Ok so whan I built my current system I bought what I think is a kickass motherboard. I still think it is a kick ass motherboar 3 years later.  Now I am thinking I am going to upgrad the processor and memory. I bought this MB because it was highly upgradable.

GA-MA790FX-DS5 is the MB the current processor is

New processor will be

I also plan to upgrade the ram to 16 gigs. Which I usderstand is the limit for WIN7 home edition. The MB says it will accept duel channel DDR2 with a clock speed of 1066MGhz. The MB has 4 memmory slots so i will need 4gig sticks but for the life of me I don't seem to be able to find it. From looking about it does not look like 4gig sticks of DDR2 ever existed.

Now I know i will have to upgrade the bios as the current bios is outdated. I am a bit nervouse about messing with the bios but it has a duel bios so it would be hard to totally jack it up. I am wondering if a usb thumb drive can be used for the bios upgrade.

I am also planing to upgrade the vid card something in the 40-60fps range under $200.

I'd love to hear anyones opinion on doing bios updates.

I use @BIOS on my Gigabyte board it can flash the bios from windows, just have to download the correct bios from gigabyte as the "auto" flash option has never worked right for me.

4 GB memory modules were still very expensive (hundreds of dollars each!) when the industry moved from DDR2 to DDR3 about three years ago.  So they never really got mass produced to the degree necessary to bring costs down.  Memory manufacturers don't want to spend billions investing in upgrading their production of products that are disappearing.

4 GB DDR2 modules are cheaper than they used to be, but still not cheap.  If you really need 16 GB, then you could get two of these kits:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161485

But look at the price tag.  Do you really need 16 GB?  For thatkind of money you might as well just replace the motherboard and buy DDR3.

The higher density modules tend not to reach as high of clock speeds as the lower density ones either, for a variety of reasons.

Originally posted by Rojiin

I use @BIOS on my Gigabyte board it can flash the bios from windows, just have to download the correct bios from gigabyte as the "auto" flash option has never worked right for me.

I used the "flash bios" which is a standard feature on my motherboard and it worked great. Now I need to figure out how to get my comp to run the RAM at the 1066 setting instead of the 800 it is currently running at. The MB is supposed to auto detect and run at 1066 but it isn't.

This will probably mean overclocking the RAM and I have 0 exp with overclocking. I have looked at all the bios settings for overclocking and I ahve no idea what they all mean or how they relate to one another so have not done this yet.

Originally posted by Quizzical

4 GB memory modules were still very expensive (hundreds of dollars each!) when the industry moved from DDR2 to DDR3 about three years ago.  So they never really got mass produced to the degree necessary to bring costs down.  Memory manufacturers don't want to spend billions investing in upgrading their production of products that are disappearing.

4 GB DDR2 modules are cheaper than they used to be, but still not cheap.  If you really need 16 GB, then you could get two of these kits:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161485

But look at the price tag.  Do you really need 16 GB?  For thatkind of money you might as well just replace the motherboard and buy DDR3.

The higher density modules tend not to reach as high of clock speeds as the lower density ones either, for a variety of reasons.

Although m OS and MB can take up to 16 gigs of RAM i've decided its not worth the cost. I may bost the ram to 8 gigs though.

I'm already looking at specs for m NEW comp. It's not going to be top shelf though since I am not going to spend upwards of $1,000 on a pentium I7 processor though. The new comp will probably be another AMD series 9 processor though, 6 core I am thinking

in the nicest possible way i say this.. " you have more money then brains"....

no one and i mean no one but multi-media production teams require 16gb of ram... hell even crys 2 doesnt need that much..

the most any avg PC user needs is 4gb for win7.. a avg-high gamer (plays games 10hrs+ high end games like crys 2) might need 6gbs of ram.. any more is just pointless :/ 

you really do not get any real advantage having 16gb over 6 or 8gb if you are a insane gamer

on top of that if you get your self some high quality ram you can over clock the timing speeds making 6gb even better then 16gb...

so unless you are doing 3dmax style animation/design stuff or doing music or movies you really dont need 16gb... its just a waste of money

if you really have that kind of cash to burn get DDR3 high grade ram of 6gb sticks and then crossfire/sli 2 video cards all you will ever need for gaming..

