is 512mb ram sufficiant?

These are my system specs ( building ):

1800+ XP
8KHA+
256mb Corsair 2700
80gb RAID 0 ( 2 x 40gb Maxtor D740X fluid bearings )
AX-7 & Enermax varible fan w/ AS3
Promise ATA133 RAID controller
Radeon 8500 retail
silver braided IDE & FDD cables
Antec 1040b inc. 400w PSU
2 x Antec 80mm fans
2 x Evercool 80mm fans
MS USB Optical wheel mouse
MS USB web keyboard
Ratpad
1 x Slim HD 3" HD cooler
SB Live & Creative 4 point speakers
some 17" monitor
Creative webcam

And I use my computer to design websites, program and play games. Is this a sufficiant amount of RAM to relax with or should I consider a total of 768mb?

This will be my last RAM upgrade ever on this system, because of VIA issues I have heard of running more than 2 sticks of 2700 RAM, what about the future of this system?

I would say yes, because I do the same sort of things on my PC and I'm running 512M on WinXP PRO and have even turned off the swapfile for increased performance without any problems.

takiwa said:

what OS are you planning to run? 98 can't use/see more than 256...2K and XP will love 512...

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I'm gonna use 98SE, but does that mean any RAM I get over 256 will be totally useless?

its not 256 for windows 98SE, its 512, so go with 512...you can always get more later if you need!

I would disagree with both of you. But i also couldn't understand anyone making a decision to go with Win98!

this is the way i look at it, the more ram the better windows loves to eat ram so why not have as much of it as possible (that you can afford) remember though the more physical ram sticks you have the harder o/cing can be. So if you have extra cash that you dont want to use on other stuff sure add more ram, xp isnt going to complain!

i run 512 now and even though i probably dont need it it would be nice to run 1GB or 1.5GB of ram just cause!

i say 512 would be enough. spend the money on something that will make more of a noticable difference, like a new monitor or software. just my opinion though.

If you are going to run 98se which I dont recomend, you can only use 512mb so there is no question about using 512mb. Nothing less is really acceptable now a days for your main system, especially for games. Why not get a gig of ram if you can afford it and then run a NT kernel OS. (WIN2K or XP)