How Much Is Enough?

Right now i am running a 6800GT with a 2Ghz AMD 3000+ and 1Gb ram (2X256 1X512) (PC2700 and lower)

Question: How much is enough for me? I have 2 brands of ram so i am thinking of going with all the same ram and just update it to PC400. What would the amount of ram i would need.

MB can hold 3Gb by ways of 3 sticks. should i go with 3X512=1.5Gb, 2X1Gb=2Gb, or 3X1Gb=3Gb.

It all depends on what you're doing with your machine. Heavy Photoshop users could benefit from 2GB, while most games (except BF2 and a few other newer titles) won't see any benefit from the extra RAM.

Another consideration is the ability to run dual chanel (128-bit) if you've 3 slots, you're limited to to 2 slots if you want to run 128-bit. 2 1Gig sticks will not be quite as fast as 2 512s due to the higher latency inhenent in the larger sticks. **Note** I'm assuming that you're running a S939 board. If you're running a S754, this does not matter, as you've only a single channel anyway...

Analyse it like this:

1. Determine your maximum memory usage in daily computing by monitoring your paging file usage.

2. If you do not exceed 1GB, buy the fastest 512MB sticks that fit your budget.

3. If you do exceed 1GB, upgrade to 2 1GB sticks.

sweet. that works very well.
I have been looking at the memory use and i am at MAX 500Mb and that happens very few times. So i would say that 3 512 would work good. or should i just go at 2x512?
also i am running a 754 what does that matter?

ticktock123 said:

sweet. that works very well.
I have been looking at the memory use and i am at MAX 500Mb and that happens very few times. So i would say that 3 512 would work good. or should i just go at 2x512?
also i am running a 754 what does that matter?

Click to expand...

Since your S754 is a single-channel board, running 3 won't be an issue, but you'll probably be better off spending the extra $ on a set of 2 faster/better 512 sticks, as you'll not likely use more than 1 Gig.

Do you have any thing in mind for 2 sticks of REALLY good 512? Currenty looking of newegg

ALso What Voltage and Timming should i get? and anything else you can think of

ticktock123 said:

ALso What Voltage and Timming should i get? and anything else you can think of

Click to expand...

This thread answers your question better than I could ever hope to.

Spend a bit of time in the memory section; there are tons of threads discussing varieties, voltages, timing, etc.. and there's no need to repeat what has already been so eloquently and exhaustively covered.