2gb or 4gb?

Hi i'm a gamer and im running:

Foxconn C51XEM2AA-8EKRS2H
1gb of rubbish 677mhz pcworld ram
AMD6400+
8800gt
WindowsXP

I just got an offer that if I buy 2gb of this OCZ ram i'll get another 2GB free, is it worth it?
Here is a link to the ram: http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(1438 [...] ition.aspx
I heard that XP cant use more than 2GB is that right.


Cheers for the help.

Provided that the memory is compatible with your motherboard (speed/quantity/voltage) and given that you currently only have 1 GB installed, then yes. I'd say it's a good buy.

Concerning how much memory Windows XP can use:
1) You can physically install as much memory as your motherboard will allow.
2) No 32-bit operating system (XP or Vista) will see more than 4 Gig of RAM.
3) Due to memory allocations, some of the 4GB that 32-bit operating systems see will be hidden (for lack of a better term) from the user. You will only note between 2.7 and 3.5 GB of the 4GB the OS sees.

-Wolf sends

Some more things to consider, you might not be able to use it right now but its free and if you want to add some RAM go for it !!! Also you may want it for the future if you decide to go Vista 64 that 4GB's will make it nice. (I have been playing around with Ultimate 64 bit again and it with 4GB's is actually faster then XP with 2GB's for most things, probably due to being able to cache more things in ram but I am impressed at any rate)

I would use this as the opportunity to jump the 32bit ship and hit 64 bits running, the drivers have improved a lot and there is more room to grow. (had you asked me just 3 months ago I would have said "not yet.." ) Now I have changed my mind

One minor complaint about Vista it takes some work to make it look like ye olde Win9X and in doing so you lose the search feature in the start menu (why could they not leave that in ???) Also some tweaking can make it more responsive (why do they have the menu items with a 400ms delay ? I set mine for 50ms)

Anyway bottom line thats some nice RAM and 4GB's for what would be about 60USD is a great price the best I have seen is about 40USD for 2GB's of cheap RAM that has worse timings and does not run as fast...