2GB of ram for $400 or 4GB ram for $400?

Question

I'm going to do high end gaming on XP, better ram or more ram? thanks

Answer 1

First of all, 2GB is plenty for XP. Unless you're playing Vanguard: Saga of Heroes :)

Unless you're at the VERY high-end of processors and video cards, like C2D E6700 and dual X1950XT's or 8800's, I'd usually choose more RAM. But it really does depend upon the timings- what memory latency would you have in both cases?

In some situations faster RAM allows you to overclock the CPU- if that's your plan, it could be worth it. But if you'r CPU speed is fixed, the performance boost from more RAM outweighs the boost from better memory timings (assuming they're fairly close to begin with)

Answer 2

No 2GB of ram is worth $400 even if it's DDR3 which is totally overpriced as it only performs 5% better than DDR2! If you're running a P35 board that supports both DDR3 and DDR2 don't waste your money on DDR3 until they come out with some good DDR3 that performs like it should. You can get 4 GBs of Crucial Ballistix DDR2 1066 with the Micron D9 chips for under 300! The D9 chips are the most overclockable chips there are but if you're running a 965 board, especially a Gigabyte, make sure your board can run the D9s as some 965s cant.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148069
Some people don't understand that if you have 4GB of ram and windows only shows about 3 1/2 its because it reserves about 500MB for system resources. If you have only 2 GB of ram it shows it all but Windows still needs ram to run the system so it gets it from your 2GBs leaving you with about 1 1/2 to play with. If you have a board with memory mapping like my 955x you see all 4096. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't being used.

Answer 3

I'm assuming you are running a 32 bit version of windows. If this is the case then you should stick with the 2gb of ram as it is not possible for a 32 bit operating system to use more than 3 or 3.5gb of RAM. If you are running a 64 bit version of windows then I would still have to suggest the 2gb of ram unless it is Vista.

Here is a quote from Crucial.com ...

Q: Will my system recognize the maximum upgrade?

A: Possibly

"How much memory your Windows OS will recognize depends on which version of Windows you are running. 32-bit versions of Windows will see (and utilize) only 3GB or 3.5GB. To utilize more memory, install a 64-bit version of your OS. More information about OS memory maximums can be found at http://www.crucial.com/kb/answer.aspx?qid=4251."

Answer 4

Better ram dfinetily.

Answer 5

i would go with 2 with some fast speeds like pc8500 ddr2... xp wont regnize 4gb so it woulb be a waste in a way get 2 fast good ram

Answer 6

yea the 2gbof ram is fine, well should be more then enough

Answer 7

2Gig is enough. What kind of freq and CAS time do you have for 400bucks on a 2gig?

Answer 8

200 GB is very good

Answer 9

better