RAM

[Beall]

Recently, I've been feeling the urge to upgrade my computer. But, since I
am running:

AMD Athlon 64 FX-51
ATI Radeon RX800 Pro
WD Raptor 36.7GB SATA HDx2
Corsair TwinX 1024 3200 (2x512 MB)

I know this computer really doesn't need upgrading, right now. Do you think
adding another 2 sticks of memory will make any difference in performance?
It handles games pretty well, but I guess we are always looking for more. I
think I might get the Windows XP 64 bit edition OS and put it on one HD and
XP pro on the other...

 

[dino]

you are further off going with a new set of 2x1gig ram. You actually lose a
bit of performance running 4x512..it reduces the timings..plus there is no
guarantee you will have 4 matching sticks. I am looking at ditching my
TwinX1024-PC3200PTC2(2x512) in favor of OCZ PC4000 2x1 gig Platinum.

 

[Ed Light]

If you have programs that will use the extra memory.
If not, it will become a huge disk cache, which will speed up rereading
files that are in there.
I found that it helped Trainz considerably.
For me, the amount of ram was much more important than losing a little speed
to timings. I've tried slowing down the ram one speed rating from 200 to 166
and it didn't make much difference in benchmarks -- just a few %.
If you run 4 sticks they may or may not agree to run at 200, since it's
default for them to go to 166.
Any ram you get won't be good on the new AM2 platform, since it's going to
use DDR2.

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Ed Light

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[John Weiss]

AMD Athlon 64 FX-51
ATI Radeon RX800 Pro
WD Raptor 36.7GB SATA HDx2
Corsair TwinX 1024 3200 (2x512 MB)

I know this computer really doesn't need upgrading, right now. Do you think
adding another 2 sticks of memory will make any difference in performance? It
handles games pretty well, but I guess we are always looking for more. I
think I might get the Windows XP 64 bit edition OS and put it on one HD and XP
pro on the other...

A second HD on which to place the swap file and temp files may be a better use
for the $$.

What does your RAM and VM usage look like in Task Manager? I suspect you're not
getting anywhere near the 1 GB physical RAM you have now...

 

[Beall]

A second HD on which to place the swap file and temp files may be a better
use for the $$.
What does your RAM and VM usage look like in Task Manager? I suspect
you're not getting anywhere near the 1 GB physical RAM you have now...

Thanks for the replies. I think I am going to save all of my pictures and
files to a separate external hd that I have and then dual boot Win XP and XP
64. That way I will also reformat my system and get rid of all the misc.
programs that are cluttering things up. This was my first build and I am
enjoying experimenting with it. My wife has a lap top that I can use in
case I really screw things up...