2GB instead of 4 -- Bah

[Wintrow]

I am currently running the following
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
ASUS A8N-SLI mobo with a NForce4 chipset and a PCI-Ex x 16 interface
GF7800GT 256MB RAM
1 x 1GB PC3200 GEIL DDR(1)

Northrend is giving my PC the shivers and other games are starting to break down as well (unless I tone down the aesthetics to a displeasing level).

Time for an upgrade! (when is it not :tongue:?)

At first I wanted to add a single strip of 2GB DDR1 but the prices for those are starting to get quite high (over here in belgium anyway) so
-->
New hardware ordered:
ASUS M2N68-AM mobo
Athlon X2 7550+
Sapphire ATI HD4670,512MB
2 x Corsair 2048MB XMS2-6400,DDR2 800MHz (amounting to 4GB)

New hardware arrived:
ASUS M2N68-AM (check)
Athlon X2 7550+ (check)
Sapphire ATI HD4670,512MB (check)
2 x 2 x Corsair 1048MB XMS2-6400,DDR2 800MHz (ch.. what?!)

Seems that whatever I ordered was not 1 x 2GB per blister package, but 2 x 1GB. And I ordered two of those!

At first you think "okay, no biggy I'll put 4 x 1GB on the mobo instead". Then you look at the mobo: Only 2 slots. "ow yeah, now I remember, I didn't mind back when I ordered because I only NEEDED 2 slots".

So now I'm faced with the following choices:
a) Suck it up, put in only 2GB instead of 4GB and try to sell off the remainder
b) Buy 2 x 2GB (54€), return the 4 x 1GB (costing me 50€ administrative costs but returning the purchase value of about 54€, netting me 4€ refunded)
c) Buy 2 x 2GB (54€) and try to sell off the 4 x 1GB (gonna be hard, don't really know anyone strapped for memory, I'm usually the last one to upgrade)

To support my decision: How much of a performance trade-in should I be expecting with my new rig going from 4 to 2 gigs?

[UniQ]

I am currently running the following
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
ASUS A8N-SLI mobo with a NForce4 chipset and a PCI-Ex x 16 interface
GF7800GT 256MB RAM
1 x 1GB PC3200 GEIL DDR(1)

Northrend is giving my PC the shivers and other games are starting to break down as well (unless I tone down the aesthetics to a displeasing level).

Time for an upgrade! (when is it not :tongue:?)

At first I wanted to add a single strip of 2GB DDR1 but the prices for those are starting to get quite high (over here in belgium anyway) so
-->
New hardware ordered:
ASUS M2N68-AM mobo
Athlon X2 7550+
Sapphire ATI HD4670,512MB
2 x Corsair 2048MB XMS2-6400,DDR2 800MHz (amounting to 4GB)

New hardware arrived:
ASUS M2N68-AM (check)
Athlon X2 7550+ (check)
Sapphire ATI HD4670,512MB (check)
2 x 2 x Corsair 1048MB XMS2-6400,DDR2 800MHz (ch.. what?!)

Seems that whatever I ordered was not 1 x 2GB per blister package, but 2 x 1GB. And I ordered two of those!

At first you think "okay, no biggy I'll put 4 x 1GB on the mobo instead". Then you look at the mobo: Only 2 slots. "ow yeah, now I remember, I didn't mind back when I ordered because I only NEEDED 2 slots".

So now I'm faced with the following choices:
a) Suck it up, put in only 2GB instead of 4GB and try to sell off the remainder
b) Buy 2 x 2GB (54€), return the 4 x 1GB (costing me 50€ administrative costs but returning the purchase value of about 54€, netting me 4€ refunded)
c) Buy 2 x 2GB (54€) and try to sell off the 4 x 1GB (gonna be hard, don't really know anyone strapped for memory, I'm usually the last one to upgrade)

To support my decision: How much of a performance trade-in should I be expecting with my new rig going from 4 to 2 gigs?

