Help me with RAM

[FangedBeast]

Right, here's my 'problem' I am going to upgrade my PC by buying a new PSU, CPU, GFX Card and more RAM. I know generally what to buy for all of them but RAM, I looked on this site which i can't remember and a program that i used said that the max. RAM I can have is two 2GB's of RAM; meaning I should be able to have 4 GB of RAM in total...
However... I looked on HP's site and I looked up on my model and I looked at the upgrading specs and it says I can only upgrade only to 2GB ram max [1GB per slot];Motherboard's/manufacture's max - To confirm this, i used the scanner on Crucial.com... and it too, said 2gb max...
Now, I'm confused.
HALP?

P.S I'm thinking of buying one of the AMD Athlon series, Radeon HD 5450 [For 'casual' gaming] and a Corsair/Antec PSU which is more than 400w...

[Alen]

If you have a PC with a Pentium forget about buying "more" ram, just upgrade the whole thing. And specs would be nice (hint: google Speccy).

It would be nice to know your budget too, nowadays you can get a decent Sandy Bridge-powered PC (coupled with a "casual gaming" gpu it would be "perfect" for every normal person) for around 700-ish I think, if you're willing to buy something lower end, an AMD gaming build with a "casual gaming" card would come even less.

Sandy Bridge build I would get for a normal user / gamer in my crappy country (note that if you live in the US you'll get stuff cheaper and if you live in a "normal" country like Germany, UK... you'll get stuff cheaper too):

Random ATX case with flashy colours: 40€
Random 700W PSU: 50€
Mobo - GA-PH67-UD3*: 90€
CPU - Intel 2500**: 200€
CPU cooler - keep the stock one**
RAM - 4x2GB random 1333MHz ram***: 100€
GFX - Ati 5770 ("decent" gaming): 120€
HDD: 2x500GB****: 80€ 
DVD - any random: 20€

Total: 700€

*I don't even buy anything other than GA for normal PCs nowadays, they're simply the best. Enjoy USB3 and Sata 3
**Get the unlocked 2500K and something like the Mega Shadow and decent fans if you want to OC, but I doubt you're an OC enthusiast
***Don't worry about latencies and stuff, just get the normal stuff, once again, I doubt you're an enthusiast
****Hardware raid0, any 2 normal disks should work ok, if you want to save money and don't really care about performance just buy 1 disk

[FangedBeast]

If you have a PC with a Pentium forget about buying "more" ram, just upgrade the whole thing. And specs would be nice (hint: google Speccy).

It would be nice to know your budget too, nowadays you can get a decent Sandy Bridge-powered PC (coupled with a "casual gaming" gpu it would be "perfect" for every normal person) for around 700-ish I think, if you're willing to buy something lower end, an AMD gaming build with a "casual gaming" card would come even less.

Sandy Bridge build I would get for a normal user / gamer in my crappy country (note that if you live in the US you'll get stuff cheaper and if you live in a "normal" country like Germany, UK... you'll get stuff cheaper too):

Random ATX case with flashy colours: 40€
Random 700W PSU: 50€
Mobo - GA-PH67-UD3*: 90€
CPU - Intel 2500**: 200€
CPU cooler - keep the stock one**
RAM - 4x2GB random 1333MHz ram***: 100€
GFX - Ati 5770 ("decent" gaming): 120€
HDD: 2x500GB****: 80€ 
DVD - any random: 20€

Total: 700€

*I don't even buy anything other than GA for normal PCs nowadays, they're simply the best. Enjoy USB3 and Sata 3
**Get the unlocked 2500K and something like the Mega Shadow and decent fans if you want to OC, but I doubt you're an OC enthusiast
***Don't worry about latencies and stuff, just get the normal stuff, once again, I doubt you're an enthusiast
****Hardware raid0, any 2 normal disks should work ok, if you want to save money and don't really care about performance just buy 1 disk

I'm only a kid [Literally] I dont have that budget... and i don't think my parents will allow me to buy a brand new PC
HP Pavilion g3100.uk Desktop PC - HP technical support (United Kingdom - English)
^^ My PC right now ^^
I share my PC with my family too so... Yeah...
My personal budget: £100 or less but i want to save so i would perfer buying stuff off of Ebay :P

[Alen]

I'm only a kid [Literally] I dont have that budget... and i don't think my parents will allow me to buy a brand new PC
HP Pavilion g3100.uk Desktop PC - HP technical support (United Kingdom - English)
^^ My PC right now ^^
I share my PC with my family too so... Yeah...
My personal budget: £100 or less but i want to save so i would perfer buying stuff off of Ebay :P

I wouldn't consider upgrading with only 100 quid. Just save up some money, if you really want to upgrade anything just get a new gfx card (though I highly recommend you don't stick anything too good in there).

