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Thread ID: 86424 2008-01-16 07:38:00 Benefit of upgrading RAM Bryden (4161) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
630731 2008-01-16 07:38:00 Hi Everyone

I was contemplating upgrading my desktop with extra RAM - running Windows XP Home and 1GB. The technician I contacted said there is no point as XP wont benefit from upgrading the RAM. Is this correct please?

TIA

Bryden:confused:
Bryden (4161)
630732 2008-01-16 07:41:00 Ignore what the tech said. If you want more ram, get some.

No harm in adding more.

Altho, this may depend on HOW much ram the computer supports.

And it depends what you do with your computer.

If its just for basic stuff, 1 GB is enough.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
630733 2008-01-16 07:44:00 Thought it might speed things up.... Guess I don't do anything too labour intensive though.... but I like new bells and whistles! VBG

Bryden
Bryden (4161)
630734 2008-01-16 07:48:00 Well depends what you mean by speed things up. 1 GB is enough to boot into windows.

If you do basic things.

If u do something like CAD or use something like video editing or use Photoshop or something. It might help. BUT a fast CPU also helps, if you do this
Speedy Gonzales (78)
630735 2008-01-16 08:57:00 Hi Everyone

I was contemplating upgrading my desktop with extra RAM - running Windows XP Home and 1GB. The technician I contacted said there is no point as XP wont benefit from upgrading the RAM. Is this correct please?

TIA

Bryden:confused:
Let's expose his name and ID! :thumbs:
Renmoo (66)
630736 2008-01-16 09:46:00 Increasing the Ram will usually speed things up, but if you up it to much, and the CPU is not that powerful, you wont see that much of an improvement, also most motherboards can only handle a certain amount of RAM, some 2 Gb some 8 Gb or above .

Example of RAM increase: if you had only 256Mb Ram and increased it to 1Gb - the speed increase will be very noticeable, but increase that to 2Gb the increase wont be as much .

Mind you DDR and DDR2 RAM is cheap, just check how much your board can take then take it to the Max if you want . From Memory (no pun intended :D ) XP 32 Bit can only take a Max of 4 Gb .
wainuitech (129)
630737 2008-01-16 10:03:00 no use adding ram up to motherboard limit, if your operating system wont take it.
most combinations of XP32 and motherboard wont read above about 3.25GB,
some will read 4GB if the bios will read PAE memory extentions (from mem)
only XP64 will read more.
dbs (8785)
630738 2008-01-16 11:33:00 That so called "technician" is hopeless and knows sweet !@#$ all about XP.

Does he think 128mb of ram will be enough to operate properly because M$ says so!!!:xmouth:

Adding more ram is the cheapest and easiest upgrade anyone can do.

I have: 2 x 1 gb sticks of ram and
2 x 512mb sticks of ram.

This gives me 3 gigs running in Dual Channel and for games it has made a very big improvement for games like BF2,Oblivion,Crysis and others as well,plus Windows XP is more responsive,snappy,faster in general use as well.:thumbs:

Ram is so cheap you have nothing to lose and everything to gain,IMHO.:thumbs:

If you want to use 4 gigs or more ram then you need a 64 bit Windows like; XP Pro 64 bit or Vista 64 bit.

All Gamers I know have 2 gigs of ram as standard and more if they want to.

If you buy a premade gaming computer it has 2 gigs of ram standard as well.

Go to any gamer website and check out their sigs and see what they have in their computers,it wont be 128mb of ram or 256mb of ram or 512mb of ram in their computers!!!
memphis (2869)
630739 2008-01-16 13:21:00 it totally depends on what you do with the pc . . . . . . . . I "only" have 1 . 5gb ram but even this is more than I need . . . . . . . . . I DONT run games at all and I only very occasionally play around with video editing . . . . . . . . . as it is usually I've got about 700mb remaining at least . . . . . . . . unused . . . . . . your pc wont necessarily be faster if you add more ram if you are not using all you have already !

as for :
1 GB is enough to boot into windows .

If you do basic things .

actually i've seen xp systems running on 64mb ram tho I DONT reccomend it cause they're VERY slow to do anything at all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . yet 512mb or a little more is fine if all you do mostly is surf the net and perhaps use word/emails etc . . . . . . . even ok for burning cds/dvds . . . . . . .
drcspy (146)
630740 2008-01-16 14:05:00 Hi Everyone

I was contemplating upgrading my desktop with extra RAM - running Windows XP Home and 1GB. The technician I contacted said there is no point as XP wont benefit from upgrading the RAM. Is this correct please?

TIA

Bryden:confused:

Unless your gaming or doing any video editing don't bother with more RAM.

1gb will do fine. You will not see a massive performance hit.

If you are running noticeably slow its probably time for an upgrade.
ArcticSilver (12946)
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