4GB RAM

[Cristo]

Hi guys, I'm looking into to buying 4gigs of RAM and I was wondering if you guys knew some good, reliable sites that sell RAM?

Preferably a site that ships to Europe, mind.

Also, what would you guys recommend as the best brand for RAM?

Thanks.

[opn4bzns]

Kingston brand RAM is meant to be good. You know you'll need a 64bit OS, though?

[Cristo]

No I didn't, actually. Thanks for pointing that out to me :)

You're a real asset to this forum opn4bzns, just so you know.

Just to add, what is the difference between 32bit and 64bit OSs and why do they require different amounts of RAM?

[opn4bzns]

Just to add, what is the difference between 32bit and 64bit OSs and why do they require different amounts of RAM?

It's the other way round. You can use a 64bit OS with (in theory) any amount of ram, but a 32 bit OS has an actual limit of about 3.25gb of ram. 64 bit OSs also utilise 64bit processors, and they benefit in apps designed for 64bit, but not in anything else.

You're probably going to want Vista Home Premium, (or maybe Ultimate) 64, assuming you use Windows, because XP 64 is, to be blunt, shit.

[Tener]

It's the other way round. You can use a 64bit OS with (in theory) any amount of ram, but a 32 bit OS has an actual limit of about 3.25gb of ram. 64 bit OSs also utilise 64bit processors, and they benefit in apps designed for 64bit, but not in anything else.

You're probably going to want Vista Home Premium, (or maybe Ultimate) 64, assuming you use Windows, because XP 64 is, to be blunt, shit.

Isn't the limit 3,5gb of ram?
And the 64 bit systems aren't good in my opinion.
They have compatibility issues with hard drives, motherboards etc.

I'm getting a pc with 3gb of ram and i will add 1gb to it and i have 32bit XP professional.
Not changing to vista even with a gun pointed to my head.

Edit:
64 bit system are difficult too, not recommendable to rookies. ( According to Spastic)

[Beefynick]

I would recommend Kingston RAM as well. It is usually pretty cheap and holds up very well. You may want to look on Tigerdirect.com. I personally have never purchased anything from them, but I know a few of my friends have purchased RAM from them at a good price.

[Songi]

This web site is great for buying parts, they are located in southern California, not sure but I bet they would ship to you.

www.acnt.com

On their front page they got a 2g DDR2 Kingston PC2-6400 stick for 44.99USD, it's one of their specials and they do that from time to time.

I buy all my parts from them and I have never had any problems with the 3 computers I have built. I know I am going to get the parts I ordered and they are good quality.


Their web site seems to be going through maintenance right now so you might not be able to get on.

[Spastic]

I buy almost all my parts from www.tigerdirect.com they have very cheap prices, and I can tell you from personal experience that they are a good trustworthy site. Shipping was pretty fast for me, as well.



Edit, the site for UK customers is http://www.misco.co.uk/indexuk.asp?

[BlackHood]

I'm in the UK and I use www.ebuyer.com good prices. Slightly high delivery price but usually prompt/early. Very good guys.

I would also look at your processor and stuff first. I work with vista with 2GB of RAM and don't normally use it all.

If you're looking for a speed boost, just pumping your computer full of RAM isn't very effective.

I would look into cooling, overclocking, or a faster CPU. All more expensive, but adding RAM might be like using a bucket instead of a teacup. If you're only making enough tea for one person, the bucket isn't going to be fully used.

[opn4bzns]

Isn't the limit 3,5gb of ram?

I'm getting a pc with 3gb of ram and i will add 1gb to it and i have 32bit XP professional.
Not changing to vista even with a gun pointed to my head.

You're wasting your money if you use 4gb of ram on 32 bit XP. It literally will not do anything more than 3.25gb will. Yes, the limit is 3.5gb, technically, but it gets dragged down because it's shared with graphics and sound and whatnot.

[OoooF4LiFe]

I'm actually a bit curious as to what you need 4GB of ram for. I only ask that because when people know exactly what they need on a computer to make it run better, they usually know why and how to go about it. When you said you didn't know that you needed the 64bit OS, I started questioning what you could possibly need it for.

There's plenty of reasons, granted. I'm just trying to figure out if more ram is going to solve whatever problem there is, if any at all.

[Cristo]

My general motto is that that more megabytes, gigabytes, gigaherz and bits there are, the better it is.

Also, I'm going to be gaming a lot. It's a gaming rig. Probably a rookie mistake to make, I know but that's how it is.

[MistyTehMoose]

My general motto is that that more megabytes, gigabytes, gigaherz and bits there are, the better it is.

Also, I'm going to be gaming a lot. It's a gaming rig. Probably a rookie mistake to make, I know but that's how it is.

Sometimes not the case. If your computer is not going to utilise it, then it is money down the drain. I am glad you researched first before you bought it. I suggest in your situation only get 3gig of RAM. Don't get a 64 bit OS because I don't think you will be able to handle it, and again, it is unneccesary.

Also, lots of RAM means shit all if you have a crappy processor/motherboard etc. Make sure it is compatible. Like is it DDR, etc.

[Tener]

You're wasting your money if you use 4gb of ram on 32 bit XP. It literally will not do anything more than 3.25gb will. Yes, the limit is 3.5gb, technically, but it gets dragged down because it's shared with graphics and sound and whatnot.

