RAM Upgrade question for PC experts

[lewisner]

As a matter of interest I notice many people here mention Ebuyer which I have never used. I was searching for reviews of my old RAM and came across this review of Ebuyer http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews1133.html
I also found the old RAM on Amazon at £40.65 per 2GB stick - near as dammit the same price as a 4GB kit of OCZ Reaper!

 

[RRSignal]

Wow, those reviews are pretty bad. And I wouldn't cut corners with used, refurbed, factory pulls etc. parts. It might have worked in the 80's, but it's not worth it today.

 

[lewisner]

Just as an update I obtained 2 x 2GB sticks of OCZ Platinum 1066Mhz cl5 RAM from Ebay for £62 and installed them in my PC yesterday afternoon. The result so far has been......no BSOD's no crashes, everything as sweet as a nut.
However when I tried to play "Far Cry 2" the same thing happened as before - I got as far as trying to open a Saved game and it booted me out back to my home screen.
I ran Belarc Advisor to check my new setup and I noticed that the "Administrator" account was disabled, so I set about trying to find out how to Enable it. An hour later it was enabled and I now have full Adminstrator rights over my own PC!
This time I tried loading Far Cry 2 and found that the only option was to open a new game, which I did and it played fine.
Today I will try to see whether I can get Trainz running.......

 

[lewisner]

It gets better. TRS2010 has installed and patched perfectly.

 

[clam1952]

As a matter of interest I notice many people here mention Ebuyer which I have never used. I was searching for reviews of my old RAM and came across this review of Ebuyer http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews1133.html

That surprises me. I've never ever had a problem with them in a few years of using them, mind you most of my stuff is components and arrives by Parcel Force, not City Link, which could be the problem! I guess its not an idea to order anything large.

Glad the ram seems to be working out for you.

 

[lewisner]

Just as an update a couple of days ago I downloaded TRS2009 and then patched it and installed both perfectly.I then moved my routes, re downloaded the content and again both are perfect.
An unexpected bonus was that the "Black Texture" problem has disappeared although I don't know why?
Maybe a little question now if somebody can help.....
When I obtained my second PC 4 years ago it had two games bundled with it - the original "Far Cry" and "King Kong". I never played King Kong but Far Cry was fascinating and pretty engrossing.
However when I tried to install it on my new PC a couple of days ago it failed. I understand it may be what is known as "OEM" because it doesn't have a CD Key though KK does.
Any thoughts on this?
I have Far Cry 2 and it plays very sweet but I prefer the original.

 

[clam1952]

Try this, highlight the setup file, right click, properties, Compatibility, and select Run as XP.

 

[lewisner]

Cheers clam I'll give that a try!

Now another question. I know that in general RAM increases video performance so....at the moment I have 2 X 2GB of OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066Mhz Cl5 RAM, but my mobo accepts up to 16GB. If I was to get an additional 4GB to take it up to 8GB would it be likely to have any beneficial effects on TRS2009/10 performance?
Also is there any theoretical maximum amount of RAM after which it would be a waste of money? Mainly in terms of Trainz I mean.

 

[fran1]

Vista and win 7 require 2g ram, 2010 will use 4g ram so 6gb Ram is ok. If you use dual channel keep it balanced ie 4g and 4g or 3g and 3g per side. Also use the same type, speed etc of RAM.

 

[lewisner]

Yeah I basically understand all that but I'll explain what I mean.
I got an old (2002) Fujitsu Siemens laptop from a friend and it only has a 20GB HDD which I can't really do much about but it als had just 256MB RAM. I got so frustrated by it's slowness that I splashed out on 1GB RAM and the improvement was incredible.
So at the moment I have 4GB and assuming I could get another 4GB for like £60 would I get a noticeable increase in FPS or in any other area or would I just be chucking money away?
I've just done a video and the improvement in appearance is noticeable with the new RAM so would it be still further improved?

 

[fran1]

You almost lost me, very close.
With the laptop you will notice a quicker start up and access to programs because of the upgrade, xp uses 512mb on its own.
But another 2 gig in your desktop would make a difference (4 g if you want to fill the slots) the extra 2 making 8 gig having little impact.
Dont expect a change like you saw on the laptop.