Computers & Electronics

Computer Upgrade

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  • Aug 15th, 2013 5:47 pm
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Nov 3, 2012
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Computer Upgrade

I'm looking to up the ram on 1 of my pc's at home. Old board support ddr2 memory.

My question is should I purchase more ddr2 memory for it or buy a new board with ddr3 memory support?

CPU: Intel Core 2 DUO e8400
MOtherboard: Hewlett-Packard 2820h

http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/vi ... 8D31D926C3
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Feb 15, 2008
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Are you happy with the speed? Do you run the machine 24/7, or just occasionally? How much memory do you already have? Is there anything else you're needing to upgrade at the same time? What OS do you run, and is it 32-bit or 64-bit?

The reason I ask is that if you're sitting on a 6-7 year-old DDR2 machine, and its having performance issues that are more processor related, or if you don't game but run it 24/7 -- then you may actually come out significantly ahead by buying a whole new CPU/motherboard/RAM rather than just upgrading RAM.

Personally, I find that SSDs can be excellent substitutes to adding RAM to an older machine. The SSD is re-usable so when you do upgrade in the future, none of your investment is 'stranded'.
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Mark77 wrote: Are you happy with the speed? Do you run the machine 24/7, or just occasionally? How much memory do you already have? Is there anything else you're needing to upgrade at the same time? What OS do you run, and is it 32-bit or 64-bit?

The reason I ask is that if you're sitting on a 6-7 year-old DDR2 machine, and its having performance issues that are more processor related, or if you don't game but run it 24/7 -- then you may actually come out significantly ahead by buying a whole new CPU/motherboard/RAM rather than just upgrading RAM.

Personally, I find that SSDs can be excellent substitutes to adding RAM to an older machine. The SSD is re-usable so when you do upgrade in the future, none of your investment is 'stranded'.
It's a family pc, I had windows 7 installed but it was a bit slow so I reverted back to its original windows xp 32 bit. It runs okay, but sometimes memory seems to be used a lot I guess its somethings hogging a lot of memory? So changing from ddr2 to ddr3 won't help?

The cpu is on par and hasn't been abused and i've read that it matches up to an i3 2120

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core2-Duo ... re-i3-2120
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Feb 14, 2009
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zakregent wrote: It's a family pc, I had windows 7 installed but it was a bit slow so I reverted back to its original windows xp 32 bit. It runs okay, but sometimes memory seems to be used a lot I guess its somethings hogging a lot of memory? So changing from ddr2 to ddr3 won't help?

The cpu is on par and hasn't been abused and i've read that it matches up to an i3 2120

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core2-Duo ... re-i3-2120

e8400 is good, and your board is OK, up to 16G memory. Keep it!
(I have e5400 and e7200 -- they are doing just fine with a lot of stuff).


For XP 32 you will be OK with 4G like this.(XP-32 will not handle more than 3.5G anyway.)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4GB-2x2GB-Kings ... 2581801643

May be in craiglist/kijiji you will find even cheaper.


Slowness -- yes, SSD is the best second step.

First step would be maintenance of PC:
analyses running programs, clean start-up,
remove garbage and bloatware, registry cleanup,
deep disk defragmenting,
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Nov 9, 2008
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The E8400 is a great CPU. I have it in one of the machines I built and it's never been a bottleneck.

As for the RAM, add 2GB more (for a total of 4GB) and you're good to go.

Forget the who registry cleanup and disk defragmenting, grab an SSD if you have the money for it. It is a HUGE improvement. I just got my first this week and I've noticed the much faster boot-up/shutdown times and the time to open up applications has been greatly reduced.
Buy Bell, and you go to HELL! :-0
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Jul 22, 2006
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Probably DDR2

But if you are using 32 bit OS, time to upgrade to X64 bit OS
Also add a SSD into that computer

Another route - just go buy something from FS/BB if you want faster rig
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Sep 10, 2004
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zakregent wrote:... So changing from ddr2 to ddr3 won't help? ...
No.
Deal Guru
Nov 19, 2010
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Upgrade the ram and put in a SSD.

Also try putting in a GTX 610 or something. It will be better than the integrated graphics.

In fact I have one laying around that I don't need.
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Feb 15, 2008
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Yeah I agree, find a way to get 4gb into the machine if you only have 2gb, and put in a SSD. It'll be like you have a whole new machine.
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