667 speed memory :(

E

ekuest

Supreme [H]ardness
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Feb 23, 2009
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i have a P5LD2 motherboard which as far as i can tell has a max fsb speed of 667. right now i have 2x1GB ddr2 667 ocz gold sticks. my computer runs tf2 really slow and i want to switch to vista or 64-bit xp and add some memory. i have 2 slots available. i dont really want to get 667 ram because i want to upgrade a lot of other stuff in the coming months/year. is it possible to get some ddr2 1066 or 1333 sticks and add them to what i have if i lower the speed in bios? if not can i just replace what i have if i slow them down? then i would have them available when i upgrade my motherboard in the future and i can speed the timings back up.
 
If you add the faster ram it will automatically clock down, especially if you have the ram fsb set to auto in the bios (default). What is your cpu fsb?
 
probably shitty. pentium d 805. 533MT/s. what does that mean? im completely in the dark here.
 
I'd say it's not really worth spending the money on higher speed ram than what you have already got. That being said, more ram will probably not make much of a difference in performance. I think you would be better off saving your money for now and building a new system from the ground up. Also, running to different brands or speeds of memory on the same board might not produce the best stability, it's better to have all matched sticks.
 
mmk thanks flamex. its been looking more and more like a full rebuild for a while now. i just dont really have the money for a cpu and i was hoping for a little bit better right now for 30 bucks or so. oh well.
 
lol its not your ram thats the problem. its your graphics card most likely, that cpu should be fine for tf2 ive played it on worse. No game really even uses 2G of ram atm and 667 is fine even for some conroe cpus so dont waste your money on ram. if you just wanna play tf2 get a mdrange graphics card and ull be right
 
The Pentium D 805 was the lowest SKU of the worst dual-core line ever made. I think it started out as a practical joke:

Intel market guy: "hey guys, we've pissed off our server market pretty good, but how do we bring that feeling home to consumers?"
Intel engineer 2: "well we could put two prescotts in a package and sell it to them. They'll have the same heat consumption problems our server guys do PLUS they'll get choked by FSB throughput"
Intel market guy: "genius! develop that for market!"

well ekuest you might have lucked out:
http://ca.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=185&l4=0&model=515&modelmenu=1
P945 but, "support for Core 2 Duo!". Probably needs a bios flash, before you jump into that, if you dont know what it is ask.

If I were you and looking for an upgrade on the cheap, something that makes it TF2-able, an HD4890 (~$100), or even HD4670 (~$80), an E5200 (~$75) and 4GB of ram (~$45), you've got something that will max-out TF2 and be smooth as butter (assuming no choke and no loss --internet related stuff).
 
i have a 512MB 9800gt. pny i think. its like 4 months old. i bought it for $120. i dont think i specified that above. is an $80-$100 card really gonna be a lot better than that or are you just assuming i had something worse? i need to upgrade something cuz i have TERRIBLE game performance. but everyone i ask tells me something different. this is the first time ive been told vid card so i assume its just cuz i didnt specify what i have. i think cpu or mobo or both. my pentium d 805 and p5ld2 are both pretty outdated. (could be my 430W thermaltake psu but im replacing that. 585W should be here in a couple days and ill update with how it affects performance.)
 
my ping is usually single digits on my main servers. shouldnt be internet-related.
 
I don't think it's a power supply issue, more likely, it's your cpu holding you back. If your psu was the problem, you would probably get random restarts or hard shutdowns when playing a game.
 
yeah thats what i think too. i got the psu for cheap though, and it has an 18A and a 20A 12V rail so im hoping itll last me for a while. what cpu do yall recommend? i dont need quad or i7 obviously. should i just get a base e7400 and OC it? ive had my 2.66GHz pentium d 805 OC'd to 3.2 for 3 years and havent had any problems at all.
 
Check to see if your mobo can handle 45nm CPUs. I had issues with a P965 mobo a while back with my E7200. It may be as simple as a BIOS upgrade to get 45nm support.
 
how do i check? it looks like i already need to flash the bios anyway according to MrWizard.
 
