Do I need new RAM?

iDevil

iDevil

iDevil

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6 Jul 2009
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Hey guys, I recently upgraded my mobo from an Abit-SG95 to a ASUS P5N-D. I'm running a Pentium D 915, with a SATA 1 (i think?) WD Caviar, a Leadtek 8800GT & WAS running 2gb of 667mhz DDR2 single chan, and it ran pretty smoothly. When I fitted this new P5N-D, only one of the RAM sticks from the old board would work with it, and even for 1GB of RAM, I am finding this machine increadibly slow. It can do light tasks easily, it boots pretty fast and stuff, but when I do something like try to rip a CD into iTunes or watch a youtube video in HD quality, or play a game, it slows right down. And I'm thinking the only thing that could possibly be incompatible is the ram, as it's not in the P5N-D's QVL. Do you think going getting some RAM from the QVL will solve my problem? If not, what else could be wrong?

Thanks in advance.
 
If you only have 1gig of memory installed in the above spec then, yes, you would benefit greatly by installing 4gigs - there would be a significant boost in speed in all areas of use.

4gig (2 x 2gig) would balance the system far more and is worth the small investment - and should solve most/all of your speed issues; if there isn't another underlying problem.
 
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Thanks for your reply, I probably will try and get hold of 2x2gb 800mhz ram. I know that any system would benefit from a ram upgrade, but with my old abit mobo I used to run on just 1gb ram when I got it and then upgraded it to 2gb. I don't remember it being quite so sluggish. Though at that time I was using a much lower spec graphics card. You think that could be why? Ih and I'm running XP Home FYI.
 
XP will run quite happily with 1gig if you don't have lots of apps running in the background - or tax it with too many windows or demanding apps/games.

Gaming and heavy apps use (multiple windows) however will struggle with just 1gig.

If you've installed all the extraneous software (monitoring software, BIOS update managers etc) that came with your MB and Gfx card that too will slow things down and really strain your 1gig as it will be lurking in the background. So the new components, via their added software, may have indirectly caused a noticible slowdown.

Basically, if you can afford the 4gig upgrade it's well worth doing - it should cost approx £30 - £40 and will really make your system come to life (Kingston, Corsair, OCZ are all good brands.)
 
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That's a very good point about the drivers, this asus board has a lot of 'heavy' drivers such as the EPU comparing to my old board. I think I will get some ram from crucial as they can garuntee compatability. Thanks a lot for the advice, I've been needing to sort this problem for some time. I'll post back and let you know my results after I get hold of the ram.
 
I am still running the 1GB Ram, just noticed that whilst im trying to watch a HD youtube video with the task manager open, the video jumps and freezes like I said originaly, but I still have 700MBish/1GB free RAM? Why could this be? I've also ran msconfig and disabled all startup items & services apart from the Microsoft ones. Why would the video be lagging and stuff if there is so much unoccupied RAM?
 
cmndr_andi said:
Pentium D? Get yourself one of these, Stat!
Click to expand...

Another cheap and beneficial upgrade - but then i'm bias. *cough* sig *cough*.

If you can afford the two upgrades you would be a very happy... - i'm inclined to say 'bunny' but i really can't bring myself to...

...you'll be a very happy chap!
 
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Hehe I'm sure I would, that is a very low price :o ! But would that pentium dual core give me that much of a boost over my pentium d? Don't forget they have 2 cores aswell, mines running at 2.8ghz each on stock.
 
Thats not really a pentium dual core - its a core 2 Duo in a gimp suit.

Its a lot faster than a pentium D (the newer architecture and smaller process mean that it is far faster clock-for-clock) and about 20x cooler (not really but those D's do get warm). A hugely beneficial upgrade if you can afford it, and those buggers clock up to 3.5Ghz+ with a half decent cooler.
 
Hahaha! Yea, I've got an arctic freezer cooler - but no real knowledge of overclocking so :p but thanks for pointing that CPU out! Would the cheapest intel quad be much of a performance increase over the e5200?
 
The cheapest intel quad is the Q8200. It runs at 2.33GHz and overclocks like a three legged donkey (plus it costs £120). Not worth it in my opinion.

If you want to try out a quad, then the Q6700 is perfect. The model number may be less, but its a far better chip. 2.66Ghz stock, overclocks well, loads of cache and generally great. However, it is £134, which is signicantly more than that e5200. For the tasks you do an e5200 will be more than enough, and an overclock to 3.2Ghz should be child's play.
 
Hey guys, just got 4GB of 800Mhz ram from Crucial, and guess what... NO DIFFERENCE. HD YouTube videos are still glitchy, and so are games. I am so confused. I had no problem what so ever performing these tasks when i had my previous motherboard (Abit SG-95). Nothing else in my system has been changed at all. Think the motherboard could be faulty (Asus P5N-D)? I got it here from Overclockers, so where might i ask a member of staff about it or something? Any other Ideas anybody?
 
This may be a silly question or I've not read through this thread as much as i should.. Why did you upgrade the mobo? Other than the P5N is a better board i think you have been mislead that just a mobo upgrade would make such a performance difference.Unless of course you intend to overclock.

Anyway, it could be that your new mobo isn't seeing the maximum potential of the RAM, so make sure everything RAM related is set to AUTO or SPD in the BIOS at this point.

You also have to bear in mind that the two motherboards are of a different chipset, the older being SiS662 and the p5N with the nforce 750.. So make sure you uninstall all your old drivers and install the latests. It might be that corrupt drivers are restricting the system so it might be best to do a complete format and re-install windows, which may also clear other issues too.
 
My reason for upgrading was that I wanted to get into overclocking, and the SG-95 was pretty useless for that. When I fitted the P5N-D, I did a full re-install of windows. When i boot up the machine, it says in the POST that the mobo see's the full 4GB of RAM & i have downloaded & installed all of the latest drivers for everything.
 
Ok, check that the voltages and timings are correctly set.

Is this Vista you've installed?

Have you actually run some benchmark tests such as CPC benchmarking?
 
I just want to say, i literly only just went into the BIOS and bumped up the FSB a little and i have the CPU running at 3.3Ghz 30 degrees no load, 40degrees full load (was at 2.8ghz) and youtube videos and games (I'm using the game SWAT 4 to test it) are starting to smooth out a little, does this suggest the CPU might not be able to run properly or something? I just cant understand why it should be struggling when the only change is the motherboard. (no problems before). Before the RAM / overclock i was getting 2515 on 3Dmark06 free vers. I might go test it now with new ram/ overclock and see what numbers i get
 
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