Help buying DDR2 1x4gb or 2x2gb sticks

[nahemot]

Athlon 64 x2 4200+
Asrock motherboard with 2 ddr2 memory bank (max. 8gb, actually 1gb+2gb800mgz)
Gigabite gts450 1gb Vram
Windows 7 Ultimate 32bits (hope upgrade to 64bits sometime)

Im searching 4gb ddr2 800mhz sticks to complete max allowed motherboard ram but they are very expensive!!!!! :/

My question: its worth to pay the money to maximice motherboard ram, asuming a cpu of 4 years ago? or better stay 3gb ram, 4bg at most, and save the money for a new cpu+motherboard+ddr3 ram?

im affraid my computer doest fully use all installed ram memory efficiently (bottlenecks) :/

im usually but not high end gamer

thanks

 

[amnotanoobie]

No, it isn't worth it.

If the most demanding thing you do is play games or maybe even do Photoshop, 3GB is more than enough. 32-bit applications are pretty much restricted to take about 2GB of memory, so typically you'd still have at least 1GB left over.

Games today are still made in 32-bit, I haven't encountered a 64-bit game on the desktop yet.

 

[jitpublisher]

Get a 2x2GB kit and you will be quite happy. You will be running dual channel, and 4 GB is plenty enough for most people.

 

[amnotanoobie]

Your X2 is holding your setup quite a bit, whilst you have a beefier video card. You might want to consider a processor instead if it would fit in your budget and your motherboard.

 

[descendency]

Just FYI: If you own a 32 Bit License to Windows 7, you own a 64 bit one as well (you can't have 2 installs, but you can install either the 64 bit or 32 bit version... doesn't matter). Simply download an ISO, burn a disc, and install using your serial. This is 100% legal. You must make sure you use Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit since you own the 32 bit version.

 

[nahemot]

Ok, i´ll upgrade 3gb-->4bgb ram and save the money for a new cpu in a year or two

Thanks for your help, folks

 

[nahemot]

Best answer selected by nahemot.