Comp upgrade question

[Joel]

Ive lost touch with the computer world the last couple years so I need some help. I'm thinking about giving my computer an upgrade before summer is over so be prepared for some rather dumb questions.

First I was wondering about ram, I have 512 of PC3200 right now, would like to go up to at least 2GB, I found 2GB of DDR2 PC6400 for about $80 on sale at fry's. Will my motherboard accept this ram, If I upgrade my motherboard/CPU later what ram will I want and what is a reasonable price?

Second I have heard that Intel's dual core processors are dominating the market over AMD. Is there any truth to this?

Any opinions would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks,

Joel

[Jake]

if you are planning on upgrading your processor to any of the current processors then essentially your looking at building a complete new system. intel's core2 duo pretty much dominates the amd in benchmarks, but benchmarks and real world are 2 differet things.

And crap, the battery on my phone is about to die( I'm on my cell phone), so I'll have to finish this later.

[Jake]

Sorry for the late response...

As I said before if you're just looking at upgrading your processor, you essentially have to upgrade your entire system because the socket that the CPU goes into has changed quite a few times. And if you buy a new motherboard you will have to probably buy a PCI Express video card, new RAM, etc...

The DDR2 memory will not work with your DDR PC3200. When building a new system you have to look closely as to what the specs are. For instance:

If you decide to build a new system you first need to decide on what CPU. AMD vs Intel (AMD used to run quite a bit cheaper than the Intel CPUs, not sure if it is still true today).

After you choose a CPU you need to find a motherboard that will accept that CPU. For instance, AMD's new socket is called 'AM2'. So you would have to find a AM2 motherboard. Next is the RAM.

For RAM you want to try and stay away from the cheap stuff unfortunately. I've been lucky with my current system, when I put it together I just bought what was cheapest. I would stick with either OCZ, Cruicial, Corsair, etc... what your basically buying is a warranty, a bad stick of RAM is pretty common and they can work fine for years and then stop working. So I try and stick with the main manufacturers who have great warranties. Also with RAM, be sure and try and stay close to what your cpu is rated at. If you have a AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ there is no reason to go out and buy more expensive RAM that is rated at DDR26400. Don't go below your CPU (in this case 5400), but stay close to the CPU rating.

Other than that... CPU prices (especially AMD) are VERY low right now, yes Intel dominates in the benchmarks, but then again you'll be paying for it with lots of cash too.

Motherboards can be quite expensive, depending on what you're looking for. I would stick with MSI, BFG, FoxConn, etc... as they all have great warranties and tech support, I've had trouble with ASUS in the past.

If you have any more questions, let me know.

-Jake