Yeah so tomorrow i get paid so i'm going out and buying my new graphics card and 4 gigs of ram (2x2GB sticks).

 

 

 

Just what are some general things to look for and things to avoid when buying RAM?

i was actually looking into buying 2 2gb sticks next weekend.. then i would have 5gb total.

 

 

 

i've been trying to find articles online however nothing seems to help.

 

 

 

the only thing i managed the find out is that 32bit windows systems only recongize 2^32 bytes which comes to just over 4 gig- minus 512mb for kernal i believe. so it seems that no matter how much ram you have in a 32bit system, you will never be able to utilize over 3.5gb

 

 

 

i'm not trying to hijack or anything.

If you can get a memory stick with a heatsink for not so much more than one without it - go for it, but make sure you have space for nearby capacitors, connectors, cpu-cooler etc.

 

Low latency is what you want, the cpu will have to wait fewer ns on a CL5 memory than on a CL7. But then you also have to take in the speed of the memory. Example, on a Conroe platform, DDR2 800 CL5 is about 300mb/s slower than DDR2 1066 CL6. DDR2 800 CL3 is about 150mb/s slower than DDR2 1066 CL6 (Sandra 2007 synthetic benchmark).

 

 

 

At the same time, it depends on what CPU you got. I mean, it would be a waste putting PC2 8500 memories on a cpu that i have for example (E4500) as it wouldn't be able to use it, no matter how much i'd overclock it. But say a Q9650 - it wouldn't be a waste.

 

 

 

A few good brands: Corsair, OCZ, Kingston, Crucial, G.Skill, Mushkin.

 

Also, to utilize 4gb ram you'll need a 64-bit OS (the graphic card will reserve it's memory space first).

 

On a 32bit OS (Win) you could use PAE to utilize more than 3.5-ish, however, for that you need to use a server version instead.

 

 

 

I'm not really good at explaining ram, as i'm not really intrested in how it works (nor do i feel like reading up on it so i know every detail).

I would get Kingston out of that list of good products. I've had a lot of trouble with anything I bought Kingston, so I guess I'm not buying anything from them anymore.

If you just flat out need to know what RAM is compatible with your system then www.crucial.com is definitely your place to go.

 

 

 

Other then that, I know very little about RAM and all those numbers. So in the meantime, enjoy your additional memory.

I would get Kingston out of that list of good products. I've had a lot of trouble with anything I bought Kingston, so I guess I'm not buying anything from them anymore.

 

 

 

4 of the 6 modules i have here are Kingston, and they work wonderfully well.

 

As always, it's what you as a person has experienced. Could be that the batch which the store orderd was bad. Don't know if you've had problems with their support or something aswell.

+1. www.crucial.com is definitely worth looking at if you're unsure, prices are good too :)