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[Greiger]

Howdy.  I recently got a tax refund check.  Most of it is already reserved and some was spent on another Bay 12 donation.  But I'm currently sitting on about $50 that I figure I'll try to upgrade this old ~5 year old gaming rig.

I got 2.16 GHz of cpu (AMD Athlon XP)  512MB of DDR SDRAM(says PC2700 next to it. donno what it means) and a cruddy bottom shelf ATI Radeon 9200 PCI(old PCI) Graphics card that was on an even older computer before this one.  

I have a AGP slot but I figure a better graphics card would both go over budget and not be much improvement in relation to DF over the simple PCI one I already have.

I'm wondering if buying another stick of ram would help much, and how do I know it will work with my system?  I hear all this stuff about frequencies and somesuch that confuses the heck out of me.

I took a few computer support specialist classes way back when.  I didn't do too well in it, but I know how to take a computer apart and put it back together without killing it.  I do have a spare ram slot.

Thoughts?

EDIT:Oh and I'm asking because I'm technically not supposed to be spending this money, but it's traditional to buy something after a tax check for me.  If it won't actually help any I'll just keep sitting on it.

[ February 23, 2008: Message edited by: Greiger ]

[AW]

Buying memory is really cheap and easy.  Go to some web hardware site like newegg.com, tigerdirect.com, cdw.com and most of them have some kind 'memory configurator' application on the site where you just put in the kind of computer you have and it'll show you a list of memory that is compatible.

I did this for an old laptop that had 256Mb when I bought it for a pretty steep price...I paid maybe $20-25 and got it up to the max it could handle:  1Gb and it made a big difference.  I think you should max it out if you can.

[Greiger]

Sweet, thanks for the quick reply.

Just to make sure I remember it correctly the bigger ram stick needs to be in the first slot and the smaller in the second right?

You wouldn't believe the number of times I broke something by remembering some obscure fact wrong.

[DJ]

Get memory. You can't really get a better CPU for that kind of money, unless you get lucky and find a used one cheap. Chances are, you'd need a new motherboard for the CPU, but most people would sell the two as one package. Still, I don't think  you could get a decent CPU and mobo for 50$, even if they're used.

[ February 23, 2008: Message edited by: DJ ]

[Greiger]

Yea I figured a CPU would be out of my price range as well. But thats why I decided to ask here, my memory of all these details is foggy at best.  

I just took CSS as electives while I was at a community college getting my High School Diploma.

Thanks again for the quick responses.

EDIT:Skillfully spelled college wrong.

[ February 23, 2008: Message edited by: Greiger ]

[Old School Gamer]

This CPU absolutely screams, and is only $60.  But it is AM2, so you would need a new mobo too.  But it's really an amazing CPU for the price.

It's priced so low because it's single core, but it's the 2nd fastest single-core CPU on the market right now as far as I know.

I've got one in my current computer, and I can run a 140-dwarf fortress at about 25-30 fps steady, which I'm pretty sure is pretty good.  I've got 2gigs of RAM as well and a nice AM2 mobo (which was only ~$70), and this computer is faster than any other I've ever used.

The secret to making a very fast computer for cheap is going to Newegg, sorting each component by best rating, and buying the components with 5/5 stars at the top of the list which are inexpensive.  Take a look at the reviews for these components and you'll see that people uniformly are both very happy with them, and that they are surprised at their extremely good performance and quality, "considering the price".

Price and many of the supposed things that make a computer fast aren't really worth judging components on.  Sure, that supposedly godly CPU is dual-core or quad-core, but for instance this CPU is $50, and it gives amazing performance, and can be OC'd to 3.0ghz with no problems.

If you're going to upgrade to another CPU and you want to do it for less money, get an AM2 mobo and plug this puppy in, you will be very happy.

But also you can get a 1gig stick of RAM for about $50 now too, which would help your setup tremendously I think.  But I love this CPU so I figured I'd chime in a bit about it.

[ February 23, 2008: Message edited by: Old School Gamer ]

[Anfold]

2nd fastest single core?
I have a 2.8ghz Pentium IV in a machine I bought from Wal-Mart about 4 years ago, single core. And I know there are at least 4 ghz processors out there.  single core.

[Old School Gamer]

Ghz is just one factor.. AMD CPUs run faster at lower Ghz.  I don't want to get into a hardware discussion or anything.. I read on the Newegg site that this CPU was the 2nd fastest, so it's basically heresay, but it is one of the very latest single core CPUs by AMD, so I'm inclined to believe it.

All I know is, the thing screams.  I run 10+ programs at once with zero lag, and everything comes up instantly.

But I don't know everything, I'm going by what I've experienced.  I'm not out to prove anything.

I'm just happy to enjoy my CPU..  anybody wants to disagree with me about it, that's cool, but it just doesn't matter.

I'm not sure that anyone reading these boards gives much of a crap which CPU is fastest anyway, we're here to enjoy DF and have a good time.

[ February 23, 2008: Message edited by: Old School Gamer ]

[Fedor]

quote:Originally posted by Old School Gamer:
<STRONG>This CPU absolutely screams, and is only $60.  But it is AM2, so you would need a new mobo too.  But it's really an amazing CPU for the price.

It's priced so low because it's single core, but it's the 2nd fastest single-core CPU on the market right now as far as I know.</STRONG>

I did some research on this as I'm also keeping a weather eye out for a better computer at an affordable price.  According to this benchmarking site, the CPU mentioned really isn't all that bad for a single core.  Quick note:   The ratings shown for multiple core systems grossly overrate the benefit that DF would see, as DF doesn't handle multiple cores natively.  At a rating of 507 it's not the second-fastest but it's certainly up there.  Having to buy a new motherboard hurts, but the OP could do worse.  It would certainly let him run medium-sized forts in the current version without too much trouble.

My advice?  Either save up and get more computer when you can, or double your memory.

[ February 24, 2008: Message edited by: Fedor ]

[Romantic Warrior]

It's been a while since I was seriously geeky about computer hardware but it was always my understanding that, say, a 2GHz Intel was faster and cooler than a 2GHz AMD. AMD, however, offered CPUs with more GHz.

It's been a while though. I just took the CPU that came with my barebones kit after making sure it was good enough. Don't have time to play with jumper cables and technical specs anymore. I have to use my free time to play DF.  

[Old School Gamer]

I never know which benchmarks or reviews to go by,  I suppose I should've expected I'd take a bit of heat for saying it was the second fastest single core when I didn't really know for sure.

I just know that it's very fast and I only plunked down $60 for it;  I'm a starving office slave so it keeps me happy.  It looks like Pentium D's are faster, but I'm not sure about that.

I'd always heard that like for an Athlon 4000+ at 2.6 Ghz, the 4000+ indicated that it equaled about 4.0Ghz on an Intel chip, in terms of actual processing power.  But by no means do I say this is definitely true,  because I really know very little about the details of CPU speeds.

But this is one of those topics that probably only computer science majors really know what they're talking about on,  there's a fair amount of confusion on this stuff.. "AMD chips are best for gaming", etc,  I've also heard that Intel chips have taken the lead in speed lately.  It's hard to know, and it's easier for me to just buy quality at low prices and be happy.

Anyway,  I recind (sp?) my comment about it being the second fastest; I'll change it to "it's pretty danged fast, and it's only $60".

[ February 24, 2008: Message edited by: Old School Gamer ]