What a difference 4GB makes!

Very nice! It's amazing how much a small upgrade can improve things. I just wish memory prices would go back down...  

Hahaha!

On another note, you should try 16GB. I went there from 8GB and it had a noticeable, and positive impact on my system performance when running multiple programs. GalCiv3 on larger map settings can get RAM hungry, and on top of that Chrome seems to eat up memory.

The second 4GB cost $14, delivered.  The first 4GB were hot OC-able sticks that are out of production but could be matched .. for $60.  To go to 16 GB I'd have to buy 4 new sticks, and check that the mb even supports them.

Next investment will have to be either a decent video card or a SSD.  Neither required for GC3, but I'd like to play WoWs at high res and fps.

I did try starting a new game at Insane.  Not a problem, though I bet it can get pretty busy over the life of the game.

BTW, the Insane map size says "48 players recommended".  How the heck is one supposed to get 48 players??  There's only about 10 races defined, plus about 8 minors.

Having an SSD as your OS drive makes a big difference to general performance and boot times. I love it. GPU market kinda suck atm, with inflated prices given the virtual currency craze (perhaps bubble).

A place that does guaranteed RAM compatibility, and is both very good quality and cheap, is MemoryX.  I've been using them for PC and high-end server memory for two decades now, and they're excellent as a company.

http://www.memoryx.com/

As far as the SSD and graphics card nowdays, if you're price sensitive, then for the graphics card, get a Nvidia GTX 750 ti or Radeon R7 265 or 270.  They're under $100, low-power draw, and do 1080p quite easily for most stuff.  I play WoWS at well over 1080p on my 750 Ti 2GB card, and consistently get 60+ fps under heavy load. The SSDs are mostly the same at the mid-grade level, so pick up a 256G one on-sale somewhere.

Thanks for the pointers.

Yes the MB will take 4GB sticks.  From memoryX: 2GB $16 ea.  4GB $90 ea. !

One problem, I don't have a 2.5" drive bay...

It's a great improvement!

I still think that many of the reasons for the turmoil caused by many complaints about performance issues and bad reviews are caused by people playing this nice game on older and substandard computers. Christmas is coming and I urge those who can afford it to give themselves a present and upgrade their system for today's new games.

Yeah insane will give you problems down the road.

Steam workshop has factions, and civilizations you can down load. Factions is for galactic civilizations, while civilizations is for crusades.

Not if you run 32GB

I am OK with 16

Yea, SSD + 8GB is awessommmmee!

Most of the SSD kits come with a 3.5" to 2.5" bracket. Look at the product description to be sure.

I tend to trust NewEgg.com  for my SSDs.

They also ship with drive cloning software, to move your boot drive from HD onto the new SSD.

Oh, and the best deal on a graphics card right now are the Radeon RX 560,  IF you have a sufficiently big power supply (400W+).  $80 for something that outperforms the Nvidia 750 TI by about 30%

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131732

That combo might get my lazy self finally on the OS on SSD bandwagon. Thanks for the tip.

When you are starting a new game and picking your CIV along with the option to edit or create a custom race it gives you the option to copy. Easiest way to get more races. I have four factions of every race but now usually just play two of each and four random for 35 CIVs on the biggest map. I like everyone spaced out with rare stars. More players tends to be too crowded for my liking.

This is one of my first games playing with a kick a.. system, for me anyway. 16GB Ram with 4GB dedicated Graphics Card and an iCore 7.

SSD:  There are some packaged as "expansion cards" that plug right into a PCIe connector.  I gots three unused.  Hmm.

No gots 3.5" bays or trays, though maybe I could do surgery on the fan controller sitting in one floppy bay - it's only about an inch deep. 

I wonder if there's an adapter that will let me mount multiple SSDs in a 5.25" bay...  gots three of them free too.

So what do you do with a SSD?  Configure it as a HD and install GC on it?  Install the whole OS on it?

Ooo.  Almost missed that.  Yes, please.  I keep my system drives fairly small and fast.  These are 320GB.

I read at one time that HDD start on 63  and SSD need to start on 64.

Yep. I'm rocking 4 drives on a regular basis. 

SSD for ONLY Operating System
500Gb HDD for Programs
2Tb HDD for Video Games
500Gb HDD for Network Storage

The 3.5 drive brackets are pretty cheap now days. Most cases even comes with a special mount for SSDs as well. If your motherboard supports M.2 you REALLY need to go that route. Transfer rates are improved big time.

I've currently got two system drives: C: which has Vista and bootmgr on it, and E: which has Win7 on it.  I almost never use Vista but I can't take C: off line because E: won't boot on its own.  So a general reorg is called for. 

And then there's question about where the page file should reside. 

But I'm sure that there are online tutorials about all this.

In all honesty, a 256GB SSD is more than enough to:

1. Install Win7 & all the updates

2. Have a good selection of normal Applications (MS Office, development tools, video stuff, etc.)

3. Hold GC3 plus a couple more games (say your 3 most common).

ALL your data files belong somewhere else, as do you less-commonly used things.

Also, your Swap file belongs on HD, NOT ON SSD. Don't put it on SSD, it will perform no better than HD and wear the SSD out prematurely.

I have a 512GB SSD installed right now, and there's a total of 100G on it:

• Win7 Pro
• MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, Visio)
• 3D Modelling software, Audio recording software
• 2 versions of Netbeans and 4 different JDKs
• A boatload of utilities.
• World of Warships (30G all by itself)
• GC3 and Civ3

So, yes, a 200-250G SSD will be very comfortable for you to put pretty much everything you really need on it.  Just remember to periodically clean Windows of update "backups", as they can wrack up totally useless space.

I've got 200G on another HD, that holds 6 other games (3 versions of Homeworld + Mods, Sins of a Solar Empire, TotalAnnihilation +Mods, Starcraft, Civ3 Mods), my Cygwin and VirtualBox stuff, my git repos, and misc video files.

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DON'T go for the PCI-E SSDs. They require modern BIOS to boot, and I doubt you have that with what sounds like a system that's at least 3+ years old.

Honestly, in your situation, pull one of the 3.5" drives and buy a USB External enclosure for it.  Use that drive for backups.  Put the SSD + adapter bracket in the place of the 3.5" drive you yanked.

And, yes, given your current configuration, starting from scratch as far as the OS install is probably the Right Thing at this point. It's unlikely that you'll be able to properly clone the Win7 partition if the Vista one isn't there, and just keeping around Vista is a waste of space.

I do have an external SATA II port that isn't in use.  No USB 3 on this MB.  I turned off Windows Update when they pumped out that evil KB971033 patch,  Just when you're willing to believe that MS has turned away from the dark side, they go and do something that proves that a Sith Lord rules in Redmond.

Thanks for the tips.  I may ask you some questions as I gather the loot for this upgrade.  SSDs of all stripes seem to have a floor just below $100.

BTW, World of Warships has come to Steam.  Still an 'Early Access' client until Nov. 15, but also still free (or so I hear).

Getting a reliable 38 fps at 1920x1200 on Low with this RAM upgrade.  Good enough.