DDR2 800 - 2GB or 4GB

nheather

nheather

nheather

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Joined
19 May 2004
Posts
1,037
Location
Horsham, West Sussex
Hi,

I have an average system Intel E6750 and 8800GTS which I have built from used parts purchased from a member here.

I've been having a few blue-screen problems and have found that the memory is faulty (as reported by MemTest). I purchased the parts some time ago so I have no ill-feelings towards the seller so I'm just going to buy some replacement - I could get the faulty stuff replaced by Corsair but then I'd be without a computer for a good while.

Anyway, back to the main question.

Are there any advantages to buying 4GB rather than 2GB.

I run XP, not Vista. The usual stuff mostly, internet, mail, office the odd game here and there.

Graphics card only has 320MB so when I play games I don't tend to use huge resolutions with all the beels and whistles turned on.

Will I see any benefit from 4GB - if then what?

Cheers,

Nigel
 
I doubt you'd notice any difference going from 2 to 4Gb in XP for your uses tbh.

If you know you're not gonna change your m/b for a while, I'd suggest to get 4Gb anyway because DDR2 is so cheap atm. You'd be set for Vista/Win 7 then ;)
 
Go for 4gb, also what brand of memory is it? Some have long/life warranty so it might be possible to RMA it.
 
It does have warranty - Corsair 10 years apparently.

But, I'm not so sure the memory is faulty now.

When I tried to identify which of the sticks was faulty I found that both pass MemTest invidually in any of the sockets.

It's only when both are in place that I get the MemTest (Test 7) failures.

I wish it weren't the case - I was happy yesterday knowing that the memory was faulty and it's just a case of buying some more. Now I'm not sure what is wrong.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
It's 32 bit OS's that can't use the full amount, XP or vista. And 64bit OS's that can. Again 32bit or vista. E.G. 32bit vista can't and 64bit XP can. It is still a big upgrade. Don't think of it as going from 2gig to ~3.5gig. Think more along the lines of your OS can easily eat up 1gig just to resource itself, leaving you with 1gig to play with. You will be increasing this 1gig to ~2.5gig.
 
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Go 4GB. XP 32 bit won't be able to use all of it, but you will probably get 3GB. With DDR2 800 being so cheap these days, definately worth getting the extra. Also supports you if you decide to move to Vista in the future (make sure you get 64 bit).
 
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