I'm getting myself a new PC soon, but I was wondering which of the following is the best RAM to put in? The second one is £50 more expensive and I don't know if the extra speed warrants that boost in price. I'll be using the PC for some top-end games, but nothing amazing.

 

 

 

4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM - (2x 2GB)

 

8192MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM - (4 x 2GB)

I'm getting myself a new PC soon, but I was wondering which of the following is the best RAM to put in? The second one is £50 more expensive and I don't know if the extra speed warrants that boost in price. I'll be using the PC for some top-end games, but nothing amazing.

 

 

 

4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM - (2x 2GB)

 

8192MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM - (4 x 2GB)

 

If your willing to spend the extra $50 just go with the 8GB.

well, since ur computer will have 4 RAM slots, you can always add the extra 4gb later. For current games I would imagine that 4gb is enough, but if you want to be prepared for future software then maybe consider the 8gb? I dont run any high end games tho, so I'm not all too familiar with their system requirements.

Get 4gb (and a 64bit OS!).

 

If you are a heavy user of Corel or Photoshop, then 8gb.

At the moment, you won't notice much difference between 4GB and 8GB when gaming. In a couple of years the extra 4GB may be useful but not at the moment. I'd suggest going with 4GB now (and a 64 bit OS so you can use all of it) and then you can always add an extra 4GB later.

The '800' part is the data transfers per second. In this case, 800 million. Spending a bit more and purchasing a DDR2-1066 stick (1066 million, I.E. 1 billion+ per second) will also increase your RAM effectiveness.

I'd jump at the chance to double the RAM for just 50 pounds. But then, I use my computer for a lot of 3D.

Yeah it's not a terrible price. May as well.

I doubled the ram on my laptop for $100, and it was worth every cent. Even if you aren't a hardcore photoshop user you will still notice a difference, especially when windows loads up.

Remember obviously that RAM is only good up to a point, it's overkill to load your mobo with 32GB RAM when your pc will only ever need 5-6GB of it maximum.

instead of getting 8gb, just get the 4gb but get some that is faster.

 

also make sure your using a 64bit OS as stated above several times. if you go 4gb you will only lose about 700-800mb of ram, but if you go 8gb you will not be able to use 4.7-4.8gb. so basically if you have a 32 bit OS, dont bother getting 8gb because it will have NO benefit what so ever. its best to go 64 though

^ No way man, 8GB of DDR2 is far faster than 4GB DDR3 + 4GB swap.

^ No way man, 8GB of DDR2 is far faster than 4GB DDR3 + 4GB swap.

 

But it sounds like overkill, since it doesn't sound like the OP is doing much in the way of "amazing." I don't think he'll use all of the memory he's buying if he goes with 8GB.

^ No way man, 8GB of DDR2 is far faster than 4GB DDR3 + 4GB swap.

 

true, but if your only using the computer for things that will never require anymore than 3 or 4gb, its better to just have 4gb of faster ram.

^ No way man, 8GB of DDR2 is far faster than 4GB DDR3 + 4GB swap.

 

true, but if your only using the computer for things that will never require anymore than 3 or 4gb, its better to just have 4gb of faster ram.

 

 

 

Getting faster ram than DDR2 800 (or 1066 now a days) is usually a lot more expensive and you don't notice a performance increase over slower ram. Especially on Intel boards because the fsb is usually bottlenecking the ram.

 

 

 

My suggestion is DDR2 800 or 1066 (if your motherboard supports it) of 4GB of ram. You can always upgrade later to 8GB of ram and it will be even cheaper then.

Listen.

 

 

 

Do NOT get 8GB of say 6-6-6-18 DDR2 800MHz. Now that is slow.

 

 

 

The timings (6-6-6-18), the higher the slower, so 2-2-2-12 would be sweet, DDR2 800MHz :D

 

 

 

I'm getting: http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs. ... 25664AR80A

 

Far out you Americans are lucky, this gonna cost a fortune to import :l

^ No way man, 8GB of DDR2 is far faster than 4GB DDR3 + 4GB swap.

 

true, but if your only using the computer for things that will never require anymore than 3 or 4gb, its better to just have 4gb of faster ram.

 

...And get screwed later when you find out that technology actually advances and suddenly you need every kilobyte. No thank you.

^ No way man, 8GB of DDR2 is far faster than 4GB DDR3 + 4GB swap.

 

true, but if your only using the computer for things that will never require anymore than 3 or 4gb, its better to just have 4gb of faster ram.

 

...And get screwed later when you find out that technology actually advances and suddenly you need every kilobyte. No thank you.

 

But if he buy 2x2GB, then there's room for more. And, once we reach the point where 8GB is as common or needed at 2GB, I'm sure it would be cheaper. :?

RAM is an important - or more important than -clock speed. Head over to somewhere like dealram.com and buy at least another 256 MB (I'd go for 512). If you're only doing basic stuff, the extra 256 will be enough. If you're using any more powerful applications (Photoshop, even iMovie), then you'll want the extra 512.