Old rig with dead RAM. Upgrade it or fix it?

Geo2160 · July 28, 2014

So, my trusty old Corsair 4gig DDR2 kit died and replacing it will be expensive for my build so I'm not sure it is worth it. Here is my current config:

- Intel Xeon E5440 /w Scythe Kama Angle cooler on it

- MSI P35 Neo2-FR

- obviously no RAM

- Nvidia GTX 470

- Samsung 830 256gb SSD and a couple of HDDs

Other things to note:

- The most demanding things I do on my computer are games. However, I would do more if I could.

- I have a Gigabit internet connection. I only mention this because it makes a good onboard NIC pretty much mandatory. The current one limits my speeds at ~400mbps.

Here are my options:

1) Keep my current config and get new RAM. This motherboard for some reason overclocks the RAM along with the CPU, and there's no way to unlink their frequencies. So, I would need to buy a pretty good RAM kit, that would support ~850Mhz or even more which is pretty expensive these days. A 4GB DDR2 kit is more expensive than an 8GB DDR3 kit around here.

2) Sell those, get the new Intel unlocked Pentium, a cheap DDR3 kit and the best motherboard that I can find within my budget with overclocking capabilities

3) Sell those and get an AM3+ platform. I think I could be able to get a decent config around a FX-4300 or a FX6300 if I'm lucky. I could also reuse my old Scythe Kama Angle with it since AMD still has that ancient mounting system.

The reason why I don't know what to do is relative performance and upgradability. Firstly, I don't know how those processors compare to each other. Secondly, I usually save some money and periodically upgrade my computer in small increments. I neglected the main three pieces for long enough that I couldn't upgrade one without selling all of them. So I'm a bit worried about AM3+ since it is also a dead platform. I will probably get the 8350 in the future, but that's it. I'll be stuck with the same config forever again. Their SATA controllers and onboards NICs are also usually worse than intel's. Option 3 should be fine for most cases, but it will also be the most expensive to upgrade in the short run.

Please do share your thoughts!

Katsu-K1L · July 28, 2014

Honestly don't do anything with this, if you can find ram, get it and wait just wait, because if you get a low-end setup like a unlocked pentium or fx6300, it would just be wasting money D:

SAV1OUR · July 28, 2014

option 3. ddr2 is pretty hard to find and when you do find it its over priced, the pentiums a joke. in the long term its waste of money and a over clocked 6300 or 8320 will still beat the sh*t out of it any day