Project Guyver: Rig Build Questions

[Guyver]

I am finally upgrading my computer after 5 or 6 years with minimal upgrades. When it was originally built this rig was on the bleeding edge of tech and PCI Express had just come out.

The rig has the following:

ASUS P5AD2 Premium motherboard (never a problem)
3 Ghz Pentium 4 CPU
2 Gb Corsair Dominator PC-8500 DDR2 (won't run Windows with 4 Gb of same)
Western Digital Caviar Black 1 Tb SATA
NVidia 8800GTX
Soundblaster Fatal1ty X-Fi Platinum
1,000 watt SLI rated power supply (Forgot the manufacturer)
2 LG DVD-RW drives
Floppy
USB and Firewire ports add-on card
Dell S2309W 23-inch HD monitor
Logitech Z-5500 sound system
Logitech G9 mouse
Razer Lycosa keyboard

Windows 7 32-bit


I am upgrading to:

ASUS Rampage II Extreme motherboard
Core I7 930 CPU
ATI 4870 1 Gb video card
4 Gb Triple Channel DDR3

I am wondering what the best memory set-up will be. I would like 4 Gb as that is the ceiling for 32-bit versions of Windows. I want Triple Channel DDR3 as the new MOBO supports it. Do I go two 2-Gb strips or 3 1-Gb strips? Which is best for the board and the buck? I'm thinking 3 Gbs of Super Talent 1800 Mhz Triple Channel. I'm just not certain whether three strips of less memory or two strips of more is better given the set-up. I have the 64-bit version of Windows 7 as well. I have just heard about compatibility problems. Would that be hardware, software or both? Need the CPU if anyone is selling. Thanks for any and all replies. ~Gene

 

[Fat.Clown]

spend less on motherboard and put that money to a better video card (i don't think the 4870 is a much of an upgrade)
I love Asus, and in fact using an Asus board right now, but unless you are overclocking like crazy no need to get the rampage.

try 64-bit before you make your decision
I've been using it since Vista and have had no problems

since you are using the socket 1366 cpu/board, using triple channel memory will give you the best performance, so either 3GB (3x1GB) or 6GB (3x2GB) for 64 bit

very minimal performance gain for speeds over DDR3-1600, so I would just stay with 1600Mhz sticks

 

[Slaymate]

^^ I agree with Fat.Clown^^

 

[Guyver]

Appreciate the advice. Already got the motherboard for $222.00. May try my hand at overclocking later on.