2gb -> 4gb of RAM, do i really need it?

[Andeh13]

My PC specs are to the left <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<.

I dont do a huge amount of gaming, and when i do it usually involves Team fortress 2 and HL2 MODS. I watch a lot of films & HD films on my PC and do a lot of multi tasking (multiple web pages open, MSN, music always on, downloads running - at least) and iv always wondered if doubling my RAM would speed any of this up?

Realistically, can i expect any sort of improvement in boot up times, not only of the PC but of films, web pages and programs in general with the extra 2 gb of ram?

cheers guys

[alsenior]

you may see a benefit from it. i would get the extra ram anyway it's cheap enough

[staffsMike]

For your uses I don't see 4GB making a massive improvement. It's handy for things like alt tabbing out of games etc.. but as far as web/msn/music etc.. goes I don't see there being anything much in way of improvements. If you were gaming and running programs, then yeah go for it and as alsenior says, it is cheap right now.

[Bugbait]

Check your peak memory usage under Task Manager. It should give a read out of the amount of "swapping" it's doing to the swap file as well. I personally haven't used a swap file in Windows for years since it's so cheap now, as others have mentioned. If you deactivate your swap file and you never hit 80&#37; of your physical RAM then expanding from 2 to 4 Gig will likely have little or no affect on your performance.

[McstylisT]

Personally seeing your using Vista 64 I would say that it can only help. The pricing nowadays is very affordable and it should give your system the extra head room when doing something strenuous. Add this to your Q6600 @ 3.2 and you have a very nicely balanced system there buddy.

So yes it will not hurt and you should see some improvements. Especially when running programs and still multi tasking.

Hope this helps


McT

[SiM]

I am about to make the same upgrade... I will let you know if its worth it

[Andeh13]

Thanks all, still sitting on the fence i think. Its a matter of when, not if....just gotta bite the bullet it seems!

Look forward to hearing from you Sim.

[Blackmage]

I've never used over 2GB of ram, with Vista 64bit. Normal system usage is about 1.4GB, but thats without gaming.

[staffsMike]

Vista will use as much as it can though. So people who have 4GB will be using more when doing the basic stuff than a system with 2GB.. but to good effect

[AdamAnubis]

You might aswell, i made the jump and haven't regretted it. You won't see a massive smack-in-the-face improvement, but it's there. It just feels smoother and more responsive. TF2 will change maps alot quicker aswell

[Andeh13]

tried to order the extra 2gb but scans web site is all down, wonder if its a sign....?

[Breeder]

I'd think carefully about whether you want to do this. When I upgraded to 4Gb from 2Gb I could only run command rate 2T and I had to relax the timings. Consequently memory bandwidth was reduced.

[SiM]

Ok just done the upgrade. No difference for anything except loading games is about 2x faster, so I would go for it
Im on 6gb now, don't want to sell my Dragons, I like the red eyes too much

[DavidM]

I'd certainly do it in the same circumstaces...