SillyDog701

by **Mandrake** » Wed 20 Jun, 2007 11:53 am

Yeah. 1,160GB of storage.

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by **Antony** » Thu 21 Jun, 2007 9:32 am

Mandrake wrote:I just can't help but take advantage of these awesomely low prices. Upgraded to 3GB ram and added a 500GB hard drive.

How much is a 2GB 667Mhz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300) (single module) nowadays?

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by **Mandrake** » Thu 21 Jun, 2007 10:34 am

I see a Kingston 2GB DDR2-667 module for $329 AUD here. 1GB modules are far, far cheaper. I paid less than $60 for my latest one. They were even selling 2GB DDR2-667 Kingston kits with two 1GB sticks for $104 AUD.

EDIT: I found some much better prices on Nintek. 4GB DDR2 kits (2x 2GB) starting at $545. Still very expensive compared with 1GB sticks though.

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by **Mandrake** » Thu 21 Jun, 2007 10:58 am

I need to install a 64bit OS it seems. 3GB of ram exceeds capabilities of 32bit XP and I can only see 2GB of ram in Windows. :cry:

No matter, I've got plenty of hard drive space to set a dual boot configuration.

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by **Antony** » Thu 21 Jun, 2007 11:12 am

Thanks Mandrake,

My iMac can only take up to 3GB of RAM, so I have to get a 2GB module. I know it won't be as cheap as 2 x 1GB, but if the additional 1GB of RAM can benefit my iMac (and price is affordable) I think I shall go for it.

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by **Don_HH2K** » Thu 21 Jun, 2007 12:59 pm

Mandrake wrote:I need to install a 64bit OS it seems. 3GB of ram exceeds capabilities of 32bit XP and I can only see 2GB of ram in Windows. No matter, I've got plenty of hard drive space to set a dual boot configuration.

You can get up to 3GB in XP for programs and the like. Go edit your [tt]boot.ini[/tt] and add "/3GB" to the end of XP's boot line, so that it reads something like...

Code: Select all: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer /3GB

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by **Mandrake** » Thu 21 Jun, 2007 9:11 pm

I tried the "/3GB" and "/PAE" lines yesterday, but they didn't help. Thanks for the advice anyway.

Antony, I checked Apple's site and the iMac uses DDR2 SO-DIMMs. A quick search on staticICE shows a Kingston 2GB 667mhz SODIMM going for about $200 (AUD).

You'll probably lose dual channel capability if you run 1GB + 2GB though. Since you only have two memory slots each slot is it's own memory channel. For dual channel mode each channel (generally) has to have the same amount of ram.

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by **Antony** » Fri 22 Jun, 2007 9:04 pm

Mandrake wrote:Antony, I checked Apple's site and the iMac uses DDR2 SO-DIMMs. A quick search on staticICE shows a Kingston 2GB 667mhz SODIMM going for about $200 (AUD).

You'll probably lose dual channel capability if you run 1GB + 2GB though. Since you only have two memory slots each slot is it's own memory channel. For dual channel mode each channel (generally) has to have the same amount of ram.

Thanks Mandrake.
$200 is a damn good price, I am now tempted.

I encode video files a lot (my recordings from TV, EyeTV, and convert them to H.264, ffmpegX), and I hope the additional 1GB of RAM can help the encoding or give more resources to other apps.

Additional info:
Installing and replacing memory (RAM) (It looks very easy for me to do it myself)
iMac (Late 2006): Memory Specifications.

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by **Mandrake** » Fri 22 Jun, 2007 9:57 pm

Antony wrote:
I encode video files a lot (my recordings from TV, EyeTV, and convert them to H.264, ffmpegX), and I hope the additional 1GB of RAM can help the encoding or give more resources to other apps.

I'm sure it would help. The biggest boost for video encoding is a dual core CPU of course. Gets the job done nearly twice as fast.

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by **Mandrake** » Sun 24 Jun, 2007 6:19 am

3GB of ram.

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by **Mandrake** » Sat 30 Jun, 2007 10:51 am

These pictures of my computer are way overdue, but anyway here they are.

(Click on images to see fullsize versions)

Here's my computer (Antec 900 case):

Next is my 22" Viewsonic LCD:

Next inside the computer:

This is the massive (200mm) fan at the top of the case, it blows hot air out of the case:

Next is the equally huge CPU fan:

Finally, a poor shot of the video card (This thing is longer than the width of the motherboard, and the cooler is so thick it covers the adjacent PCI slot!):

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by **Antony** » Tue 17 Jul, 2007 3:31 am

Mandrake wrote:I just can't help but take advantage of these awesomely low prices. Upgraded to 3GB ram and added a 500GB hard drive.

I followed your step, except not getting another hard drive.

I upgraded to 3GB of RAM as well (the maximum amount of RAM my iMac 24-inch would take).

Cost for 2GB RAM module (DDR2, 667MHz): AU$210.00

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by **Mandrake** » Tue 17 Jul, 2007 4:19 am

Nice upgrade.

I noticed the 3GB ram upgrade really helped when I'm working with multiple virtual machines and have memory intensive applications like Firefox, iTunes and Microsoft Office open.

In games there is not much difference. None of the games I play seem to need more than 2GB of ram. I can, however, leave all my applications and virtual machines open while playing games thanks to the extra ram.

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by **Antony** » Tue 17 Jul, 2007 6:10 am

Thanks Mandrake,

I haven't noticed any 'noticeable' improvement, I guess I have to try to open more apps or try to encode an H.264.

BTW, Nice photos of your PC and the new 22-inch LCD. Except...

Mandrake wrote:Next inside the computer:

If you compare that to the beautiful and powerful Mac Pro:

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by **Mandrake** » Tue 17 Jul, 2007 10:40 am

I cleaned up the wires a bit, it's still a bit messy though:-

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SillyDog701

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