Author Topic: BF2 and ram upgrade - Input Needed (Read 3577 times)

-Sp()()ge- · « **on:** February 03, 2006, 11:27:52 AM »

Here’s the dilemma and ultimate question.

Current system specs are as follows

XP2800
1 gig ram
gforce 6800 gt
Gigabyte GA-7N400L board

I want to upgrade to 2 gigs ram for BF2 but I have some questions and concerns. First is cost vs. performance boost. Is the 1 gig going to significantly decrease load times?

Saying the ram is installed, will temperatures become an issue? This question is two part. Four sticks of 512 would be installed. Will the heat build-up be significant between the side-by-side pieces? Will two pieces fit side by side with heat shields?

Lets now assume the two pieces side by side have one with a heat shield and one without. Doe this create a heat issue?

Ultimate question: Upgrade and if so, heat shields on the new pieces or not (given fitting onto the board without interference of the other ram heat shields and heat buildup from minimal clearance between pieces.)

Please throw in your inputs. I would like to know asap. Thanks.

Pride · « **Reply #1 on:** February 03, 2006, 12:24:21 PM »

moved to support forum

kona · « **Reply #2 on:** February 03, 2006, 03:06:00 PM »

Your map load times will be a lot better.......

llDayo · « **Reply #3 on:** February 03, 2006, 07:41:43 PM »

The heat in your system shouldn't rise much more than a degree or two, celsius. You should definitely have heat shields on all four though along with at least a little air passing them by. I also agree with kona on your map load times being significantly faster, but that's just hearsay. I personally only have 1G in my computer but it loads pretty decently for me.

The Shoctor · « **Reply #4 on:** February 06, 2006, 07:24:49 AM »

I am not too sure about these "heat shields." They are FLAT!! I don't see you getting more surface area from something that is just as flat as the chip. Granted you get the exchange differences by material, but that I would see as nominal. Personaly I feel that if I buy RAM for a rated speed and it doesn't have a "heat shield" on it then it doesn't need one. I would figgure the engineers would know a little something more about the design than the average gamer or even tech head for that matter.

.:F3ar0n:. · « **Reply #5 on:** February 06, 2006, 10:07:34 AM »

May I ask what ram u currently have rigged now? if anything, the heat shouldn't raise more than a degree or two. I also agree with Shadow on the heatshield. I have seen a differebce however with loading screens for bf2 with 2 gb in comparision to 1 gb.

I'm a huge fan of corsair ram, if you are in any debate on what ram to buy. Myself, I would personally go with corsair xms ram. I have it in my rig and it's amazing. I truely think its the best ram out there right now, not even patriot ram is better.

My thoughts of course, welcome to opinion and debate

Dave

F3ar0n

llDayo · « **Reply #6 on:** February 06, 2006, 10:16:05 AM »

Quote from: "F3ar0n"

I'm a huge fan of corsair ram, if you are in any debate on what ram to buy. Myself, I would personally go with corsair xms ram. I have it in my rig and it's amazing. I truely think its the best ram out there right now, not even patriot ram is better.

I second that and use the same type of RAM. Seems very stable and fast. It didn't even get corrupted even though I had the wrong timings on my motherboard for it for 1 1/2 years (just fixed that problem two months ago). Plus, there's a lifetime warranty on the sticks, which is always nice!

The Shoctor · « **Reply #7 on:** February 06, 2006, 10:27:10 AM »

I will third the corsair for the warranty!

cuzzNkev · « **Reply #8 on:** February 06, 2006, 12:19:21 PM »

Band wagon hopper.

WOOT for Corsair.

-Sp()()ge- · « **Reply #9 on:** February 06, 2006, 01:27:36 PM »

I have 2 512 sticks right now. One is corsair and one being Kingston. I know, I know.. its Kingston, but all has gone well so far. Right now case temps are slightly high around 36 Celsius, but I am not running the most efficient cooling. Would 38C be OK for case temps if the increase would be 1 or 2 degrees?

llDayo · « **Reply #10 on:** February 06, 2006, 01:56:46 PM »

38C is nuthin'! You should be fine.

How are you using one from Corsair and one from Kingston though? Don't they have different latency timings? Check here

Whatever timings you are using probably works with both of them but you could end up with errors at some point and most likely you're not using the RAM very efficiently. When I fixed my timings I noticed a big boost in load times for my games as well as smoother gameplay.

-Sp()()ge- · « **Reply #11 on:** February 06, 2006, 04:54:05 PM »

The Kingston was an upgrade about six months after the original Corsair ram. I beleive the Kingston is PC4000 and the Corsair is PC3300. Therefore the 3300 should limit the 4000. I probably won't make the upgrade because of cost and time until the LAN for ordering online unless someone knows good prices for 512 PC3300 or higher.

Thanks for all the input so far.

louber1115 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 06, 2006, 10:18:59 PM »

Corsair Twin-X is getting cheap! Jump on that stuff bro, I rock it in my rig.

TekieB · « **Reply #13 on:** February 07, 2006, 06:14:11 AM »

I just picked up 3 gigs worth of corsair value stuff for the servers for the lan and love it. I also picked up 1.5 gig of crucial, both stuff kicks ass, highly reccomended brands

llDayo · « **Reply #14 on:** February 07, 2006, 10:58:12 AM »

Quote from: "shadow"

The Kingston was an upgrade about six months after the original Corsair ram. I beleive the Kingston is PC4000 and the Corsair is PC3300. Therefore the 3300 should limit the 4000. I probably won't make the upgrade because of cost and time until the LAN for ordering online unless someone knows good prices for 512 PC3300 or higher.

Thanks for all the input so far.

It's not the speed I'm talking about, it's the difference in the timings for both sticks. They have different settings. It could cause future problems is all I'm saying. My corsair RAM was on incorrect timings for a long time and I sometimes got hard resets while playing a game or while the computer was doing nothing. That hasn't happened since (except for a conflict with IRQs, which reminds me, I gotta take out my sound card!). Just trying to help you out! :bigsmile:

Author Topic: BF2 and ram upgrade - Input Needed (Read 3577 times)

louber1115

TekieB