Well, the sound card will be integrated on the motherboard, but the graphics card would be 8800gt 512mb... The sound would take 250mb's of RAM? :D

[OoooF4LiFe]

My general motto is that that more megabytes, gigabytes, gigaherz and bits there are, the better it is.

Also, I'm going to be gaming a lot. It's a gaming rig. Probably a rookie mistake to make, I know but that's how it is.

Like Misty said, this isn't always the case. It's the same issue with getting a beefed up video card, with a shitty processor. Or an amazing quad core CPU, with a shitty motherboard. Reguardless of the fact that you have something awesome, the other half of the equation will bottleneck your system, and making that high-end piece worthless.

If you don't mind, could you post up the specs on your rig? Or PM them to me? You said you were bumping up for mostly gaming I believe. Possibly if you told us what you have, and what you plan on playing, we can find out if more ram would be the most beneficial for you.


Again, not trying to talk you out of 4GB of ram. Though I am jealous, it might not be the bang-for-your-buck that your looking for.

[Xachro]

Just wanted to throw in my two cents on the RAM issue. I think its definitely worth it to pump up the RAM as long as the machine is mildly recent. As mentioned above try and go for 3gb, but it might end up being cheaper to just do 4gb (as I'm not sure if you can buy 2x1.5gb sticks?).

As for a brand of RAM... Corsair, Kingston, GEIL are the best three (imo) in that order.

If you're going for a Gaming PC and really want performance you can also spend the extra money on getting faster RAM with lower latency. Ram has basically three measurements Size, Speed, Latency. Size is how much RAM you have. Speed is how fast it can transfer. Latency is how long it takes the chip to find a random piece of data.

As stated above it really helps if you post the rest of your system specs (or intended system specs) to see if what you are doing is overkill or whether its on par with the rest of the system.

[Cristo]

Like Misty said, this isn't always the case. It's the same issue with getting a beefed up video card, with a shitty processor. Or an amazing quad core CPU, with a shitty motherboard. Reguardless of the fact that you have something awesome, the other half of the equation will bottleneck your system, and making that high-end piece worthless.

If you don't mind, could you post up the specs on your rig? Or PM them to me? You said you were bumping up for mostly gaming I believe. Possibly if you told us what you have, and what you plan on playing, we can find out if more ram would be the most beneficial for you.


Again, not trying to talk you out of 4GB of ram. Though I am jealous, it might not be the bang-for-your-buck that your looking for.

Hey no problem, and thanks. My specs are:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 2.60 Ghz
RAM: 2046 MB
HDD: 160GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS

Monitor: Dell E228WFP 22" with 1680 x 1080 resolution
Mouse Surface: SteelSeries 5L
Mouse: Was a Razer Copperhead but it broke so now I'm using a Logitech G9
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Headphones: SteelSeries 5H 7.1 Surround Sound

I love it, runs almost all games very well although it is starting to slow down, which is understandable - it's 3 years old. But I'm getting a Portable Desktop for when I go to University.

(I just copy pasted my post in the specs forum)

[BlackHood]

To be honest that kind of spec looks like its generally just a little old. An upgrade to Quad Core (Intel in the current climate) would do a thousand times more good than anything else. More RAM or a better Graphics Card would help a bit, but with all the parts being three years old they're not going to be as fast as modern parts.

Summary:
A better graphics card will help run games marginally better.
More RAM won't have much effect, but New RAM will be faster.
An upgrade to a high-end Processor would show most significant improvements, but at the highest cost.

[Step2]

It depends on your motherboard. You could buy 4GB of ram (2x 2GBs sticks) If you have a dual core processor, one in each processor, if you have a quadcore, 1gb in each, etc. Kingston and Crucial have worked the best for me.

[azunder]

I'm in the UK and I use www.ebuyer.com good prices. Slightly high delivery price but usually prompt/early. Very good guys.


Delivery can be free, it just takes 5 working days to deliver (I live about 4 miles from the warehouse so its instant for me :cool:)

[BlackHood]

It depends on your motherboard. You could buy 4GB of ram (2x 2GBs sticks) If you have a dual core processor, one in each processor, if you have a quadcore, 1gb in each, etc. Kingston and Crucial have worked the best for me.

As far as I'm aware the RAM isn't divided between the cores of a CPU. The CPU is simply there to crunch numbers, and the RAM is used to save the outputted data. If they were working in groups it would mean that you essentially run two or four operating systems, with each process being used by it's own allocated core and its own allocated RAM.

More cores really just adds more "doing" power, doing more at once. RAM means more "thinking" power, storing the data for 5 or 6 programs that are running side by side.

I might be wrong, but thats always been my understanding.

[opn4bzns]

To be honest that kind of spec looks like its generally just a little old. An upgrade to Quad Core (Intel in the current climate) would do a thousand times more good than anything else.

A quad core is rather excessive at the moment (especially given their prices) unless the computer is going to be used for extremely cpu intensive stuff like encoding video or compressing a lot of stuff. A Core 2 Duo would be easily sufficient, and better value.

[HappinessMan]

www.crucial.com is great for finding good deals and finding compatible memory.

[poematik14]

The best RAM is Corsair or Kingston. Everything else is irrelevant.

[Goose]

I personally have G.Skill ram (2x1 GB). Got it in December for like $39 before everything else was this cheap. Couldn't NOT recommend them. Great speeds, and support is very good.

But, as others have said, a dual-core would be better as an upgrade. The CPU you're running now is the bottleneck of your computer.