So, did you order wrong or did they send the wrong item?

[Clavina]

First of all double and triple check what you ordered. Sometimes if you order 2x2Gb and they are out of stock they'll send 4x1GB and hope you won't notice the difference. If it's their fault you are in this situation then there's no way they can charge you €50 to correct it..

[triplex]

As mentioned above - if they sent you something else than you ordered, then they should replace it free of charge and apologize to you.

You will feel the difference between 2 and 4 GB, mainly when zonining in and out. Dalaran and other areas where there are many players in one place will be making a difference. The difference wont be humongous but noticable.

[Sacroth]

-> UniQ: Please don't quote such long posts if you're not gonna highlight anything. Scrolling is a bother. :S

Ah, we have the same video card. Mine's MSI but still... high-five.

The general consesus was, last time I checked, that 2GB is plenty for WoW + addons, while 4GB is, as it is with most other games on the market, an overkill that you won't really benefit from anytime soon (well, maybe if you're a Vista user... or Dalaran hog as triplex said).
Unless, of course, you're the multi-tasking type, who has stuff running in the background while playing, such as MP3 players, download managers, multi boxing and whatnot. In that case the extra memory will arguably prove beneficial.

I'd say go with b). If you don't manage to get the extra blocks off your hands, which to me doesn't seem unlikely, you are in a position, where you can get twice the memory for only €4. No matter how insignificant they may seem at the moment, in your case, that's a friggin' steal.

Plus, you never know what hardware bustin' content Blizzard's got up their sleeve for the next expansion (a lot of people were surprised with what WotLK did to their fps), not to mention zergling based online battles in StarCraft II or 8 player groups in Diablo III. Eventually something will come around which will put the investment to good use, and, especially when you've only got two slots, it never hurts to think a little ahead.

[Wintrow]

First of all double and triple check what you ordered. Sometimes if you order 2x2Gb and they are out of stock they'll send 4x1GB and hope you won't notice the difference. If it's their fault you are in this situation then there's no way they can charge you €50 to correct it..

yep, I got exactly what I ordered. But the wording was a tad... confusing. If you look it up on the Corsair website you see I ordered 2 x 1GB, not 1 x 2GB per package.


Ah, we have the same video card. Mine's MSI but still... high-five.


I scrolled the list and picked what would double my current performance for a decent price :grin:.

As mentioned above - if they sent you something else than you ordered, then they should replace it free of charge and apologize to you.

You will feel the difference between 2 and 4 GB, mainly when zonining in and out. Dalaran and other areas where there are many players in one place will be making a difference. The difference wont be humongous but noticable.


The general consesus was, last time I checked, that 2GB is plenty for WoW + addons, while 4GB is, as it is with most other games on the market, an overkill that you won't really benefit from anytime soon (well, maybe if you're a Vista user... or Dalaran hog as triplex said).
Unless, of course, you're the multi-tasking type, who has stuff running in the background while playing, such as MP3 players, download managers, multi boxing and whatnot. In that case the extra memory will arguably prove beneficial.

I'd say go with b). If you don't manage to get the extra blocks off your hands, which to me doesn't seem unlikely, you are in a position, where you can get twice the memory for only €4. No matter how insignificant they may seem at the moment, in your case, that's a friggin' steal.

Plus, you never know what hardware bustin' content Blizzard's got up their sleeve for the next expansion (a lot of people were surprised with what WotLK did to their fps), not to mention zergling based online battles in StarCraft II or 8 player groups in Diablo III. Eventually something will come around which will put the investment to good use, and, especially when you've only got two slots, it never hurts to think a little ahead.

As it is, I've already gotten rid of most half my "overstock". So I'm hopeful I'll eventually sell the other as well. Result is that I'll probably be making a slight profit even, so in hindsight my mistake helped me get more money for the 2x2GB :thumbsup:!

With the intent of future-proofing I'll be ordering my 4GB soon.