Yeah, I think that's what is inside. I don't remember changing that out in the last 6 years. Would that work if it wasn't compatible for that long?

Probably around 300-400.

Triple channel DDR3 is the same as Dual Channel DDR3.

Basically you had 3 sticks in there, but only two of them actually did anything. The other one was not doing anything.

Here's a link with a new MoBo, CPU, GPU, and RAM that would be a major upgrade to what you have (although, it's not the newest and best compared to whats out now). The price comes out to $367, but if you did some shopping around on these items, it could probably be lower.

This doesn't include an SSD like others have been talking about, and you'd need to make sure whatever you upgrade to will still fit within the restrictions of your power supply.

Don't just buy these based of what I think, let other people look at this too. I'm not a computer genius like hometeam, but I know a bit about building PCs.

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/2kVZ2R

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($94.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI 970 GAMING ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($84.78 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($40.56 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R7 370 2GB WINDFORCE 2X Video Card ($146.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $367.22
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-28 12:12 EDT-0400

Also...I agree. You absolutely 100% should buy an SSD to put your OS and other often used programs on.

Just don't buy a Samsung 850 EVO to do that with if you are using Windows 10. For some reason that drive and that OS are not compatible.

I have the EVO 840 as an OS drive running Windows 10, which works fine, but have no experience with the 850.

I put a Crucial BX100 in a Windows 10 box and it works fine.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is the latest version:

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX300...dp_ob_title_ce

FWIW, I've also found Amazon to be extremely competitive with pricing and returns have been easy (I've received non-working motherboards and other items in the past and returns/replacements are a breeze, especially as a Prime member).

Yep. It's the mystery of the century. Nobody knows why. Win 10 just doesn't work on 850 EVO...believe me...I have spent hours upon hours trying to get it to work. There's a bunch of pissed off people on the internet who agree with me.

My friend has an 840 EVO working too.

That sucks. I'm at the point where if it doesn't immediately and automatically work without any tinkering, it's going back.

My problem was that I had the 850 EVO for months if not a year before I decided to put my OS on it. I put Win 7 on it, and then about 4 months later decided to do free upgrade, and that's when I found out about the compatibility issue.

It's okay. I like Win 7 fine.

When I decide to do a full upgrade, I'll just use one of my other 5 SSDs in my PC to put the OS on lol.

Wow, that totally sucks but thanks for the info!

Thanks guys- huge help. I have 4 memory slots in my current setup. Does this dual channel mother board mean that they can only use 2 slots at a time?

Is there any other reasonable ssd drives out there?

If you have 4 slots, you can use 2 sticks (they're generally colored, so two black or two blue slots and you'll want to make sure they're in the right slots) or 4 sticks. Personally, I wouldn't go with less than 16 gigs of Ram but 8 gigs is way better than 4 gigs.

As for SSD drives, you won't likely get a better quality drive for a better price than the Crucial 250 gig I linked earlier. Be sure to get the adapter.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Problem is - if I'm going to clone the drive, I have way more than 250 gigs taken up on my HD right now.

I think I purchased additional RAM (can't access the computer right now to check) but I'm pretty sure I have 4 in there.

I'm going to take apart the computer this weekend to make sure.

Thanks again!

You can use 1, 2, or 4.

3 won't work.

You need to make sure that each stick of RAM is the same.

On most motherboards, if you are using two, you would need to slot them in the 1st and 3rd or 2nd and 4th slots.

Your motherboard should come with instructions.

Thanks man. Great info. Didn't know any of that.