Recommended upgrade

[Tonk3h]

Hey guys.

not sure if this is the right place to post, but meh. feel free to move it

i was wondering. Im at university studying multimedia and special effects. At the mo MY PC rig is pretty nice as it is for video editing and rendering etc.

--Intel Dual Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4ghz overclocked to 3.0 ghz
--BFG Nvidia 8800GTS 320mb OC PCI-E overclocked to 620/930
--Asus P5N-E SLI mobo nforce 650
--2gb Geil Ram 5-5-5-15 PC6400C5 800MHz
--Corsair 520watt PSU
--320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm SATA-II
--Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Aluminium Case- Black
--Noctua NH-U12F Heatsink
--NEC SATA 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter

what would be the most beneficial upgrade for me? im gonna be getting a bursary of £500 in february, so i wanna splash out. Im definitely getting a new monitor .. either the OCUK 24" widescreen, or one of the samsung 22" widescreens (im a bit sceptical about the OCUK one, although the reviews appear to be purely positive).

Im looking into getting 4Gig Ram, but will XP even make use of 4 gig? i dont particularly want to spend as much as getting a quad core processor.

Not sure if any of you guys do any 3D/2D editing or anything in that area, but worth a try

Any advice?

Thanks

 

[melbourne720]

Big monitor, go for the 24". 22" (what I have) is good for games, but for windows/app stuff I end up spreading out onto my 17" dual screen.

 

[Tonk3h]

hmm well ill be playing games every now and then too. but my card should be alright running at high res's surely?

 

[Stelly]

For rendering mate I would definately go quad

Stelly

 

[Tonk3h]

Would 4 gig be much different over 2 gig? in XP?

 

[GregI]

Would 4 gig be much different over 2 gig? in XP?

No, as a 32bit OS only sees just over 2gb. Vista 64 will see about 3.5gb i think.

 

[Confused]

Incorrect, GregI.

32-bit O/S will only see ~3.5GB in *total*, this includes RAM, cache, graphics memory etc, so XP will get to use about 3GB in total.

64-bit O/S still has a limit - but it's in the terrabytes category, so we won't be seeing it for quite a while longer.

 

[Tonk3h]

right, so as i dont wanna spend about £150 for a new cpu, im gona go for 4 gig of ram, that way im ready for vista too i guess.

i have P5Ne-SLi 650i mobo, so that limits me to DDR2 and 800mhz

can any of u lot recommend a decent set of 4 gig?

thanks

 

[Tonk3h]

What about these?

or can i get better or the same for cheaper?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-096-OC