Re: Custom Build Computer Specs??

[hisland808]

I recently bought a custom build computer from a friend and was wondering if the specs can be further improved. Please take a look and give me some of your professional opinions:

Proc: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz)
Ram: 4 GB Corsair Dominator
HD: 2x320 GB in Raid configuration (640 GB Combined)
Video Card: NVIDIA Geforce 8800GTS 640 MB SLI-ready
Motherboard: Asus Striker SLI-ready Gaming Motherboard
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy X-gamer

[KarmaKiller]

Wow. that's a pretty nice system. But there is ALWAYS something you can improve on your PC, but, sometimes it's just not worth the $ for the little performance upgrade it gives.
I think your in that boat personally. You could upgrade, but really, there should be no reason to. That GPU is still plenty powerful, your CPU is obviously good. You have plenty or ram, your motherboard is awesome, and your good on sound too.
If your really want to upgrade something, might check into a newer graphics card. It would offer very little performance gain though over your current though. Really, it wouldn't be worth the money. Or with your motherboard being SLI capable, you could get another 8800 and run SLI. Of course, you'd have to check to make sure your power supply can handle it. But that would be around $120-$150, depending on where you get it. It would offer a little bit of increase in performance. Other then that, I see no reason to upgrade.

[EXreaction]

Can it be improved? Always.

Anything worth the money for improvements? Probably not.

If you have a good enough power supply you could look for another 8800 GTS for an SLI setup. But I wouldn't do that unless you can get the 8800 GTS for around $90 or less.

[EXreaction]

Just noticed your post Karma.

I would definitely not get another 8800 GTS for $120. I've seen at least 1 8800 GT that was on sale for $60 the other day.

[hisland808]

Thanks for all your help. Where can I buy it for that price? Do you think I need to increase on the ram maybe to a 6 or possibly a 8. I am currently using Window Vista Ulitmate 32 bit. What are things I need to watch out for if I do make the changes?

Thanks for all your help. I was just looking at my my window experience index, eveything was rated 5.9 except the Memory(Ram) which rated at 5.4. Is there anything I can do to improve it? Can I run install Vista Ultimate 64 with 4 gig ram?

[KarmaKiller]

Unless your looking on forums or EBAY, I don't think I can find it as cheap as Ex was saying.
But here are some options:
ZOTAC 8800 GTS 640MB | GeForce ZOTAC 8800 GTS 640MB | ZT-88SE640-FSP ZOTAC 8800 GTS 640MB
There's one for $125, but they are out of stock ATM.
Newegg.com - EVGA 640-P2-N829-AR GeForce 8800GTS SSC 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
$150 after MIR's.
That's about the best i can find..

But, EX is right.
You can get 8800GT's for less, and two of them would out perform 2 of your current cards..

[EXreaction]

You should probably look at installing the 64 bit version of Vista. 32bit operating systems can only support 4GB of combined system memory. So likely you can only use about 2.5GB of that 4GB of ram you have.

If you have 2 extra memory slots open you could buy 4GB more of ram, which would cost $60-70. You'll definitely need 64bit Vista first though.

If you have a retail Vista disk you can reinstall the operating system and choose the 64 bit version. If you have an OEM disk that is 32 bit only you can find somebody with a retail disk (or OEM 64 bit disk) and install it using their disk (but use your own serial key).

[pullmyfoot]

But having more than 4gigs right now is kinda a waste of money. If your gonna spend the money on a new card you might as well get an ATI HD 4850. Or perhaps the 9800GTX since you have a NVIDIA based system there and can do SLI in the future. Both are US$199.

[thephilosophizer]

If you do want to do something with the machine, the weak spots are the graphics and the os, not the amount of ram. Technically using vista 32-bit, you can't use all the ram you have now. Doing two 8800gts's in sli would probably be the most cost effective upgrade, though they would draw a lot of power, and if you pay you power bill, you could well notice an increase (when I built my new system my power bill dropped $10).
The other thing you could do is get more hard disk space, especially because you have two in raid 0, which means if one disk fails, you lose everything. The easiest thing to do would be to get one of the new wd caviar 640s, for $90.

[qrs321]

pullmyfoot: The 4850 is the same price as the 9800gtx, the 4870 is more like $300

[hisland808]

Thanks for all your help. I was just looking at my my window experience index, eveything was rated 5.9 except the Memory(Ram) which rated at 5.4. Is there anything I can do to improve it? Can I run install Vista Ultimate 64 with 4 gig ram?

[EXreaction]

Those ratings are horrible at telling you what you have. Your memory is fast enough. You likely would not see any increase in performance with faster memory (if your motherboard even supports faster memory).

Yes, Vista Ultimate will run on 4GB. I am not sure why you think it might not.

[hisland808]

As for the Vista Ultimate 64, a friend of mine told me that I need to have 8GB of ram in order to use it so I am kind of confused. So can I still use Vista Ultimate 64 with 4GB of ram?

[2monsters]

As EXreaction stated above yes Vista Ultimate will run on 4gb

[hisland808]

I hope you guys don't mind me asking too many "dumb" questions. I am kind of new to this and trying to learn as much as I can from the pros.

[batmeat]

You can also dump your hard drives and get the raptor 150's in a raid 0 configuration.

[pullmyfoot]

pullmyfoot: The 4850 is the same price as the 9800gtx, the 4870 is more like $300

oopsies . I ment 4850