RAM & XP 32bit

[daztheenglishman]

Hi all,

This has probably already been covered a thousand times over, but I just cant seem to find the answer....

OK, so I am planning major upgrade of my system soon from my skt939 3500+ to possibly an Intel based system, probably an E8400.

I know that XP 32bit will not recognise more than 3GB (or thereabouts) of RAM, but would installing 4GB (in 2 x 2GB sticks) have a negative impact on performance?

Would I be better just buying 2GB (2 x 1GB) of faster RAM, for now and adding more if I move up to 64bit OS in the future?

I was planning on the following:

E8400 (or a Q6600?)
ASUS P5Q Pro
ATI 4850 PowerColor PCS+ Edition 512MB
+ all the usual bit & pieces

Would be used for gaming (17" LCD so not huge res), photo editing, odd bit of video editing and the usual computer tasks....

Any advice appreciated

 

[pip_seeker]

buy vista 64 now.. it's only $80 [oem] at microcenter.

 

[mythor20]

I just bought 2 X 2GB sticks, also running XP 32bit. No problem except that we have to live with the fact that 1G is wasted.

2 sticks seem to have a tad more bandwidth than 4. Also easier to overclock.

I am as happy as a pig in **** with my new system!

 

[RetiredChief]

Go with the 2x2Gig memory.
You can stay with 32 bit Operating system (Will have approx 3.2 Gigs of memory for OP & Programs) works great in my system. Did not see any performace hit. Or, as previously stated you can go with 64 bit Vista and get full 4 gigs. Myself I'm happy with 4 gigs in both Vista32 and XP pro 32 Bit (Have dual Boot).

Added - 2 x2 Gigs was no different to OC than my 2x1 Gig sticks (4 by 1 Gig sticks required raising the FSB & (G)MCH voltage by +0.1 V for stable operation which I backed off when converting to the 2x2 sticks.

 

[daztheenglishman]

Cheers guys, ill go ahead and go for the 2x2 Gig.