[FangedBeast]

I wouldn't consider upgrading with only 100 quid. Just save up some money, if you really want to upgrade anything just get a new gfx card (though I highly recommend you don't stick anything too good in there).

but do i REALLY need to upgrade my psu + motherboard to play games like battlefield play4free, cod 4....

I intend to replace my 2 x 512mb to a 2 x 1gb ram in my pc
Also, i intend to buy a radeon hd 5450 in there too.
and why would i put anything good in there? Is my future gfx card 'too good'?
P.S Thanks for replying

[Alen]

but do i REALLY need to upgrade my psu + motherboard to play games like battlefield play4free, cod 4....

I intend to replace my 2 x 512mb to a 2 x 1gb ram in my pc
Also, i intend to buy a radeon hd 5450 in there too.
and why would i put anything good in there? Is my future gfx card 'too good'?
P.S Thanks for replying

Well the 5450 isn't "too good" but imo it's still not worth wasting all your money. What's your current gfx card?

[FangedBeast]

Well the 5450 isn't "too good" but imo it's still not worth wasting all your money. What's your current gfx card?

*Cough* Um.... Intel Intergrated family chipset *Cough*

I've been searching on ebay and the retail price is like £40 but on ebay [used but fully functional] it's like £15...

The 5450 is good enough right? for those games for them to be at least med/high without [much] lag....

[Alen]

*Cough* Um.... Intel Intergrated family chipset *Cough*

I've been searching on ebay and the retail price is like £40 but on ebay [used but fully functional] it's like £15...

The 5450 is good enough right? for those games for them to be at least med/high without [much] lag....

Personally I would get at least the 5670 (that can be called a low to mid range gaming card) or ideally the 5770 (a decent mid-range card).

[ForrestGump]

If you wanna know what version your RAM is going to have to be use Crucial. Google it.

[FangedBeast]

Personally I would get at least the 5670 (that can be called a low to mid range gaming card) or ideally the 5770 (a decent mid-range card).

Interesting. 5670 is a low power comsumtion so maybe no need for a PSU?
5770 is about £30 too suprisingly, even though the 5670 is a model[s] lower....
/Googling/Researching...

Right... Just a question... If i buy one of them two... [probably the 5670]; do they have like vertex shaders and that? becuase i can find the specs for it...

If you wanna know what version your RAM is going to have to be use Crucial. Google it.

I already know... DDR2 PC2 5300...

EDIT: The program i used is called SIW, i usd it to check my max ram and it was wrong...

[Alen]

Interesting. 5670 is a low power comsumtion so maybe no need for a PSU?
5770 is about £30 too suprisingly, even though the 5670 is a model[s] lower....
/Googling/Researching...

Right... Just a question... If i buy one of them two... [probably the 5670]; do they have like vertex shaders and that? becuase i can find the specs for it...

You only have one PCI Express x16 slot meaning you can only use one gfx card (so what you're gonna buy is what you're gonna use until you change). The whole 5000 series is as up-to-date as it gets (unless you really want the latest series, which is the 6000 from AMD / ATI or the Nvidia 500 series).

I would really recommend you get the 5770 or at least the 5750, the 5670 isn't really a gaming card tbh (although officially AMD classifies the 5670 as it's lowest-end "gaming" card from the 5000 series).

[FangedBeast]

You only have one PCI Express x16 slot meaning you can only use one gfx card (so what you're gonna buy is what you're gonna use until you change). The whole 5000 series is as up-to-date as it gets (unless you really want the latest series, which is the 6000 from AMD / ATI or the Nvidia 500 series).

I would really recommend you get the 5770 or at least the 5750, the 5670 isn't really a gaming card tbh (although officially AMD classifies the 5670 as it's lowest-end "gaming" card from the 5000 series).

no no, i mean i will probally buy ONE of the two... the 5770 is like £50 and im not going to use it for like real demanding games.... Also, the 5770 has to have like a more powerful psu and has to have more cables and plugs which i dont think i have [im unsure]

[Alen]

no no, i mean i will probally buy ONE of the two... the 5770 is like £50 and im not going to use it for like real demanding games.... Also, the 5770 has to have like a more powerful psu and has to have more cables and plugs which i dont think i have [im unsure]

Any 500W-ish PSU should have a PCIE cable nowadays

And what games are you thinking about playing?

[FangedBeast]

Any 500W-ish PSU should have a PCIE cable nowadays

And what games are you thinking about playing?

Ummhhh.... A.V.A, flash games[when im bored], COD 4, Crossfire, Project Blackout... those are the general guidelines... when i get a better gfx card, im obvs gonna explore more games... [Such as cod, online games and maybe TF2]

[Alen]

Ummhhh.... A.V.A, flash games[when im bored], COD 4, Crossfire, Project Blackout... those are the general guidelines... when i get a better gfx card, im obvs gonna explore more games... [Such as cod, online games and maybe TF2]

I would def get at least the 5750, especially if you're thinking of playing those games at a decent resolution with reasonable settings and no frame lag :/