I have an asus P4C800 deluxe
I have 2x512MB and 1xGB cheap kingston value ram that has lasted me 4 years
AGP card: Sapphire Radeon 9600 pro

I have severely neglected this machine over 4 years. Only adding a GB of ram last year and replacing the power supply twice.

First of all, is it wise to OC an older (4 yrs) PC or will it just break on me faster? Second, is a slight processor performance increase at this point worth the $180 I am willing to spend or should I put it towards a core 2 gaming system?

If it's fine, I would like to reach 3.0ghz+ and I have a feeling the cheap ram is holding me back. (I cannot even do ASUS' automatic 5% overclock settings).

Could this be a problem: I have an odd number of DIMMS 1x 1GB and 2x 512. Asus manual recommends: either 2 DIMMs or 4 Dimms and only identical DIMMS in same-color slots

If this is nto an issue, here is what it says in the mobo manual about memory:
4 DDR DIMM slots
Up to 4 GB ram (Each slot can have up to 1GB DIMM in it)
184-pin unbuffered ECC or non-ECC
PC3200/PC2700/PC2100 DDR DIMMs
Up to 6.4 GB/s data transfer rate

I plan on getting 2 GB. and paying under $200 but I would like to pay under $130 if possible.

Thanks!

how does that compare to Damn Fast & Fricking Fast ?

is it in the urbandictionary yet ?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/def [...] icky+bobby

YES IT IS !

OK now what was the question ...

"I have an asus P4C800 deluxe" me too !

i have 4 x 512 Mushkin Level 2 DDR400. i ran it with a 10% OC for a while.

if you can get it - the 2 x 512 OCZ Platinum Rev. 2 was a real good OC'er.

"First of all, is it wise to OC an older (4 yrs) PC"
kind of a philosophical question. if you don't break it, and it's fun and it inspires you to learn more about computers, and gives you something impressive to talk about during engineering job interviews.

but, serious OC'ing efforts tend to use up cash. fast. Ricky Bobby Fast.

"or will it just break on me faster?"
depends how much you OC and how attention you pay to cooling.

someone, maybe Tom's, ran one of these up to 8 GHz using liquid nitrogen. they are seriously good for overclocking. and space-heating.

for $180, you can get a C2D with motherboard that will be about twice as fast, at stock speeds.

i don't know how expensive DDR memory is right now. 2 x 512 of DDR2, if you decide to go the C2D route, rough guess, $50.

"or should I put it towards a core 2 gaming system?"

yeah, probably.

idea - sell it to someone in Canada; computer hardware is a little more expensive up there, their electricity is cheap, and it gets real cold, so having a computer that's a space heater can be an asset.

Ok race fans here is a news flash.. a 4 year old P4 in todays race is simply the pace car. Any money you put into your system right now should be for repairs only and even that is pushing it. Do you use your PC for gaming at all or anything other than general use like chatting, internet browsing, general office and small apps stuff? If so then you should just save your pennies for some new guts. Like a Core 2, new mobo, and ram. Overclocking your current system trying to run today's apps would give you very minimal benefit if any from your troubles. I say keep what you have and work on upgrading.

Don't pick on the Canadian's ok..Aa!

haha it would make a good heater, and a very inefficient on at that.

Thanks for the replies. I use my pc for older games and newer games at lower graphics settings (C&C3, HL2...). I do programming projects, dabble in video encoding, photoshop and 3d studio max (all things software) and get easily annoyed with a slow computer. I just feel like I wasted money buying a good mobo and video card at the time and then getting cheap ram locking it in slow gear.

All in All I will need a new pc. I am thinking "save my money and get a substantial upgrade" at this point.

Thanks

Hey I agree with what these other guys said,I also just got another 2 gig kit of ddr just recently for one of my P-4's,I'm thinking about sending it back and trade it for some ddr2 and slowly buy components for c2d as cash becomes readily available.
Any way this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231039
would work on your Asus P4C-800E that mobo will also have the benefit of PAT enabled so all you really need to get is a 1 gig stick provided its the same or simaler to the existing ram you already have.
Uhhh I just happen to have a spare 3.4E Sl7E6 costa rica retail box/warranty for a reasonable offer also some old school OCZ -PC3700 EL plats and another set of rev.3 golds 2 sets.Ha sound like a advert don't I??any way pm me if your interested.

i bought some OCZ 2 x 256 Platinum DDR-433 a few years ago. if you could find the same but 2 x 512, good used, i couldn't imagine anybody asking more than $50.

$50 for a killer heat sink fan, Ultra 120 Extreme or the Noctua or the Scythe. but that involves another maybe $15 for a 120 mm fan.

they may not all have mounting hardware for that vintage MB.

those 2 tweaks plus a Power Supply upgrade would give the system some OC ability. but given what processors are selling for, i think a fair price for the 3.4 GHz socket 478 P4 would be about $- whatever you guys work out.

didn't see the other post.

I've got 4x512 kingston value ram 400mhz/cl3 and it is OC to 450 without any HS on it. I didn't have any problem with it.

I didn't have to do that but have you tried changing the voltage of the ddr? make sure you read about it before doing it (I'm not an expert on the subject)

As for your concern about killing the PC well I'm in the same situation and I'm going to buy a new rig this summer but until then I've OC my old p4 so it will give some more juice - if I'll fry it I will just have to buy the new one sooner and if not I enjoyed more and then I will let it rest as an HTPC but thats just my opinion...

God, so much for my reading ability. took me a while to see this.

yes. my limited experience is, RAM modules like to hang out with "their own kind". my Patriot DDR2 will not sit on the same machine as the Corsair DDR2. i had a similar experience with the OCZ DDR but it was a few years ago - it wouldn't co-exist with some Mushkin DDR; i forget the exact details.

so, 2 x 512 or 2 x 1 GB is a good config. for OC'ing.

Secondsystem, I am in the same boat you are. I have a system similar to yours that I was considering upgrading. Then I saw that within those 4 years, the market came up with all these new connections and standards (new CPU sockets, SATA, DDR2, etc.) that every component I looked at to replace led me to replacing the motherboard. And if I'm going to do that, then I'd have to get a new CPU. Then new drives (IDE is totally getting phased out). Then new RAM. Then at that point I thought, "what the hell why not" and went with a full upgrade. I was pretty much there anyway.

So I suggest you just save up for a new C2D system. You'll get much more performance for your money that way, even if you do end up spenidng more.