First, find the exact model number. Use cpa-z
2nd, google away!!!
 
ahh ok i assumed you had a really bad graphics hard cause u didnt mention. thats more then fine for tf2. However u are not able to use the full power of your card cause you are cpu limited. my mate has AM2 X2 4200 and can barely run dow2 even with a 9800 GTX+

Wack a conroe in there and you should be right. dont have to go all out as they are very cheap these days. Just be careful and make sure u google it because some pentiums have the same naming system eg a E5200 is a pentium D and a E7400 is a conroe.

You might have to flash or upgrade your mobo as mentioned but your memory should be fine although its very cheap these days can pick up 800 or 1066 for nothing.

And jsut stick with 2G u need 64 bit for 4G ram and it doesnt help performance at all at the moment.

**Yeah a E7400 is good you dont really need to overlock it and u might have trouble with 667 ram. The design on the conroes are far superiour to pentiums so even at much lower speeds they still kick ass.

good luck
 
chrisewaters said:
ahh ok i assumed you had a really bad graphics hard cause u didnt mention. thats more then fine for tf2. However u are not able to use the full power of your card cause you are cpu limited. my mate has AM2 X2 4200 and can barely run dow2 even with a 9800 GTX+

Wack a conroe in there and you should be right. dont have to go all out as they are very cheap these days. Just be careful and make sure u google it because some pentiums have the same naming system eg a E5200 is a pentium D and a E7400 is a conroe.

You might have to flash or upgrade your mobo as mentioned but your memory should be fine although its very cheap these days can pick up 800 or 1066 for nothing.

And jsut stick with 2G u need 64 bit for 4G ram and it doesnt help performance at all at the moment.

**Yeah a E7400 is good you dont really need to overlock it and u might have trouble with 667 ram. The design on the conroes are far superiour to pentiums so even at much lower speeds they still kick ass.

good luck
Click to expand...

Run a Conroe based CPU like an E4xxx or E6xxx and you should be fine. A lot of people are selling these on the F/S forum, just make a WTB thread.
 
I misread your first post, I wasn't aware you were worried about the PSU.

If it is a cheapo unit you should be worried about it. You cant really tell a quality unit apart from a terrible one until your house is hit with some bad electrical activity. When that happens, the really good units shut off. the good units die, and the bad units go out with a spectacular explosion of blue sparks and damaged hardware.

A 400W unit will do you just fine, and they can be found for ~$60. Its a worthwile investment if you ask me, but your current generi-brand PSU will probably power the rig I'm suggesting:

Atl530i said:
Check to see if your mobo can handle 45nm CPUs. I had issues with a P965 mobo a while back with my E7200. It may be as simple as a BIOS upgrade to get 45nm support.
Click to expand...

ah yeah I forgot about the difference. P945 would probably support Conroe/Allendale, but I'd be suprised if it supports Wolfdale even with a BIOS flash. What that means is you need a chip from the E2000, 4000, or 6000 series. The 7000's and 5000's wont function on P945, I think.

edit: yeah its exactly as I thought:
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=gD1ljCkUWy1Y3yMG&templete=2

Conroe and Allendale, no Wolfdale.

In terms of finding a conroe or allendale... Intel's keeping the Pentium Dual Core brand around, which means you can find some gimped allendales in retail, (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...10340343 1051707842 1050922273&name=Allendale). But conroe seems to be finished. You might want to try the FS/T forums here or ebay. If I were you and looking around on e-bay I'd go for an E6320, or E6420+. That gets you the full 4MB Conroe.

The HD4830 is probably a little faster than the 9800GT, but not enough to warrant buying it.

So yeah, If I were in your position, I'd look at a cheap E6000, preferably something with a number greater than 4 in the hundreds column, a new $60 PSU, a nice $45 DDR2 800 4GB kit, the new cpu (dont spend over $150), and I guess the OS factors in at $150 too. Overall you're looking at a maximum of ~$400. I think you'll be impressed with the performance.
 
i put up a thread asking for cpu help over on the cpu board. hurray for organization. meet me over there if you have any specific suggestions.

and THANKS everyone for all your help. you guys rock. :p
 
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