Jras0001

Ya, you can try it but dont get your hopes up, Ive never had any luck mixing ramm like that.

Like Ninjamonkey said, you have a lot of option to upgrade to as far as video cards go since you have a PCI-e slot on your motherboard. I would suggest at least going with something like a GeForce 6600 or better (you could also use the equivilant ATI card but I dont know what it is off the top of my head). The thing you will have to be sure to do when you get ready to upgrade the video card it to disable the onboard video card in your motherboards's bios. If you dont, you will get conflicts and it wont run right. If thats something you dont feel comfortable trying yourself, then I would probably buy my video card at a place like bestbuy and then tell them to install it in your machine. They have (or should have) people there that will do it for you since you bought it there. They might charge for it but not much. I would try to talk you through how to do it but Im not familiar with what bios your machine has or the menu setup so I wouldnt be able to talk you through it without sitting and looking at it myself.

Hope this helps you out.

Pitbull

Guys, I'm really sorry, but I'm kinda confused. I'm really bad about knowing how to fix and work on computers.

So, sometimes mixing RAM will keep your computer from working correctly.

But so long as you buy the correct RAM and install it correctly, if you replace it all there's no danger in your computer not running correctly.

Is that right?

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Jras0001

Pretty much. Ram dimms are meant to be used in like pairs, tri's, or quads...for example: If you want 1 gig of ram, youre better off buying (2) 512 sticks as opposed to one 1 gig stick. Also, its meant to be (2) 512 sticks and not (1) 512 stick with (2) 256 sticks and so on.

Could it work if you mixed them, maybe, but Ive never had luck doing it and avoid even messing with the headache. I much prefer to figure out how much ram I want to upgrade to, buy that much ram, throw out my old sticks and install the new ones. Ive found it just takes out the possibility of having trouble by mixing dimms.

This is just my opinion and how I prefer to do things so take it however you want. I would say that Im using a computer that I bought in pieces online and built myself and have had no trouble whatsoever yet, so I do have a bit of experience dealing with the hardware. Im also getting ready to graduate with a degree in IT so I have at least a little book knowlege as well about the subject, haha. Dont get me wrong though, Im not trying to say that Ninjamonkey is wrong. Its just that there are different ways of doing things and it just so happens, for me, the way I detailed above has worked best for me.

Hope that helps you out. If you have any other ?'s, just toss them out man and Ill do my best to help you out.

Pitbull

I'm all about avoiding headaches so I think I would prefer to toss the old RAM and just max my machines out with new RAM.

I guess my next question would be how much RAM my computers can handle and what kind of RAM would I need if I'm tossing out the old?

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sitnspin

These days there are gaming freaks who are up at 2 gigs of ram, but I find that 1 gig is sufficient for anything I want to play. And in the case of online games, it provides very little lag in crowded or active areas (town squares, big battles, etc).

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sitnspin

BTW -- since this started out as a thread about WoW, I'm just wondering what servers you guys play on and what your favourite race/class combination is. I would be into the idea sometime of picking a server and time to get together and start new characters (probably makes more sense than finding something for my lvl 39 rogue to do with your lvl 60 paladin and Pitbull's brand new character, for example). It'd be fun to just get a handful of fightforum guys to all start Orc characters (or whatever) and run low level quests for an afternoon. We could name them all after MMA fighters.

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Hemdoz

man the game is okay and i think it got boring after awhile and takes forever to lvl up in this game and i say go with fps games online ones

Jras0001

I took this from one of Ninjamonkey's earlier posts:

(for your compaq machine)

You need pc3200 dimm 184-pin ram.

So all you need to do is find a descent price on (2) 512 mb PC3200 184-pin sticks. You can get them at bestbuy or another electronics store if you want them right now or you can look on newegg.com or tigerdirect.com. Either of those sites have a good selection. If it were me, I'd go with either Corsair or Kingston ram. Ive had really good results from both and they are moderately priced. Im not sure how much ram your motherboard can support but Im pretty sure it will take 1 gig. Possibly more but 1 gig will do you just fine for wow.

