I'm upgrading a PC that has a socket 939 motherboard from about five years ago. Therefore, I'm restricted in what I can and can't upgrade. Here is a run down of what I'm upgrading: Old > New: Athlon 64 3500+ > Athlon 64 X2 4400+ GeForce 8600 GTS > Radeon HD 5770 1GB Memory WD 7200RPM 400GB HDD > WD 7200RPM 1.5TB HDD Currently I have 2GB of DDR RAM installed over x4 512MB sticks. I was going to pull two and replace them with 1GB sticks (taking me to 3GB over all). However, this RAM upgrade is going to cost me $75 (using a name brand company, which I prefer). Is it worth it and would I even really see a boost in performance from just a gig extra?
Depends what you're doing. 2GB can be limiting, 3GB is less limiting, but for sake of compatibility, you'll need the same RAM brand and speed ideally. It's not absolute, but it certainly helps. $75 is a lot to spend though. You could buy a bottom-end new base platform (CPU/Motherboard/RAM) with a quad core CPU and 4GB in it for $210, so keep that in mind.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103871 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128451 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145251 Made a mistake with the board price actually, it's $230, $220 after rebate, when you include shipping.
