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I have enough money for either 2gb or 1gb. I like to play music, whilst on the internet with word open too. I use firefox+itunes, which are both memory hoggers. Also, I play games, and notice that it hangs quite allot, so I was wondering whether this would fix that.
Which should I go for?

More RAM always helps, especially since you only have 512 MB installed RAM. Keep in mind that 32-bit operating systems (like XP and 32-bit versions of Vista) can only really make use of about 3 GB of RAM.

I have 512mb now and I have an integrated graphics chip. 1gb ok for me?

The integrated graphics card could also be part of the problem with the games hanging. If the price of 1 GB is close to the price of the 2 GB, you might as well go with the 2 GB, but either will be a substantial improvement over the 512 MB you have.

to habylab

I agree with madboyv1 More ram always helps.. 512 MB ram is very low because if you have any anti-anti virus on you pc that anti-virus consume a lot of ram. And you also like to play game on Your pc. So i suggest to upgrade it to 1gb. You can also check how much your pc is consuming Ram and how much is available free.
For you knowledge i have 2gb ram on xp.

thanks

well habylab,
u like multi tasking rit
u like using ur p.c to the extreme level
this y u should upgrade ur Ram to 2gb , try using a seperate graphics card coz onboard tend to acquire memory from ur Ram this reduces the Ram capcity
also if ur mobo supports DDR 2 ram then go for it DDR2 r faster then the old 1s
if u can b patient
ul run into good luck
companies r comming out with rams faster then DDR2
it wont b long
but watever u do try going for a DDR2 2gb ram
ul enjoy everything

Ok guys. It is £15 for a 1gb kit and £25 for a 2gb kit. Here is the link:
2gb: http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpar...296F06A5CA7304
1gb:http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpar...61E808A5CA7304

Honestly if you have £10 to spare, I'd just get the 2 GB.

Get the 2 Gb. kit and at the first opportunity get yourself an stand alone graphics card.
Although many Motherboards offer support up to 4 Gb.s memory, unless you are doing extensive editing of video or other labor intensive application, it is a waste.
You would do better to update your Motherboard completely or if that is too expensive, replace your Celeron chip for a Pentium 4 or better yet core-two duo.

Having more than 3 GB is a waste if you are running a 32 bit OS, which he is. =o

While an understandable suggestion, the thread is about adding memory, and not the other stuff.

2GB is plenty for XP or any 32bit OS.

I sit corrected?

Get the 2G RAM if at all possible. No one has ever been sorry that they bought too much RAM...

I am buying them tonight, so you are confusing me. 2gb or 1gb?

Just bought 2gb or ram! Good decision or not?

Good choice. You will not regret it. Especially as time goes on and the apps you are using require more and more RAM.

One final comment: back in the 1996-7 timeframe, I had a number of colleagues laugh at me for overbuying RAM. Most people back then were getting 28MB of RAM or possibly 32 MB and once in a great while as much as 48MB. I went crazy and bought 64 MB, an amount that everyone thought would never be unneeded. What it did was buy me better performance, fewer headaches (extra RAM can some times forgive other sins), and longer usefulness of the machine, overall. Basically, though, I had the same types of discussions back then that this thread is dredging up.

yup
2gb ddr2 is good if u want to use ur p.c for a long time
dont buy tooo many rams if ur p.c supports ddr3
ddr3 is the new type ram, in due course its gonna get cheaper so save some slot for ddr3

There's no point in "saving" slots. Your computer will downgrade the faster ram so it's compatible with the slower ram.

In regards to this topic, go to your control panel, and inside administrative tools you will see a performance monitor. Load it up then run a game or load up firefox etc. Then check the performance monitor and see where the bottle neck is. It could be for example your hard drives, your processor, ram, or even graphics card. Upgrade what is causing the bottle neck and then your computer will run faster.

I have 4GB of ram in my computer, but i rarely use more than 2GB (i don't play games, i do web development). So technically me having 2GB of ram would be the same performance wise as 4GB ;-) I like having 4GB anyway because it comes in useful when using memcache for optimizing web sites ;-)

Kind regards,
Scott

I have the 2gb installed now, and it is really fast, no slow-down. I can do a virus scan, and itunes, and firefox and still have a 1gb left!