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Going From 2 To 4 Gig' Worth It On XP Pro?

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - Going From 2 To 4 Gig' Worth It On XP Pro?

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kflo   05-09-2008 at 12:48:40 PM

I am thinking of upgrading the amount of memory in my system from 2 to 4 gig's. I am running windows XP Pro. Would it make sense to add this amount of ram? Or would 3 gig's be better? What is considered the "sweet spot" for Windows XP Pro as far as gaming goes? My system specs are below.

3.0 Dual Core P4
2 Gig's of PC4200 533Mhz DDR2 Ram
320 Gig sata 7200rpm harddrive (seagate)
Bipstar K7M motherboard
DVDRW Drive

Thanks in advance

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Scotteq   05-09-2008 at 02:33:38 PM
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There is an address space limitation associated with all 32 bit operating systems: They have 4GB worth - BUT - have to assign some of that address space to the various system devices (CMOS, Communications, installed components/cards). So the net is that there is less than 4GB available to RAM.

This is *not* a big deal, IMHO. If you have heavy duty applications and really need all 4GB or more, than you go with a 64 bit OS. If you just want to game, understand that most 32 bit apps only use 2GB (by themselves) anyhow and installing more RAM than that allows your computer to assign the (game) it's 2 gig and still ahve RAM left for the OS itself and whatever else you may have running.

Besides - RAM is cheap. Go for a 2 x 2GB setup, and don't worry about the missing stuff.

------------------------------ Which Chip? Well, it depends on which set of thieving b@stardz you choose to support: The ones who use insider trading to enrich themselves while running their company into the ground? Or the ones who illegally pay vendors to not support the first group?
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jitpublisher   05-09-2008 at 02:50:03 PM
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Yep, RAM is so cheap there is not reason not to have 4 gig, even on a 32 bit OS.

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rodney_ws   05-09-2008 at 02:51:39 PM
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Your rig looks like it's nearing the end of its gaming life so I'm not sure I'd put any money into it that won't carry over to your next rig. Yes, I know RAM is dirt cheap at this point, but I think that's missing the point. You really won't experience a huge difference in performance... if you had Vista I'd be singing a different tune... or if you had a more modern CPU. As-is I'd say resist the urge... Google the term "sunk cost"

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outlw6669   05-09-2008 at 03:14:01 PM
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I was just getting ready to give you the GA until I read rodney's post.
There are benefits to having 4Gb ram even with a 32 bit OS but I would agree that you should save that $$ for an upgrade of the more important parts.
Unless you are editing video or doing other memory intensive tasks you will probably never notice the difference between 2 and 4 Gb on XP.

------------------------------ If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce today would cost $100, get a million miles to the gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.
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jitpublisher   05-09-2008 at 03:41:48 PM
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The first question I guess should have been "what are doing that maybe would benefit from more ram". If you are just gaming, everyone is right, you won't notice any difference going from 2 to 4 in XP.

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MayDay94   05-09-2008 at 04:01:35 PM
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since i'm on an old s939 with now expensive ddr and xp, i noticed that when i play some games like company of heroes, my 2gig ram will be at about 90% utilization and my paging file will also be around the same size of about 1.7-1.8gig. that seems really high to me. my ram usage hovers around 25% idle and page file at about 350mb. therefore it seems that if i did have more ram, the game would use it and not rely so much on the page file. does this make sense? however, i am happy with the game's performance and i am not about to buy more ddr ram.

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