What is the current "sweet spot" for amount of RAM?

[DaFunkyUnit]

Thinking about upgrading the comp at my parent's house. It currently has 512 MB of ram. Its a P4 2.6, has an ATI 9600 (vanilla). Oh, the mobo is an ECS, uses the early early VIA chipsets that support DDR400. (it is one of the first mobos that support DDR400! :eek: hows that for oldschool? ) There are 4 (WindowsXP) user accounts on there that sometimes all get used at once, so RAM will definitely help out. Question is, how much RAM should I get?

1 GB? 2 GB?

tia
-daUnit

[bachviet]

1GB should be good

[Airencracken]

I <3 my 2GBs. I'd say more is better.

[MikeD]

I'd say more is better.

:stupid:

It's not overly expensive, so I'd say go with 2 gigs.

[DarkFury]

Honestly, right now 2GB is the "sweet spot"...

Many of today's games eat up that extra memory like Twizzlers... and having more memory means that you can have more things going on on the screen without lagging due to your memory banks being full of data.

From personal experience, 2GB of memory sure did help with the lag in City of Heroes for me. :thumb:

[DaFunkyUnit]

alrighty then, so I'll go and buy 2 sticks of 1GB DDR333 pc2700 memory...

or should I get a faster speed? the mobo safely supports DDR333, its kinda flaky on DDR400. (like i said, its one the early models of the VIA P4X400 chipset)

[Grubbie]

I would also say go with 2 gigs if you plan on moving them to Vista.

[DarkFury]

alrighty then, so I'll go and buy 2 sticks of 1GB DDR333 pc2700 memory...

or should I get a faster speed? the mobo safely supports DDR333, its kinda flaky on DDR400. (like i said, its one the early models of the VIA P4X400 chipset)
Honestly, I'd be kinda shakey on buying more PC2700... are you sure that there isn't a BIOS update to help stabilize that PC3200 (DDR 400) operation?

It's your call... however I've generally shyied away from buying anything less than DDR 400 unless there was no other option.

[IrishSS]

Honestly, I'd be kinda shakey on buying more PC2700... are you sure that there isn't a BIOS update to help stabilize that PC3200 (DDR 400) operation?

It's your call... however I've generally shyied away from buying anything less than DDR 400 unless there was no other option.

Ya, I agree with DF. Even if you have to buy DDR400 and clock it down to 333 to run properly...

This way if you decide to upgrade your mobo in the future you won't end up with bottleneck RAM.

[ramazank2]

I still have 512MB of RDRAM

[DarkFury]

I still have 512MB of RDRAM
Poor d00d.... :sad:


/me weeps technological tears for j00.... :neartears

[johnnymk]

I thought that RDRAM was considered excellent memory. It was just too expensive and not competitive.

Isn't that the reason that one of the major companies is buying them?

[DarkFury]

I thought that RDRAM was considered excellent memory. It was just too expensive and not competitive.

Isn't that the reason that one of the major companies is buying them?
Think "Betamax"... but in terms of memory. :D

[ArkiStan]

2.5 Gs for me. :)

[avlena]

Honestly, right now 2GB is the "sweet spot"...

Many of today's games eat up that extra memory like Twizzlers... and having more memory means that you can have more things going on on the screen without lagging due to your memory banks being full of data.

From personal experience, 2GB of memory sure did help with the lag in City of Heroes for me. :thumb:

well, if it's your parents' computer... will they even use the 2GB?? It's not like they'll be gaming (at least my parents wouldn't be). 1GB would be more then enough, if your parents aren't big power users. My parents don't even usually have more then 1 application running at once, and rarely use memory intensive programs like Photoshop, so I haven't bothered upgrading them, because they probably wouldn't even notice the difference.

[DarkFury]

well, if it's your parents' computer... will they even use the 2GB?? It's not like they'll be gaming (at least my parents wouldn't be). 1GB would be more then enough, if your parents aren't big power users. My parents don't even usually have more then 1 application running at once, and rarely use memory intensive programs like Photoshop, so I haven't bothered upgrading them, because they probably wouldn't even notice the difference.
So why did you quote me instead of quoting DaFunkyUnit? It's not my, or my parent's computer. :shrug:

[DaFunkyUnit]

actually, its the "family" computer, so:

a) mom & dad uses it for internet browsing, emails, and the occasional tax & finances

b) sister uses it for writing papers (though she'll be moving away to college in a coupla months), photoshop, and mySpace :rolleyes:

c) brother uses it for WoW

so actually bumping up to a gig won't be a bad idea.

but i have one last question: since theres already a stick of 512mb already, can I just get one stick of 1GB and install it in the 2nd slot? thus, not only mixing RAM brands, but also RAM speeds. shouldnt be an issue, right? (mobo does not support dual channel)

[Airencracken]

non-dual channel shouldn't be a problem.

[Jeffbx]

I'd say anything above 1GB on that machine will probably just sit idle. You'll do fine on 512, 1GB would be better, but you'll notice little, if any difference between 1 and 2GB.

I usually advise people to run a test to see if there are performance issues (http://www.pctoday.com/Editorial/article.asp?article=articles/2004/t0207/34t07/34t07.asp&guid=)due to low RAM.


However, if cost is not an issue it certainly won't hurt to have the 2GB in there.

[avlena]

So why did you quote me instead of quoting DaFunkyUnit? It's not my, or my parent's computer. :shrug:

I quoted you because you gave the 2GB as a suggestion due to gaming, and the "you" in the statement was actually directed at DaFunkyUnit, referencing your comment. Sorry if you feel I quoted improperly.

[DarkFury]

too confusing. :shrug:

But ok. :D

Either way, more memory never hurts... especially if you can get it at a good (cheap) price. I wouldn't pay an arm & a leg to get to 2GB, but if you can get there on the cheap... I'd say "go for it". :thumb:

[indiglosolara]

2 gigs got my vote..