Do I NEED more RAM?

Hey all,

I was just wondering whether I should get some more RAM for my system since prices seem to be pretty cheap these days.

My rig is mainly used for administrative type stuff, burning DVDs and CDs, and the occasional game such as Enter the Matrix.

Would more RAM (say, up to 1gb) boost my system performance in:

1) Running more progs at once
2) Playing Enter the Matrix
3) XXXX

Any suggestions? Thanks guys

I thought of something else to consider, should I focus on getting FASTER ram and not just more?

More ram is definately good. If I were you, I would get pc3200 or better. The next generation of motherboards starts at 200fsb. Sure, most will be backwards compatible, but at the cost of bandwidth. For every 3% that your bandwidth increases, you can expect about 1% improvement. A dual channel pc3200 canterwood board, for example, has about twice the bandwidth of pc2100; not a small improvement by any means. If you are overclocking an older system, it also makes it a LOT easier to overclock. pc2100 tends to max out between 140 and 150fsb. With pc3200, you're memory will be OK to at least 200fsb.

Right now, prices are low, and pc3200 is not demanding a huge premium over pc2100. (about 30-40% more at the moment, while it has often been double.)

Well, i think 512mb of ram is prob enough...unless you like being excentric.

Faster ram would make a very large difference in performance...but keep in mind, it only runs that fast if you make it run that fast.

So you'd have to change your overclock, chances are good you'd get a better overclock.

If i were you...get a stick of pc2700 or pc3200 and see what you can get out of that motherboard

With the newest games, 1.5gb of ram might not be overkill, though over 512mb is not needed for them to be playable.

Okay, this may change your advice:

I do not overclock anything ever, and don't really have an interest to. I dabbled in it in the past (Video and CPU, never RAM) but I don't think I want to mess around much with my hardware anymore.

gas-man said:

I do not overclock anything ever, and don't really have an interest to. .

Click to expand...

eh? maybe your on the wrong forums

I still advise pc3200. The next generation of boards uses it as the standard. If you want to upgrade, you'll need it, unless you want to run your system asynchronously and at a lower speed.

Not running memory in synch with the FSB causes a performance hit. Running it slower causes one, too. So that's double trouble.

If you don't buy the good stuff now, you'll need to buy it later. Assuming that baseline memory prices remain the same, you'll buy memory now, and you'll have to buy it again later. That's 2x the cost of memory currently. If you buy the more expensive now, it'll cost you about 40% more. That's 1.4x the cost of just the pc2100 now.

Memory prices are low now. So that means they will probably go up, by about half. This means that instead of paying 2x, you'll be paying 2.5x the regular cost.
You could get 512mb of pc2100 now for $45, or 512mb of pc3200 for $65. But you'll probably still be paying at least $50 for that pc3200 a year from now. Add that to the $45, and you get $90. That's a bit more than $65.

And since pc3200 will run with any pc2100 stick you already have, albeit at pc2100 speeds, why not?

If you plan on keeping this board of yours for a while... I would just buy some more RAM... If you have 1 512 MB PC-2100 already in it... get another, it's cheap enough. From what I see your system doesn't utilize RAM any faster than what you have(without overclocking).

If you want to upgrade your whole system sometime soon the go get some PC-3200 and a motherboard that will support it.

Sounds like you are happy with your current system so just stick with my first suggestion. More Ram certainly won't hurt and with 1 GB worth of it, you shouldn't have to worry about much.

zabomb4163 said:

eh? maybe your on the wrong forums

Click to expand...

haha

zabomb4163 said:

eh? maybe your on the wrong forums

Click to expand...

HA...HA...HA....

No.. no... non-overclockers are welcome too....

( honestly, overclocking cause my wallet thinner and my head grew bigger due OC headache ).

Even with a watercooler.... good god