When you buy the ram and get ready to put it in, do what Sitnspin said to do:
Make sure its all unplugged and you discharge any static electricity you might have by touching metal. Preferably, if you have a room in your house with no carpet on the floors, put your machine on a table in that room and install the ram in there. When taking the ram out, there are two tabs that hold in the sticks, one on each side of the dimm. Just take a finger and push them down untill you see the ram sticks "pop" up a little, then it should be fine to pull them out. Leave the tabs pushed down when you get ready to install the new ram. Make sure its lined up right, there will be a notch on the side you put into the socket and it will line you up, its pretty straight forward. When you go to put the ram in the socket, take your thumb and fingers and press evenly on the ram untill it makes a click and you see both tabs pop back up into the same position they were in when you removed the old ram. There will be no need to pull the tabs back up if you seated the ram propperly. You will notice it when they are in all the way.

You should also give thought to upgrading your video card since you are using onboard video in the machine you have. If I had to guess, that onboard video has no more than 32 or 64 meg memmory working for it. You need a video card like I described in one of my earlier posts that has 256 meg ram on the video card itself. You could get by with a cheaper one that only has 128 but if youre gonna spend the money to upgrade, just kick in the little bit of extra needed to make it worth the money spent.


I have played wow for sometime now. I have my main character on Alleria, a 66 night elf rogue. I have a few others on other servers where I play with buddies from around the country. Ive never played a horde character for more than two or three levels, just didnt like the people on that side, lot of rude kids to be honest. Hearing "wowz u suxkzors! I pwned joo l0z3r!" all the time got real old real fast, haha.

Pitbull

Thanks again guys. I think I've got the memory thing figured out now. I'm shopping for it now trying to find the best prices. It looks like Ninjamokey's link is the best price so far.

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Jras0001

Good deal man, glad it helped out. Ya, newegg.com and tigerdirect.com are some descent sites and they have some really good prices. I bought everything I needed to build my current comp from those two sites.

GSPALLTHEWAY

i just bought a new computer, and really am considering getting WoW... my friends are crazy about it like i am FF... lol goodbye real life! : (
im excited though, i hope this comp (Imac) will be good for it

Jras0001

Its not as bad as everyone makes it out to be if you are the type of person who can take things in moderation. Ya, its pretty fun and you can waste hours on the game but thats where being an adult comes in...just dont waste that much time on the game and youre all good.

As for your computer, Im sure it will run fine. Just make sure you get the game that is Mac compatible.

Ninjamonkey

WoW is mac compatible

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Jras0001

Cool, I wasnt sure. good to know.

Ring_Raider_07

I play Asheron's Call, if anyone has ever heard of that.

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Favorite Fighters (in no order): Fedor, Babalu, Randy Couture, Matt Hughes, Nick Diaz, Nate Diaz, Jeff Monson, Drew McFederies, Quinton Jackson, Georges St. Pierre and Paulo Filho.

Chicago Cubs: NL Central Champs!

sitnspin

Heard of it, but it's one of the few MMO's on the market that I've never tried. What's good about it?

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Jras0001

Has anyone here tried Vanguard: Saga of Heroe's yet? It jsut got reelased and has been in development for a long time. The origional developement team from EverQuest made this game and from what Ive read, its a good game. Just wondering if any of you had played it yet and could give any feedback.

sitnspin

I've read a bit about it, but I didn't even know it was out. It's pretty standard for every MMORPG to offer some kind of free trial, so I would imagine Vanguard will follow suit.

Also, The Age of Conan is on its way. The idea is that at the beginning of the game it's all single player missions, then you graduate to being able to play with a couple of other people at once, and then ultimately you move on to the full MMO stage where it's wide open. The graphics look like Oblivion, only dude -- it's Conan. :-)

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Jras0001

Thats an interesting idea of the game progression. If its anything like guild wars, im not going to like it that much. That game wasnt a true mmo at all, even the main cities were instanced.

I think Ill give Vanguard a try and let you guys know what I think.

Ring_Raider_07

I wouldn't say there's anything "good" about it anymore. It used to have really good PvP, but the developers pretty much ruined it. The story line is kinda getting repetitive. But, it's my first and only MMO and I have lots of friends that play so I stick around. =)

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Favorite Fighters (in no order): Fedor, Babalu, Randy Couture, Matt Hughes, Nick Diaz, Nate Diaz, Jeff Monson, Drew McFederies, Quinton Jackson, Georges St. Pierre and Paulo Filho.

Chicago Cubs: NL Central Champs!