The performance different past 4G really drops off fast, as most people just don't run programs that can use that much memory - most every program a typical person uses is still 32-bit, and can't access more than 2G of RAM.

DDR2 is expensive. You'd think that since it's older it would be cheaper, but it's a question of supply and demand: there is a huge amount of DDR3 supply, so it's cheap. There's still a lot of DDR2 out there in use, and still a good bit of demand for it, so it's more expensive.

The real-world difference between DDR2 and DDR3 in measurable performance while gaming is not very much. Honestly, I wouldn't upgrade a motherboard you are otherwise happy with just to get DDR3 RAM.

To get it to run at 1066 rather than 800, you just need to manually set the RAM settings in your BIOS. Now, just because your motherboard supports 1066, your RAM has to support it too, and it may not. Technically, just by manually adjusting these values, you are doing the exact same thing as someone overclocking would be doing - but usually you only call it "overclocking" if you go beyond what the rated capacity of the part is - even though it's the exact same mechanic.

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Originally posted by Ichmen

if you really have that kind of cash to burn get DDR3 high grade ram of 6gb sticks

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6 isn't a power of 2, I don't know that you'll find many sticks at 6G.

You can find a 6G kit - (2Gx3) for Socket 1366 systems that are triple channel.

You may have to go into the bios and manually set the timings.  Your ram should come with a sheet (or sticker on the module)  that tells you the optimal settings. 

Whenever I upgrade my processor and RAM I always save up a bit more and get a new motherboard too. 

If you buy all 3 together you basically have a brand new system. And the latest technology. If you only upgrade the processor and RAM, you will only be able to upgrade as far as your old motherboard will allow. DDR3 is cheaper than DDR2 now, and there are a whole new generation of processors out since that motherboard was new. 

I've given up on the memory upgrade as many of you pointed out its jsut not worth it.

The DDR3 comment earlier was an error on my part its DDR3 on the MB for the Radeon 3000 series onboard graphics nothing to do with RAM.

Specs for the MD are DDR2 with a clock of 1066 ...which is supposed to auto detect and clock automaticly but didn't. The memory is running at an 800 clock speed atm.

Having the AMD x2 7750 black edition processor currently was more accedent than designe. It was the cheapest CPU i could afford when i built this system. I don't know anything about over clocking so don't do it at the present time. Though my bios has a ton of setting for over clocking everything in this system and the fans auto adjust speed for more cooling. To be honest when i built this sytem it was far better than my skill at pushing its limits.

It is still a good comp but I ahve noticed that when I played SWTOR and STO the processor is maxing at 100% and the fans kick into high speed which is really loud. I would like to find better processor for this box but noone seems to sell the ones my MB will support.

Admittedly I do have more money these days then when i built this box.

At this point I am thinking I will leave the box as is and only upgrad the processor to:

Phenom II X4 975

I am wondering why the older x4 processors are still around when the newer x6s are not.

Originally posted by Palladin

I've given up on the memory upgrade as many of you pointed out its jsut not worth it.

Funny thing happened when I flashed my bios though....the bios now says DDR3 compatible. Specs for the MD are DDR2 with a clock of 1066 ...which is supposed to auto detect and clock automaticly but didn't. The memory is running at an 800 clock speed atm.

Having the AMD x2 7750 black edition processor currently was more accedent than designe. It was the cheapest CPU i could afford when i built this system. I don't know anything about over clocking so don't do it at the present time. Though my bios has a ton of setting for over clocking everything in this system and the fans auto adjust speed for more cooling. To be honest when i built this sytem it was far better than my skill at pushing its limits.

It is still a good comp but I ahve noticed that when I played SWTOR and STO the processor is maxing at 100% and the fans kick into high speed which is really loud. I would like to find better processor for this box but noone seems to sell the ones my MB will support.

Admittedly I do have more money these days then when i built this box.

