It this a good set up for this price?

Post by **Arrican** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 4:09 pm

$299.99 from Compusa.com

ASUS M4A88T-M Motherboard - Qty: 1

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition OEM Processor - Qty: 1

Thermaltake CL-P0503 70mm CPU Cooler - Qty: 1

Lite-On Internal 24X DVD Writer - Qty: 1

Patriot 4GB DDR3-1333MHz G2 Desktop Memory Module - Qty: 1

Patriot 4GB DDR3-1333MHz G2 Desktop Memory Module - Qty: 2

Seagate Barracuda 1TB Low Power Hard Drive - Qty: 1

Thermaltake V2 ATX Mid Tower Case with 450W PSU - Qty: 1

Post by **Bulwark** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 4:23 pm

no video card?

Post by **Arrican** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 4:35 pm

Nope. It's a barebones rig. I'll supply something to go with it.

Post by **Happyclam** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:23 pm

Looks like it should be fine. Is that 8 gig or 12 gig of Ram?

Post by **Arrican** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:37 pm

It should be 12. But I guess the most you can get at once in the order is 8gb. So it's an order of 8 and an order of 4.

Post by **Raikir** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 11:35 pm

You're gonna have dual channel memory problems if you use 3 sticks of ram. 2 sticks of 4 gig is more than enough for most anything.

Post by **Bulwark** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:50 am

Also, most MBs can only hold 4 sticks.

Post by **Arrican** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 3:48 am

Yeah this mobo can handle 4. But would only be handling 3. 3x4gb

Post by **Blackferne** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 12:58 pm

Arrican wrote:Yeah this mobo can handle 4. But would only be handling 3. 3x4gb

What Raikir is saying is you won't get 12gb of RAM though because of dual memory problems. Best to try to get 4 sticks and get all the reward.

Sent from my smartyphone. the above message may have autocorrect fails.

Post by **Lonomonkey** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:00 pm

even number of sticks is the way to go if you don't want any issues.

Post by **Gartorn** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 3:32 pm

What type of OS were you planning on running this on? Anything non-64 bit won't address more than 4gig anyways.

Windows 7 64-bit has *less* driver issues than Windows XP 64-bit edition from what I have found, but I very rarely use Windows other than to game so I can't speak with much authority on this topic.

Joun in right though, the dual memory buffering works best in sets of 2. In some scenarios if given the option between 2x4 gig or 3x4 gig, the 2x4 gig will operate faster. Currently there are very few circumstances where you will be eating up the entire 8 gig of RAM anyways. Now with that said I do have 16, but we both know mine's always bigger.

Post by **Dood** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 5:17 pm

Win7 64-bit is what I run at home and I have never had any driver issues that I can recall.

I run with 8GB of RAM, which allows you to disable virtual memory, meaning you no longer have a swap file. This speeds up system performance a great deal.

It's also "fewer driver issues" not "less driver issues."

Post by **Raikir** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 6:52 pm

In all likelihood (some mobos have problems with odd #s, ymmv), you will be able to address all 12 gigs (with a 64 bit OS), but it will only be in single channel mode. Big performance hit.

My suggestion would be for 2x4 gigs on Windows 7 pro x64. Use the money from that third stick and apply it to the vid card.

Post by **Dood** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:02 pm

Raikir wrote:My suggestion would be for 2x4 gigs on Windows 7 pro x64. Use the money from that third stick and apply it to the vid card.

Post by **Arrican** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:35 pm

It's a barebones pre-made set up. So I'd get a 3rd stick whether I want it or not.

So I might go for it and call it a day and then just find a good vid card

Post by **Furiel** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:43 pm

Arrican wrote:It's a barebones pre-made set up. So I'd get a 3rd stick whether I want it or not.

So I might go for it and call it a day and then just find a good vid card

Buy it as is then, then turn around and sell the 3rd stick on craig's list for beer money.

Post by **Gartorn** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:49 pm

Furiel wrote:
Arrican wrote:It's a barebones pre-made set up. So I'd get a 3rd stick whether I want it or not.

So I might go for it and call it a day and then just find a good vid card
Buy it as is then, then turn around and sell the 3rd stick on craig's list for beer money.

You've got the right idea here!

Post by **Bulwark** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 10:49 pm

basically, if you build the same setup on newegg and it is more expensive, then this is a good deal.

The Church of Alvis