I'm considering buying a new Dell, but I'd like to have 16 gigs of RAM rather than the stock 8 gigs. The Dell upgrade cost is $175 and I know I can do much better. Here is a page from Newegg showing the type of memory I am considering buying. The only info I have on the Dell RAM is that it is dual channel DD3 1600 Mhz, in two 4 gig SIMMS. The machine can handle another 2 SIMMS so I'm looking at buying 2 more 4 gig SIMMS. Sadly, I know very little about RAM. Are there any other criteria that I need to add to my search to ensure compatibility? Also, of the various Newegg options which is going to provide the best combo of performanc, reliability and price?
I'm definitely not an expert, but I can vouch for the G-Skill brand. I was having tons of problems with my self-built PC, with crashes & blue screens in the middle of games, and memcheck and other diagnostics turned up nothing. A friend who works in IT told me to get rid of my Corsair memory and replace it with G-Skill. I haven't had a problem since. Here's an entry for 2x4GB DD3 1600 sticks on Newegg. Currently $25.
I was going to say that price is insanely low and then I noticed that they are sold out :O. Oh well... I'll keep that brand in mind. Edit: oddly, 5 minutes later no longer sold out.
well.. yes.. DDR2 RAM has been effectively on the outs since DDR3 showed up in late 2007. RAM (or any tech product) tends to get more pricey as less and less items use it. pretty simple stuff. it took me until this year to finally decide to build a new machine and get away from the DDR2. looking over my Newegg/Amazon order history i see: Feb 2004 - $68 - Kingston ValueRAM 256MB 168-Pin SDRAM (PC 133) Dec 2004 - $141 - Mushkin Enhanced 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Apr 2007 - $167 - Corsair XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Aug 2008 - $85 - Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Sep 2012 - $220 - Mushkin Enhanced 4 x 8 GB DDR3-1600 CL9 1.5-Volt 240-Pin Blackline Dual-Channel Memory Kit (PC3 12800) ..typically, stuff goes down in price right after i buy it. that 32GB memory kit i bought in september is now $165, go figure.
At this point in time, anyone charging more than $4-5 per GB of DDR3 Ram is ripping you off. Dell asking $175 to plug $20 worth of components (maybe 10 seconds worth of low-skill labor) is just hilariously sad, because I'm sure they're charging that much because some people are paying it.
I am starting to consider just building one myself. However, I do not have enough technical knowledge to make some of the more technical decisions like Ivy Bridge v Sandy Bridge, how many watts of powersupply I need, what's the right motherboard, that sort of thing. I will do some research this weekend when I finally have a little downtime, but if anybondy has a handy link to a good articule on building a decent performaning, cost effective game machine, I'd appreciate a link.
I'm hardly a technical guru, and I built a pretty nice machine a couple years ago. My impression is that unless you're going for some sort of bleeding edge ultra-overclock type setup, as long as you invest a bit of time into researching the various components and learning how to fit them together, you are unlikely to go horribly wrong.
Basic concept: best overall gaming machine I can get for about $900. For HD space, 1TB would be fine. Graphics card, I prefer the Nvidia cards, not sure where the sweet spot is. The range I've seen is from GT 620 to GT 660, but there's a huge variation in price. I need to research the relative cost/perfomance. Also, I need to learn the differences between the GTs, the GTXs, and the Ti versions. That's all Greek to me. Since I'm not a big FPS guy, I would generally err on the side of more CPU power (for strategy games) over video card, but still would like a good enough GPU to play stuff like PS2 and Mechwarrior Online, and maybe the occasional high end or Open World game. Also, what are folks opinions on Windows 7 vs Windows 8 for gaming for the next couple of years?
After further consideration I threw up my hands at the learning curve that would be required to properly DIY a gaming PC. Perhaps I will re-consider the option in a few months when I am (hopefully) not working 60 to 70 hour weeks. Instead I bought an iPad Retina Display w/ 64 Gigs of storage, plus one of those detachable keyboard/case doodads. It's my first Apple product in 20 years. With tax and shipping the whole thing came to about $800. If it lives up to the hype it will theoretically tie my shoes, feed my guinea pig, walk on water, and cure cancer. Also, the allegedly wondrous wolrd of iOS games. The shipment is coming in next week so I'm looking forward to checking it out.
This is an unexpected turn of events. I'm interested in seeing how the iPad fills in as a gaming machine, though. What a weird world we live in.
