RAM vs CPU

[Haddas]

I assume overclocking isn't an option?

If you study it long enough you can get great results.

[SinSin]

i agree with candle my PC (the one im on now )  has the habbit of turning itself off GRRRR    steer well clear of em

[Nostradamus]

I really really wouldn't recommend overlocking to someone who is not an expert like him.
And overlclocking a celeron is still just havnig a slightly faster celeron which still wouldn't work for his high graphics game. He needs a strong CPU and a strong video card for that.

[monkey0506]

Hehehe...apparently at some point my stepdad's save files on his game (I'm Going In 2: Covert Strike) got corrupted, but he didn't notice because it had been running slowly until I convinced him to get more RAM. Further inspection of our motherboard's documentation revealed an interesting..."feature"...

Our motherboard won't register any RAM as dual channel unless two memory sticks of equal size and speed are inserted in the corresponding slots (1 and 4, 2 and 5, 3 and 6). So, we settled on a 512 MB stick, which I...opened and installed while my dad was at work

That same day (Monday) I actually got around to disabling some startup items...which apparently resulted in the disabling of the printer spooler service...o.0

The upside to all this (save game corruption and unintentional printer disabling) is that my stepdad agreed to let me format the hard drive!!! What fun. Installing Windows has become something of a second nature for me as many times as I've done it. But this is the first time I've actually been able to activate over the internet. It's so much nicer than reading all those nasty numbers to the incompetent computerized operator.

Also I made it a point to ensure that I had Windows XP Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 1 is already on our installation CD...but it's small anyway) saved to the secondary hard drive before the format. Even with DSL it's still a helluva big file to have to download...which is why I did saved it after the last time we went through this formatting business.

So now I'm installing SP2, then I have to install some other system vitals (like the scanner and the printer) and we'll be functional again. After that I can reinstall my programs (the ones that I didn't already have installed to the secondary hard drive and/or ignored the installation directory and are now missing files). Well, looks like it's time for a reboot now!

Thanks again to everyone for all the information, opinions, discussion, and random babbling!