might upgrade to 4GB or 6GB from 3GB when i get Windows 7, worth it?

[Wildside]

Yes, i should of stuck with my 4GB of Crucial RAM but i didnt have the need to upgrade to 64-bit anytime soon, so i sent 2 x 1GB sticks back n got 2 x 512MB, which u cant get anymore. However, ever since ive been hearing great things about Windows 7, i now have changed my mine to go 64-bit n perhaps upgrade to 4GB from my current 3GB set up now. Maybe 6GB idk. I have feelings of going DDR3 in the future since i see prices falling, but r not still as cheap as DDR2 right now.

should i jump to 4GB or 6GB from my 3GB set up when i get Windows 7? How much of a benefit will i get in terms of gaming n 3D programs from upgrading my RAM? 5 fps or so gain?

 

[TheOtis]

Stick with 4GB. 2x2GB.

I had to really try to use more than 3GB of RAM. I don't remember exactly what I had to do, it's probably in an old post on here somewhere. I had a ton of stuff running like browser windows, a blu-ray encoding to .mp4 or something, as well as Crysis and barely broke 3.3GB or so. You can have quite a bit of stuff running in the background to max out 4GB.

If you're gaming and want to have multiple things running in the background, 4GB is fine. The big reason so many people are running 6GB is mostly due to the X58 chipset supporting tri-channel memory and sticks coming in 3GB or 6GB. And for the money, you can get 3x2GB pretty cheap.

 

[Wildside]

thx for response. I would need to get 1 x 2GB DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 to equal 4GBs.

 

[zedman3d]

Fork out and get a brand new full 2x2GB kit. Honestly they are like $30-40....

 

[Wildside]

u guys dont understand my situation. If i can get 4 x 1GB DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 2.2v, then when i upgrade to DDR3, i will be able to either sell or give someone around me the whole computer instead of having loose RAM that i have to try to get rid of as well. I strongly feel comfortable just having 4 x 1GB sticks, ok guys? No 2 x 2GB kits right now.

i have 2-3 options of who to give/sell my computer to n i just dont want extra parts laying around right now. Only parts laying around is my MSI CD-R IDE, and AMD Athlon 64 x2 5000+ BE.

EDIT:

question, since im using RAM that is stock voltage to 2.2v n then i get more RAM that has stock voltage at like 2.0v to 1.8v, will this mess things up for me? I currently set in BIOS to have the voltage at 2.2v.

 

[carnageX]

Get RAM with the same voltages/timings. It'll be less of a headache (believe me, I know from experience).

 

[TheOtis]

^ Exactly. It's never recommended by anyone to mix RAM. If you have $40-$50 to spend you're much better off getting 2x2GB that are paired, instead of mixing different batches of RAM together. Not to mention if you mix you risk the chance of hindering your overclock on your cpu.

Sure you'll have extra RAM laying around, but theirs no reason why ya can't sell em on craigslist, to a buddy, or sit on em for awhile.

And in a response to your edit, you have to run all of you memory at the same voltage. Even though you can pick up the same brand and series of memory, they're not going to be from the same batch so they could or do have different IC's. No bueno.

 

[Wildside]

then, i will have to go with this: Newegg.com - Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

but i have one question not quite answered, just because there is tri-channel that equals up to 6GB of RAM, why cant i just upgrade to 6GB? That too much from what computers can handle or use now a days?

 

[Gothch1ck]

Hate to break it to ya but if your going 64 bit OS - youll need more then 4GB.


Windows 7 64 Suggests 2GB just for it to run. That cuts your "games" and other applications down to half/RAM right there.


Go with 6, that's what I have (in triple channel)

Triple channel is for Tri-Channel boards, aka the newer stuff with the i7 chips and such, it works fantastic for that. You won't really get anything out of them unless your mainboard supports triple channel memory, most only support dual.

You could even go (2) 2x2GB sets (making 8GB in the end using 4 sticks) that are dual channel supported to benefit from that.


Windows 7 is still in the testing stage so system requirements are bound to change, it was SUPPOSED to be a small OS too, but it takes up some 20GB right now. but if you go ahead and get 6 or even 8GB ram now, you won't regret it later, you'll only benefit from the extra.



To help answer performance I was on XP pro SP3 with "6" GB Ram (only reading 2.99 of course) with the same build I have now on Windows 7 - my games play smoother, even though my GPU bottlenecks the performance this system could be giving it.

Windows 7 when it was just Beta improved a lot of my games just with it's install, which surprised me. Things ran smoother, adding 64 bit support and the additional RAM makes it even smoother and nicer to have.


Note to help out with Windows 7 - Install on a harddrive with 100GB to spare. If you partition your drive, make your OS drive 100GB 50GB is "barely enough" using too much of it and not allowing free room to move (it takes up some 25ish GB plus swap space) If you don't have 100 to spare try to give it as much as you can.... more then 50 less then 100....

 

[carnageX]

Hate to break it to ya but if your going 64 bit OS - youll need more then 4GB.

Um, no. I'm running 4GB, Mak is running 3GB. We both run just perfectly fine. I'm using up 1.4GB with ~60 processes running.

Windows 7 64 Suggests 2GB just for it to run. That cuts your "games" and other applications down to half/RAM right there.

It depends on the games you're running. And remember, Win7 still uses SuperFetch which preloads programs into RAM, and dumps them as the system needs RAM.

You could even go (2) 2x2GB sets (making 8GB in the end using 4 sticks) that are dual channel supported to benefit from that.

Guarantee you're never gonna use 8GB of RAM unless you're doing CAD work.

Windows 7 is still in the testing stage so system requirements are bound to change, it was SUPPOSED to be a small OS too, but it takes up some 20GB right now. but if you go ahead and get 6 or even 8GB ram now, you won't regret it later, you'll only benefit from the extra.

The requirements won't change much, if at all. THey haven't changed from the Beta to the RC with all teh tweaks that have been done and its pretty much ready to release now. And it is a small OS; Win7 Ultimate with quite a few of my basic programs I use a lot, as well as some downloaded things, I'm using up 17.7GB (including a 4GB of virtual memory). Much better than Vista.

Note to help out with Windows 7 - Install on a harddrive with 100GB to spare. If you partition your drive, make your OS drive 100GB 50GB is "barely enough" using too much of it and not allowing free room to move (it takes up some 25ish GB plus swap space) If you don't have 100 to spare try to give it as much as you can.... more then 50 less then 100....

I have mine on a 120GB partition (roughly), and like I said, I'm only using up about 17.7GB after program installations (no games yet). It all depends on what you're going to be using it for. Games? Yes, you better have more space on there. Basic usage? Not really a need to have 100GB+ partition.