DDR2 and 3 uses different slots so unless you have a board with 2 DDR2 and 2 DDR3 (which isn´t totally unlikely, boards like that have been made on and off when a new standard comes you can´t just change from 2 to 3. Check your board manual to be sure.

I think you should consider changing the motherboard with the processor, and upgrade to DDR3 while at it (8GB DDR3 will most likely be cheaper than 4 more gigs of DDR2 anyways now).

A good motherboard is not that expensive.

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by Palladin

I've given up on the memory upgrade as many of you pointed out its jsut not worth it.

Funny thing happened when I flashed my bios though....the bios now says DDR3 compatible. Specs for the MD are DDR2 with a clock of 1066 ...which is supposed to auto detect and clock automaticly but didn't. The memory is running at an 800 clock speed atm.

Having the AMD x2 7750 black edition processor currently was more accedent than designe. It was the cheapest CPU i could afford when i built this system. I don't know anything about over clocking so don't do it at the present time. Though my bios has a ton of setting for over clocking everything in this system and the fans auto adjust speed for more cooling. To be honest when i built this sytem it was far better than my skill at pushing its limits.

It is still a good comp but I ahve noticed that when I played SWTOR and STO the processor is maxing at 100% and the fans kick into high speed which is really loud. I would like to find better processor for this box but noone seems to sell the ones my MB will support.

Admittedly I do have more money these days then when i built this box.

DDR2 and 3 uses different slots so unless you have a board with 2 DDR2 and 2 DDR3 (which isn´t totally unlikely, boards like that have been made on and off when a new standard comes you can´t just change from 2 to 3. Check your board manual to be sure.

I think you should consider changing the motherboard with the processor, and upgrade to DDR3 while at it (8GB DDR3 will most likely be cheaper than 4 more gigs of DDR2 anyways now).

A good motherboard is not that expensive.

Do you ever sleep?

You are around here more than me :)

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Originally posted by Palladin
I've given up on the memory upgrade as many of you pointed out its jsut not worth it.
The DDR3 comment earlier was an error on my part its DDR3 on the MB for the Radeon 3000 series onboard graphics nothing to do with RAM.
Specs for the MD are DDR2 with a clock of 1066 ...which is supposed to auto detect and clock automaticly but didn't. The memory is running at an 800 clock speed atm.
 
Having the AMD x2 7750 black edition processor currently was more accedent than designe. It was the cheapest CPU i could afford when i built this system. I don't know anything about over clocking so don't do it at the present time. Though my bios has a ton of setting for over clocking everything in this system and the fans auto adjust speed for more cooling. To be honest when i built this sytem it was far better than my skill at pushing its limits.
It is still a good comp but I ahve noticed that when I played SWTOR and STO the processor is maxing at 100% and the fans kick into high speed which is really loud. I would like to find better processor for this box but noone seems to sell the ones my MB will support.
Admittedly I do have more money these days then when i built this box.
At this point I am thinking I will leave the box as is and only upgrad the processor to:
Phenom II X4 975
I am wondering why the older x4 processors are still around when the newer x6s are not.
 

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What you see of the Phenoms and Athlons are leftovers. AMD is phasing out production for the newer Zambezi processors (FX line, which is AM3+ socket motherboards). Several of the most popular Phenom models just aren't available (or readily available at any rate) any longer.

AHHHHH HAAAAAA I was reading my MB specs and now I know why my ram only runs at 800Mhz. I will have to get a new processor that supports DDR2 1066 clock speads as the current Athlon duel core do not. I am aiming at getting a Phenom II X4 975 if i can find one.

If it was me, I would upgrade to an AM3+ mobo and get some ddr 3 ram.  It's much cheaper.  No real reason for 16gb for gaming unless you run a ramdisk.  I have an 1100T phenom 2 x6 myself.  I *think* they stopped making em.  Don't waste the money on tech that's not moving you forward (and is cost prohibitive as well) with that old ram.  Be cheaper all around to get the new mobo + ram then getting that ram.

Originally posted by drbaltazar
If u use dma disable offloading.

If i knew what DMA was i'd do it...I think.