Which memory?

[Big Dee]

Hi,

I built my desktop PC nearly 2.5 yrs ago with the advice I got from the OC Forum.

I am now considering increasing the memory from 2Gb to 4Gb and would like recommendation(s) on what I need to purchase.

Should I consider upgrade to 3Gb? is it worth it?

Here's some basic info about my PC:

- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
- Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
- Mushkin 2GB DDR EM3200 Enhanced Performance Dual Channel Kit (2x1GB) CAS3 (991461) (MY-006-MK)
- Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG)
- PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-061-PC)
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE)
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music + HS600 £29.99 Gaming Headset Bundle - Retail (SC-042-CL)


Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[Big Dee]

Do I need to provide more information so that someone can advise?

 

[Kennysevenfold]

Hi this is what your motherboard can handle

Supported RAM Technology: DDR SDRAM

RAM Installed ( Max ): 0 MB / 4 GB (max)

Supported RAM Speed: PC2100, PC2700, PC3200

RAM Features: Unbuffered, Unbuffered, two DDR channels

Supported RAM Integrity Check: Non-ECC, ECC


so if its windows xp 32bit then i wouldnt bother upgrading the ram at all, if xp 64bit or vista 64 then go for 4gig and if vista 32bit go for 3 gigs

 

[Big Dee]

Hi Kennysevenfold,

Thanks for the info. I have Windows XP but I will need to check whether it's 32bit or 64bit. I'll let you know.

Cheers.

 

[Fire Wizard]

There is no reason to go for 3GB of RAM instead of 4GB even if you are using a 32-bit operating system. A 32-bit system is limited to a 4GB of address space and within this your physical memory as well as Memory Mapped I/O Devices (MMIO) such as your graphics card needs to be mapped into that same address space. Even if you only have 3GB of physical memory installed in your system, I believe you may still see less than 3GB of memory, for example, if you are using a graphics card that has 2GB of memory onboard, it all depends on your systems configuration.

As izzy eckerslike has kindly pointed out, the amount of memory on your graphics card, it isn't all mapped into the address space that is available, only a portion of it. Which would mean, the majority of systems would have more than 3GB of address space available which means if you only had 3GB of RAM installed, you will be missing out on some memory. So, it doesn't actually make sense to purchase just 3GB of RAM because of the above situations.

 

[izzy eckerslike]

I have XP32 with 4gb ram & a 1gb graphic card -GTX280

System properties show 3.25 ram, definitely of benefit if you play games

 

[Fire Wizard]

I have XP32 with 4gb ram & a 1gb graphic card -GTX280

System properties show 3.25 ram, definitely of benefit if you play games

Interesting, it would seem that the amount of memory that a graphics card has access to, it isn't all mapped into the address space. Still, it isn't worth just buying 3GB of RAM over 4GB since as well as the fact that you may not even be able to address 3GB of RAM regardless if you had 3GB or 4GB of physical memory installed, you may and will probably find that you would be able to address just over 3GB of RAM anyway so having 4GB installed would be beneficial.

 

[Big Dee]

Hi again,

Thanks to everyone who has given me feedback. I checked my desktop PC and here's some info:

System Type is X86-based PC - which I believe is 32-bit
Windows XP Home Edition

The Total Physical Memory is 2,048 MB
Available Physical Memory is 1.30 GB
Total Virtual Memory is 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory is 1.96 GB


So where do I go from here?
Should I get another 2GB memory?
if so, which would I need to purchase from OC?

Thanks again.

 

[Xplo]

Hi there

What do you mainly use your pc for? Imo you will not notice any difference in getting another 2gb ram as the rest of your system is not fast enough to take advantage of it. Unless you are editing of some sort or specifically using memory intensive apps, where my earlier question pends

For games you will not notice a difference as your video card is not capable of playing at v. high resolutions, which is where more memory makes a difference!

Looking at the specs you posted at that point in time 65% of your available ram was not being used!

 

[Kennysevenfold]

to finish this off, here is what you need.! lol

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp... DDR Memory Dual Channel Kit (CT2KIT12864Z40B)

 

[Big Dee]

Hi again,

I intend to play games on PC so upgrading might be worth doing.

Thanks for all your help.