Advice on RAM & Processor

I have a new motherboard which is a K7 Triton Series GA-7N400-L with an AMD Athlon 1400 MHZ processor & two 256 MB DDR 2100 Ram chips. My operating system is ME. When the new motherboard was installed, I was told that the new Socket A motherboard would support a much faster processor. I have questions regarding the processor and the type of RAM to install. The questions are as follows:

1. The motherboard supports dual channel Technology. The local Circuit City has 512 MB Kingston Ram Chips for less than $17.00 after rebates. They are 2700/2100 and are not dual channel compatible. Is the dual channel worth the extra $40 or $50 that the compatible ram would cost?

2. I want to stay with AMD. What AMD processor can I install in this motherboard and will it make a significant difference in performance?

If I decide to make the processor change, is there a step by step procedure available on the Majorgeeks site? I have limited experience with adding RAM, changing a power supply, flashing BIOS, and installing a new CD/RW.

 

At a quick glance, you should be able to run a 3200+ barton athlon xp cpu, with DDR 400 memory. The dual DDR comes from the motherboard, not the memory. Though, you need to have two sticks of ram that are the same speed and size (this is contested) for dual-ddr support......

 

I bought one of the Ram Chips (the other is on back order).It says on the box "333 MHz DDR Desktop Systems 266 MHz Compatible Not Dual-Channel Compatible"
I can return it though. I am guessing that is the reason it is so cheap. ($16.99 plus tax after rebates) 512 MB chips seem to run about $40 to $50 plus shipping on Ebay. I think that the Dual-Channel memory might cost over 3 times as much.

Is there a noticeable difference operating in Dual Channel mode?

Does anyone have an opinion about the upgrade from an Athlon XP 1400 to the 3200 chip. Worth the effort/cost?

 

Generally speaking it is cheaper to buy dual channel kits or set's of memory & you get memory that has been tested to work as dual channel.
It is not necessary to buy dual kits to run in dual channel, but is best to atleast buy the same brand/speed/specs of memory.

Is there noticable diffarance probably not to the naked eye, but there is in benchmarks/real performance about 5% I think.

Is worth the upgrade to 3200 chip, if your only surfing the web No, Gaming & stuff like that Yes!

 

You must be getting that RAM from Circuit City. I work there-- It's retarded that my stupid employment uses so many mail-in rebates. You can buy a 2 x 512 MB dual channel kit of Corsair memory on Newegg.com for under $90 including shipping. That is the best route ^_^

 

I guess I will exchange the RAM for 2 512MB Kingston chips that say 3200/2700/2100.

I still don't know if I should upgrade the processor to the AMD 3200 processor. I don't do any gaming. I mostly do rather simple spread sheets, e-mail and web surfing. Will I notice an appreciable difference in that type of use upgrading from my Athlon 1400 to an Athlon 3200?

 

a large processor and lots of dual-channel ram is nice to have yeah... but for surfing the web and spreadsheets and emails.... u can do all this with what you currently have. having a fancy system with hih specs is only worth it if ur gonna use it.. ie for gaming and editing ect.

 

A portion of this post, I have to disagree. On par with spreadsheets. I've seen some very intensive spreadsheets, that on slower computers take a heck of a long time to process. The faster the computer and the more memory you have, will greatly reduce the time some spreadsheets are being calculated. Remember, the real purpose of spreadsheets is for calculating math.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about dual channel if you don't do any gaming. It would probably be worth your while to get at least 512Mb of RAM, a little faster processor (something like a 2500+ at least), and Windows XP.

 

I'll second Wyatt Earp.

Gaming and large spreadsheets are processor-intensive. If that's not an issue, a processor around the 2600+ level will be a lot less expensive with only a small impact on performance. Above the 2600+ mark, processor performance on a per-unit basis gets much more expensive.

In terms of clock speed, a 2600+ is less than 15% slower than a 3200+. That decrement will not be visible to the average user. It will show up only in processor-intensive benchmarks.