I've got a build that I've been using for the last several years, and am thinking about adding some more RAM, but wonder if the money would be better spent on a new build

Gigabyte 965P-DS3
C2D e8400 (OC'd to 3GHz)
2x1 GB OCZ Gold PC2-800
ASUS 4850 video card
WD Caviar Black 640 GB SATA drive
2x DVD drive
OCZ 600W ModXStream PSU

I've got it running Win 7 Pro x64, on 2 19" widescreen monitors. The RAM seems to be the low man on the totem pole now, and I'm wondering if getting another 2x1 GB sticks would be worth it? Or, should I grab 2x2GB? Or, just save the money, and get a new mobo with DDR3 down the road (and an i7?)? Obviously the 4850, HD, optical drives could be ported to a new build, possibly the PSU as well.

Used mainly for gaming - COD:MW2 is the latest and greatest I play, and it seems t have trouble on higher settings / resolutions.

TIA

A better graphics card would do more for COD:MW2 than 2GB more RAM.

Your 4850 should resell fairly well too.

Ya I would throw a bit more ram in. A total of 4gb should help out a bit. You wont see many more FPS but it will help with general computing. There really is not a reason to be running x64 W7 on a system with less than 4gb ram. As far as to go with 1gb sticks or 2gb sticks it probably wont matter that much really, just get quality ram that will over clock since your doing that.

i would up to at least 4gb of ram. i also have an HD4850 in my setup, and it runs MW2 on the highest setting with ease and barely any FPS drop.

i also had a problem [with my mobo] that caused me to only have 2gb of ram [when i had 6gb before] and there was a huge difference, with long loadup, choppy first 30s-1min, and random freezes.

as for everything else, its perfectly fine. an E8400 is perfect for gaming. just add more memory, itll boost things up hehe

I do think it is worthy the upgrade- Get 2x1 GB and fill all 4 slot( I remember it is 4 memory slot- correct me if I were wrong). And you probably won't have much problem with current DX10 games .
It is bad timing for memory, so I don't suggest 4GB ram. Eventually you will go DDR3 in the future so don't waste too much $$ on DDR2 now.
JMTC

Whoops, the RAM is OCZ SLI-ready RAM, not Gold.

And yes, there are 4 slots, so I could add 2x1 GB (or even 2x2 GB)

It shouldn't matter if I mix brands, as far as dual channel goes? Or, will dual channel matter much at that point? Long as they're the same size with same timings, it'll run dual channel, right?

Think I'll be keeping an eye on DDR2-800 prices I guess :)

another vote for memory upgrade. just look for slickdeal

I used to have a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 so I know mix brand should be ok, When I have that system, I mixed 2 brand of memory ( 2 OCZ, 2 Crucial) but no problem at all...

Whoops, the RAM is OCZ SLI-ready RAM, not Gold.

And yes, there are 4 slots, so I could add 2x1 GB (or even 2x2 GB)

It shouldn't matter if I mix brands, as far as dual channel goes? Or, will dual channel matter much at that point? Long as they're the same size with same timings, it'll run dual channel, right?

Think I'll be keeping an eye on DDR2-800 prices I guess :)

OCZ RAM runs with 2.0+V

I don't know how your mobo handles memory voltages on the RAM slots. Either overvolt ALL or individual voltage settings per slot.

You may run into a problem with 1.8V RAM running at 2.0+V. It my not tolerate the extra voltage.

So add Voltage as a criteria.

OCZ RAM runs with 2.0+V

I don't know how your mobo handles memory voltages on the RAM slots. Either overvolt ALL or individual voltage settings per slot.

You may run into a problem with 1.8V RAM running at 2.0+V. It my not tolerate the extra voltage.

So add Voltage as a criteria.

Just checked, and there's only one modifier for the RAM voltage, so it's all or none. I'll make sure any new sticks I pick up are 2.1 V (my mobo has the RAM voltage set to 18 + 0.3 V, though CPU-Z only lists the EPP [I think that's what it was, don't have it in front of me right now] voltage as 2.0 V).

