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512MB vs 1024MB DDRam Which to get?

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Saffyre

Registered
Joined
Feb 20, 2003
I am sure this has possibly been asked before, but it is crunch time for me, and i need to make some hardcore decisions on my new cpu setup, so i need some help.

I am going to ether pick up:
- 512MB total (matched pair of 256MB pc2700 sticks)
- 1024MB toal (matched pair of 512MB pc2700 sticks)

I am not going to be doing any graphic design or anything like that, the machine will mostly be used for everyday use, including the latest and greatest game titles.

is there any reason i should go with the 1024MB of ram vs the 512MB? besides the obvious double the amount of ram... would this be WAY overkill? anyone have any comparisons or reviews showing this comparison? would it have any real world benifits i would see getting the 1 gig?

Thx in advance!
 
From what I understand, a gig of RAM allows you to turn off the virtual RAM in Windows, and it speeds up performance considerably.

Plus, a gig will last you a long time. I'm gonna make the jump there soon.
 
Shade00 said:
From what I understand, a gig of RAM allows you to turn off the virtual RAM in Windows

Note that you can't do this with windows 2000.



Personally, 512mb is more than enough for most things.
 
This is Overclockers.com. There is never too much of anything...except for heat :]

I say go for the gig.
 
Go for the gig man......Even if it does have no performance gain (I think it does) get it. It just makes your computer more 733t :)

Seriously go for the gig loading times are alot faster with no swap drive IMO....especially battlefield 1942
 
Well my consideration would be baised on more of a factual standpoint..

I dont wanna burn an extra couple hundred $$ just so i have a pimpin machine... but I would do it if there was a good reason for it.

and when will ddr2 be coming around?? as if i bought a GIG now, i would be getting ready for a future that dd2 will rule.
 
Saffyre said:
Well my consideration would be baised on more of a factual standpoint..

I dont wanna burn an extra couple hundred $$ just so i have a pimpin machine... but I would do it if there was a good reason for it.

and when will ddr2 be coming around?? as if i bought a GIG now, i would be getting ready for a future that dd2 will rule.

I wouldn't worry about it, DDR2 is a long ways off before it ever shows up at newegg, if it ever does go mainstream....
 
well I live in Canada, and the prices for what I want are :

Dual Channel PC2700 512MB kit = $254 Canadian
Dual Channel PC2700 1024MB kit = $494 Canadian

unfortunatly up here it is, "a few hundred dollars"

pretty much the response i have gotten is that 512 will be great for some time to come. and get 1024MB for my ego rather then for the performance.

has anyone actually run across a comparison review like this before?? I would like very much to see some proof or data showing ether way what the difference would be in the real world.
 
if you just play games and surd the web then 512 will be fine, usually im downloading off usenet 24/7 so the extra ram helps big time sent most newsreaders seem to be fairly high performance hogs.

Also I do a little photoshop editing, and some dvd encoding, with 512 megs of ram my system would slow to a crawl If I tried to open internet explorer, or listen to mp3's while doing these things, with 1 gig it seems I have enough to have anything and everything running without noticable slowdown.

Also those kits are usually more expensive then the actual sticks of ram themselves 116.95 USD for a 512 stick of cas2 pc3200 @ hardcorecooling.com...

116.95 is like 187$ in canadian I think...so 187 x 2 is 374$, saves you a good deal of money if you don't buy the over priced corsair ram. Sure the stuff is good but you really pay a premium for it.
 
Actually the corsair is substantially more then those prices I gave you... I was looking at OCZ ram ...

I know abou the rep... please dont talk about that, as the store i am going to get it from has tested it with the ASUS A7N8X DLX and i already know it runs fine.

as opposed to getting to individual sticks and having problems
 
I say get 2 matching sticks of 512Mb DDR400.. that way you'll be set for Dual Channel DDR400 when you decide to move to that..
 
If you can afford it go for the gig. I did, and i am not regretting it. Lets just say that when playing battlefield 1942 i have seen my memory usage at OVER 750mb... A gig is definetly NOT overkill for new games.
 
Well why buy the OCZ if you can get the hardcorecooling stuff that will preform the same for like 60% of the price. It seems like cost is a factor in your decision and although ocz IS good ram, the stuff from hardcorecooling will work just as well and costs ALOT less.

Even if the OCZ does turn out to be faster is the extra 1% in preformance worth having only half the ram ?

If you know you only want ocz then go for it
 
I think I will be getting a gig of that hardcorecooling stuff, as long as it can get 200fsb with strick memory settings I will be perfectly happy. (higher of couse is better though)
 
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