Hi.. This site and especially this forum have been so helpfull for me. As a newbie flyer (CFS3 is my first flight sim) the tips and especially the tweaks have made my experience more enjoyable...Thanks Everyone...I have a question about memory Ram  Here's my system specs:

XP
P4 1.7G
256mb Ram
GeForce2mx/mx400
64mb

Question is im going to increase my ram but was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to what type of ram to add..Hope its not a dumb ????.. Any way the local computer store has 512mb DDR 333mhz on for $99..or should i go for the 512mb DDR 400 for $169...Also would it be worth going to a GeForce4?? Thanks all any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Paul

Hi Paul,

Probably the best way to determine what type of RAM you have is to open up the case and remove one the modules and look at it. Or you can go to www.crucial.com and run their memory picker. You put in the make and model of your computer or motherboard and it will tell you exactly what you need. If you have RDRAM it will tell you that but Crucial doesn't sell RDRAM. You can try this link for Googlegear.

http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80450-8

It's possible that you have RDRAM in your P4_1.7GHz and these must be installed in matching pairs. If you look inside your computer case there are two possibilities concerning your configuration.

1- You have 4-64MB RDRAM RIMM Modules in there. If this is the case all 4 of them will be identical. And if you want to upgrade you'll need to remove 2 of them and in essence throw them out in order to replace them with larger RDRAM RIMM Modules. *Gulp*

2- Or you'll have 2-128MB RDRAM RIMM Modules and you'll know this because 2 of the matching modules will be larger than the other two. The smaller modules are called "continuity" modules and these need to be in there in order for RDRAM to work. You'll have to remove these and replace them with whatever size RAM modules that you choose. I have 4-128MB modules in my computer and it seems to work well with CFS3.

Slot 1 and 2 must match each other.  Slots 3 and 4 must match each other.  What's in 1 and 2 does NOT have to match what's in 3 and 4.

Big sticks go in slots 1 and 2, the smaller ones in 3 and 4.

You can check out this website too.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/eradicatespam/rambus.htm ;

I buy all my computer stuff online and I trust Newegg, Googlegear, Computers4sure and I bought my HOTAS Cougar joystick/throttle from Amazon. I've never had any problems with any of these vendors.

If you have Samsung RDRAM then...
Samsung does not have a memory picker ...

But you can look at Samsung Auto Search

http://www.samsungelectronics.com/semiconductors/search/rambus_search.jsp for system specific RDRAM.

Use the Samsung auto search to have it show your specific part number. You will need the Samsung number from your current RDRAM to enter into the search box to get the "suggested" Samsung part number. Then use that part number to search for the best price online just as before.

If you're not sure what brand you already have installed here's a free little program that will tell you the brand you have without you having to open up the computer case.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

I wish it gave all the info that you may want to know about your memory but....

And another good program to have that will tell you a lot about your system is the Belarc Advisor. You can download it for free at:

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

If you don't want to buy the RAM online you can just take your computer (just the case!) to your local computer shop and they can look in there and sell you what you need. But check out the prices online to keep them honest!!! 

Try to get the same brand for all 4 if you can.

If you have DDR Ram or SDRAM these don't need to be installed in pairs and you can just go to www.crucial.com and run the memory picker there to find out what you need. They usually have good prices on RAM. I've ordered SDRAM from them in the past and everything worked out fine. Or just get the information from there and buy it wherever you want.

A better video card would really help you out. I have a Radeon 9700 Pro and it's great.

You can pick up an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro for $309.00. They have a few different brands there … make sure you get one with the correct chipset. Chipset:RADEON 9700Pro Visual processing unit (VPU  Not the 7500 chipset.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=Radeon+970... Sapphire ATI RADEON 9700 Atlantis PRO 128MB DDR,325/310, DVI/TV-out/CRT AGP BULK.  <<< This one seems cool!

The ATI All-In-Wonder RADEON 9700 PRO 128MB DDR 8X AGP RETAIL is available if you're into video editing stuff.  I just wanted to point out to you that it’s available.

And you can upgrade your processor to a P4_2.6GHz if you want. If you're interested in upgrading your processor let me know and I can tell you your options.

Good luck, Bob.

Alienware Intel D850GB mobo w/P4_1.3GHz 400MHz FSB CPU upgraded to a P4_2.0(A)  with the PowerLeap PL-P4/N adapter and then finally to the P4_2.6GHz. I'm tired of smearing thermal grease!
Sony 21" Multiscan E540/B
WinXP Pro_SP-1
512MBs PC-800 RDRAM
Radeon 9700 Pro w/Catalyst 3.1 Driver Suite
DirectX_9.0
45GB 7200RPM IBM Deskstar
Creative Soundblaster Live! Value
Klipsch ProMedia 4.1 speakers
U.S. Robotics 56K Fax PCI
HOTAS Cougar joystick/throttle
Latest 3DMark2001 SE = 13,930
http://service.futuremark.com/servlet/Index?pageid=/orb/projectmanager

Hi Paul,

The Belarc Advisor is a handy utility. I mentioned that other small free utility (CPUID) because it gives you the brand of RAM that you have installed. I like using same brand RAM modules if I can, but it's not mandatory.

Nothing to be afraid of inside the case. Just make sure that you turn the computer off first (leave it plugged in) and then touch the metal housing inside there in order to discharge any static electricy that you may have in you before touching any of the electronic components. Then after that you can pull the power cord if you want to.

Having 512MBs or 768MBs of DDR RAM should smooth out CFS3's performance.

And by upgrading from your 64MB GeForce2mx/mx400 video card you should see a nice improvement in your framerates. The ATI Radeon 9700 Pro is the leader in video cards right now. The new nVidia FX card has just started shipping but the benchmarking results don't seem all that impressive and of course it's pricey. And it's as loud as a vacuum cleaner they say!
You can now pre-order the Radeon 9800 which is good news because the price of the 9700 should drop quite a bit once the 9800 starts to ship.

You can read up on the comparison between the ATI Radeon 9700 and the nVidia Ti_4600 at Tom's Hardware.

http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/20020819/index.html

Or you can jump right to the 3DMark2001 SE benchmark at:

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20020819/radeon9700-13.html

An interesting fact is there's a quite a difference between games and flight simulators. Flight simulators are much more reliant upon CPU speed than are games. All the benchmarks at the above links show an appreciable advantage to the Radeon 9700 except for when they get into benchmarking Commanche 4. This is probably more like CFS3 than the other games that they benchmark like Quake3 and Doom or whatever. This is where both video cards start to out perform the CPU, and the bottleneck is then with the CPU and not the video card.

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20020819/radeon9700-10.html

The Radeon was created to take advantage of MS DirectX_9 and the nVidia wasn't. There aren't any games or sims out yet that take advantage of this feature whole heartedly but it's something to consider looking forward.

It's all about the money and the nVidia Ti_4600 is cheaper but the 9700 out performs it hands down. Hmmm, decisions, decisions.....

After you get your RAM and then your video card, you can keep playing the upgrade game and max out your motherboard with a P4_2.6GHz processor. They run around $230.00 (US funds) now but like everything else will drop in price as the newer and faster CPU's hit the market. I don't know the make and model of the motherboard that you have so I may be wrong, but I think the 2.6GHz  is probably your maximum speed.

Good luck with it, Bob.

PS. Oops. I almost forgot ... there are 3 different DDR RAM speeds. PC3200, PC2700 and PC2100. Make sure you get the correct speed.