games like Battlefield 2142, World of Warcraft, Dark Crusade, F.E.A.R., and I hope to play the new Command and Conquer when I purchase it and some of the newer FPS games (Bioshock, etc.). I'm happy to pay for another 2gb of memory if it's going to make a large difference (in a POSITIVE way!).
2) How much faster is my Core 2 Duo compared to my current computer's processor? I have a 3.0ghz Pentium 4, and it has 2gb of ddr pc3200 memory in it atm.
3) Is the 7900GT KO still a formidable card, or is it going to bottleneck out before my processor does?
4) I should've mentioned I'm going to be running Vista (comes on the system already). Worth going back to XP or should I just stick w/ vista? no fanboy answers please.
Dell Inspiron 530
Processor:
Pentium Core 2 Duo Processor E4400 (2MB L2 Cache,2.00GHz,800 FSB)
Memory:
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
Graphics Card:
128mb 8300 GS
Here's what I'm looking at doing:
-Replacing the 8300GS with my current vid card, an EVGA 512mb 7900GT KO (which is PCI-E)
-Changing out the 2 dimms of 512ddr2 to either 2 or 4gb of ddr2 @ 800mhz
-Switching out the stock psu w/ my enermax psu to support my 7900GT.
My questions:
1) Is it worth going to 4gb instead of 2gb of ddr2? The money isn't really an issue, I just wonder if I should actually do it. I game a lot...games like Battlefield 2142, World of Warcraft, Dark Crusade, F.E.A.R., and I hope to play the new Command and Conquer when I purchase it and some of the newer FPS games (Bioshock, etc.). I'm happy to pay for another 2gb of memory if it's going to make a large difference (in a POSITIVE way!).
2) How much faster is my Core 2 Duo compared to my current computer's processor? I have a 3.0ghz Pentium 4, and it has 2gb of ddr pc3200 memory in it atm.
3) Is the 7900GT KO still a formidable card, or is it going to bottleneck out before my processor does?
4) I should've mentioned I'm going to be running Vista (comes on the system already). Worth going back to XP or should I just stick w/ vista? no fanboy answers please.