Sempron 3400+ Limiting factor?

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soulslayer

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I'm running an AMD Sempron 3400+ Manila core 1.8 Ghz on a Biostar MCP6P M2+ mainboard. I currently have 2 GB DDR2 RAM. Would adding another 2 GB (allowing it to run 4 GB in dual channel) give a noticeable performance increase or would the Sempron 3400+ 1.8 GHz limit any gain in performance? Thanks a million for any help. I just don't want to spend money on the extra RAM and end up realizing that I don't see much of a difference.
 
hi Soul,
i assume your XP system is 32 bit? if so when you add another 2gb of ram a 32 bit os is only going to let you use somewhere between 2.75-3.25 gb of it as 'useable' memory....its ''memory mapped IO reservations' its an motherboard architecture thing that re-routes memory over apporox 3gb on 32 bit systems to other hardware in the system. in addition there have been a number of tests that show there is very little to no gain in ram above 2gb on XP 32. hope that helped :)
 
oppps! i just had a thought and looked at your mobo, you have only two dimms on that? and running one 2gb ram module? if you add another 2gb you will activate the dual channel feature, and you can usually expect an overall system performance increase of 10-15% while many ram modules will work together in dual channel, best to get the second 2gb to match the first.
 
Thanks for the response...much appreciated. Yes, definitely will be buying a matching RAM module, that is if I do decide to go for the upgrade. I just want to make sure that it makes sense to add that next 2 GB of RAM for the memory gain and to activate dual channel.

As you said, in your post before, I shouldn't expect much of a gain with the addition of another 2 GB of RAM to a 32-bit XP system. Basically, my problem is after installing antivirus/antispyware software, I noticed that things can be a little bit slower when I open up multiple applications and on startup (which of course is expected). I am wondering if the solution to smoothen things out is the addition of RAM or would I need to upgrade my processor when I upgrade the RAM in order to get the system moving as it was before? Anymore thoughts from you or anyone else on this would be greatly appreciated. Basically, I want to re-gain my system performance with the new software installed but avoid spending money on a new processor. Would the RAM upgrade alone be worth it? Thanks guys!
 
Hi Soulslayer,
don't forget that activating the dual channel feature will give you a nice boost. it accesses twice as many modules at the same time,kind of 'ram raid' if you will. as far as the processor goes, you can get a dual core rather inexpensively that would boost performance application wise (i assume you don't game as you are using on board graphics).
 
Thanks again...I think I will go for it, but just the RAM for now...no processor upgrade just yet. I got the motherboard and Sempron processor together on special pricing for $500.00 TT...that's about $80 US, which is pretty cheap here, so that's why I chose to purchase it, else I would have bought a dual core in the first place. If I could have sold the processor and upgrade to an Athlon dual core I would, but I don't want to have the new processor just lying around doing nothing...budget is tight at the momemt. Thanks for the help!
 
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