On newegg, seems 2x1 GB DDR2-800 prices are around $60. Hopefully a good deal drops that by a lot soon :)

Update:

Picked up 2x2 GB of OCZ Gold DDR2-800 for $60 AR at MC. Looking at the specs, it says it can run at 2.1V and still be in warranty, so I should be able to run the new and old RAM together? Won't be dual channel, but 4 extra GB should offset any difference due to that :)

It will still be dual channel in Flex mode. Stagger the modules. 1GB 2GB 1GB 2GB.

If it's not stable, you will have to give the MCH a 0.1V bump or more to handle the load of 4 modules.

not to be picky but i noticed your specs said "C2D e8400 (OC'd to 3GHz)", the e8400 is STOCK 3Ghz so your value of 3GHz OC'd is wrong. Either way i would just pick up some more ram and get a new video card (maybe those 9800 GTX's that people have been finding deals on)

not to be picky but i noticed your specs said "C2D e8400 (OC'd to 3GHz)", the e8400 is STOCK 3Ghz so your value of 3GHz OC'd is wrong. Either way i would just pick up some more ram and get a new video card (maybe those 9800 GTX's that people have been finding deals on)

On the 965P, you have to "OC" it to get the stock 3 GHz. Default clock and multiplier put it around 2.7 or 2.8 GHz

It will still be dual channel in Flex mode. Stagger the modules. 1GB 2GB 1GB 2GB.

If it's not stable, you will have to give the MCH a 0.1V bump or more to handle the load of 4 modules.

Thanks, I'll probly put them in today and see how they handle

You defiantly need more ram, windows 7 64bit says it requires 2gb. Then you are lacking ram for gaming/normal uses. I say at least get 4gb ram, you could even get a 5770 i bought mine for 180 2 months ago, this card is really good for the price.
Now it cost 169 w/free s/h
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150447&cm_re=5770-_-14-150-447-_-Product

Put the 4 GB in along side the 2 GB, and got an error in Windows the first time I tried to boot. Windows tried to some startup repair, but failed, so I tried to boot again. That time, everything worked fine lol. Ran Prime95 for a couple hours and everything looked good. Set it to run Memtest overnight, and woke up this morning with no errors. It's still running while I'm at work, but so far so good. I might be able to tweak the timings a bit, but I think I'll see how they perform before trying anything.

OCZ support told me the new kit would work with my mobo, but not with the old kit. Said the "different capacities" of the memories would cause it to blue screen. I mentioned to them that I had it working, and the 965P manual described different capacity sticks working in Flex mode, and he replied with:

"that is a special feature on your motherboard then that is not listed on their product page if it is working fine then I am happy for you most motherboard will not run stably with different capacity memory."

I had never heard this before, or even thought this would be an issue. Different capacity memory sticks shouldn't cause instability on any mobo, should they?

I think that applies to different capacities on the same channel in dual channel mode.

If you install the modules 1GB 1GB 2GB 2GB then you will most likely have a problem as each channel will have a 1GB paired with a 2GB module. Most boards are smart enough to run single channel mode in this situation.

So it's working now ?

I think that applies to different capacities on the same channel in dual channel mode.

If you install the modules 1GB 1GB 2GB 2GB then you will most likely have a problem as each channel will have a 1GB paired with a 2GB module. Most boards are smart enough to run single channel mode in this situation.

So it's working now ?

Yup, got 6 GB in Flex mode. Timings ont he new 4GB are looser than the existing 2 GB, but I'm not gonna mess with them now....maybe later.

Cranked up the settings on MW2, don't have to close FF and disable Norton while I play anymore. This was really holding back my system, I should be good to go for another couple years at this rate :) Thanks everyone!

Heh now you are a multitasking phreak. No more swapping to hard drive.

Get rid of Norton for another performance boost :D

Norton 360 is actually pretty good about the performance and resource usage. They've really cut out all the crap