want more ram for Abit IS7 P4

Suzy

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Jun 5, 2003
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hi,
i am needing to update the ram on my kid's comp.
specs:
motherboard - Abit IS7
chip - P4ht 2.8cghz 800mhz FSB
2 x Corsair 512m DDRAM pc 3500c2
ATI 9600 Pro Radeon 128mb AGP

there are 2 slots left for ram. i am planning on putting vista on it.
i know there is a limit of 4 gig that can go in there. (i think ?)
my kids play a lot of the newer games out. (BF2142, new expansion pack for that game too, and maybe the new C+C 3)

what do you suggest?

thanks
suzy
 
I wouldn't recommend putting Vista on that computer. It would slow it down even more.
On a 32-bit system the maximum recommended is 2 GB, because the kernel cannot use more than that. For a 64-bit system (You don't have that) 4 GB is okay.
 

Mondoman

Splendid
To clarify, the reasonable maximum for a 32-bit system is 3GB, not 2GB. For Windows XP, most apps can use up to 2GB *each*, and the system can use up to 2GB. Thus, if the OS could address more RAM, it would help. However, in practice, 32bit Win XP can only address around 3GB of physical RAM.

Initial tests with Vista show poor video performance on games; such teething troubles are to be expected. I expect that there won't be any gaming advantage to upgrading to Vista for the balance of the year at least.
 

Mondoman

Splendid
...
specs:
motherboard - Abit IS7
chip - P4ht 2.8cghz 800mhz FSB
2 x Corsair 512m DDRAM pc 3500c2
ATI 9600 Pro Radeon 128mb AGP

there are 2 slots left for ram. i am planning on putting vista on it.
I wouldn't bother with Vista until at least the end of the year, unless you need to run a program that *requires* it. Games certainly won't. Vista will be ridiculously expensive as an upgrade ($150-300) and free on new systems, so wait for a new computer to switch to Vista.
Gaming performance is directly related to graphics card power. Since you've got a pretty old graphics card in the system, your best bet for improving gaming performance is to buy a decent AGP graphics card (see the main Toms Hardware site for a review of recent AGP cards). Unfortunately, AGP is now obsolete, so it's harder to justify any big-dollar upgrades. RAM is pretty expensive now; I'd go with adding another 1GB as 2x512MB for a total of 2GB in your system. The additional 3rd GB from using 2x1GB sticks isn't worth it IMHO on such an old system. You'll be able to run just about any XP app very well w/2GB of system RAM (many systems had a 2GB limit).
 

Suzy

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Jun 5, 2003
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hi,
thanks for the replies!
i probably won't put vista home on it, after reading what you have said. i just bought another 1gig of ram, so it should be here soon. that will give that computer a total of 2 gig. yes, a new graphics card is about to be put in, that is still in a discussion stage!

suzy