I want to increase performance on CSS

[Merlin4458]

I have 2x256 (2100) ram on my mobo which only has 3 slots. I want to increase to a gig of ram to make counterstrike source more playable. My budget is limited. Wot would u say is the best route to get to that gig of ram?
and does anyone have any spare?

thanks

[pudds]

I have 2x256 (2100) ram on my mobo which only has 3 slots. I want to increase to a gig of ram to make counterstrike source more playable. My budget is limited. Wot would u say is the best route to get to that gig of ram?
and does anyone have any spare?

thanks

Id sell the memory you allready have and buy 2 512mb sticks of pc3200. Go for brand names. Buying faster memory will futureproof you for a later system and as you can only run it at pc2100 speeds youy can run it at very tight timings.
Adding a third stick of memory and mixing it with the ones you allready have is not recomended. Different types of ram don't mix well together.
2 of these wouldn't be a bad choice http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=16361
Its certainly not the fastest in the world but ok if your on a budget.

[Merlin4458]

41 quid for 3200 512 looks like a bargain. Could u do me one more favour, could u recommend some ram from www.microdirect.co.uk as i get discount with them. thanks mate. Oh and how much diff will gig 3200 make compared to 512 2100. Thanks millions

[Lu-tze]

what board/processor do you have? the gig of ram will be a benefit of course, but i'll doubt you'll be able to run it at pc3200 speeds. this is because your northbridge is not likely to be running at 200mhz, nor your processor be able to support that. unless you overclock that is. perhaps a new graphics card would be in order?

[Merlin4458]

i just want my pc to do enough to ruun css with out lag. which it isnt far off doing. my board is asus a7v333 uptodate bios/2100 athlon, bog standard 2100xp.

[Lu-tze]

yeah, your ram and cpu are running asynchronously (iirc), and so 1gb of pc3200 will not run any faster on your system than 1gb of pc2100. but as they cost more or less the same, and pc3200 would be more futureproof should you wish to upgrade mobo and cpu, go for the pc3200. your motherboard can run pc2700 asynchronously, but you'll have to upgrade your cpu as well to accomodate that.

also try to turn off any processes and background applications that you're not using as this should free up some ram. i'm not sure that it is the ram thats holding you back though as it could be the cpu and gpu. normally when it is ram, the game will start pausing every couple of seconds and you'll hear the hard drive whirring as the computer is paging to virtual memory. sometimes the application will crash and you'll be given a notice saying you ran out of virtual memory and the application had to close.

[pudds]

41 quid for 3200 512 looks like a bargain. Could u do me one more favour, could u recommend some ram from www.microdirect.co.uk as i get discount with them. thanks mate. Oh and how much diff will gig 3200 make compared to 512 2100. Thanks millions

best looks 2x http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...98&GroupID=465
thats actually slightly quicker than the other one i mentioned.
As people have allready said you won't notice any difference between pc2100 and pc3200 on your system as theyll be running at the same speeds.
The advantage is pc3200 is its almost the same price and as you'll be running the memory slower than its rated for it will be able to run faster timings.
Memory sticks run at a cetain speed say 400mhz and also at certain timings (normally listed as something like)2.5-3-3-6. Both affect how quick the memory is.
The memory on microdirect runs at 400mhz with timings of 2.5-3-3-6.
Because of your older motherboard you memory will run at a maximum of 266mhz. This means you can lower the timings to at least 2-2-2-5 and probably better. You'd be hard pressed to find any pc2100 memory module that will run at these timings so your getting the fastest memory you can for your system.
Hope i explained things clear enough

[Merlin4458]

yup u both did thanks. Would it be better spending 80 quid on gig of ram, or upgrading my cpu to say a 2400? My pc does make alot of dying noises lol, like its trying really hard to run it. Its weird cause it should run css stable. the settings are all down. I get allot of noise from my psu.? :s

[Flibb]

Try this first.

Backup stuff you need then format you computer. Do a completely clean install of windows. Only install stuff you are currently using. Upadate all drivers.

Then see how it runs.

Also what graphics card you got?

[Merlin4458]

ive just done that . Its weird cause im also execing a tweak.cfg to take out even more crap. and i hear on forums people with worse pc's than mine are running it with good fps.
Graphics card = geforce4ti4200 128mb

[pudds]

Hard to say really, performance is a combination of everything in your system, might help if you list your full system specification with the make/model of everything in your pc.

[Merlin4458]

im no at my pc but all i know is:

ASUS-a7v333 mobo
ASUS-geforce4 ti4200 128mb
512 - ddr sd ram
Bog standard - Xp2100 athlon
60 hd (duno make or speed, but 3 years old)

this pc was bought from www.meshplc.co.uk

[pudds]

what resoultion are you trying to run CSS source at? Any AF/AA?

[Merlin4458]

AF = off
AA = off
800x600 which is the lowest ive ever had to run anygame, including UT2004/MOHAA/COD/SOF2/NFSU2

[Raggy]

One thing no one mentioned, it could be your internet connection.

[Merlin4458]

connection is fine sharing a 1mb line with another css player, apart from he got a 340064 bit gig ram 9800xt