RAM amount w/XP on office build.

[bd1886]

Just robbed a stick of 512 Ram from my main use computer to complete a sold build. I will never use less than a gig-o-ram on even an "office" build ever again! Even with XP the difference is just too huge. (Load times to burn times,can't justify the savings.) Sticking with this little build (for the fam.) and was wondering if a jump to 2 gigs would be lineal in improvement? Have never back-stepped on a build before and just amazed at the amount of people who told me that there was very little difference in RAM amounts (512 to a gig) on such a build (when I did the initial build 2 years ago). Gotta get more ram quick! Just needed to vent I guess.

[TwoRails]

At today's RAM prices, it really doesn't make much sense to not get at least 2 GB.

[Alaron]

I would certainly put 1GB in an XP office machine instead of 512MB. That is a noticeable difference, as you mentioned.

However, if you have 1GB in a basic-use machine, adding another GB won't make the same difference.

But as TR mentioned, if you're building a new machine, buy 2GB now because prices are so low.

[Byte 2.0]

I am building a gaming rig for myself this week.

I am going with 4gb of ram, figure I only need 2GB for my win xp plus gaming, however as Alaron states, ram is cheap now, So I went to 4GB of the DDR2 800.

I figure if I don't buy it now, and want that later, it will not be in production, in favor of newer faster and will then be more expensive.

[bd1886]

Well, put a 1gig stick in and back to a fast computer! Have two questions...my old 512 stick is not wanting to fit into the #2 slot! Has anyone seen this issue before? Shouldn't hurt to put it in the #1 slot (where it was) and have the larger module in the #2 slot would it? And my other question...Can you split up a two module kit and have normal performance with both. I realize these are both probably obvious, no problem deals, but have just never dealt or thought about it and can't hurt to ask. Hope everyone has a nice Easter!

[Alaron]

Assuming you have the correct RAM type, the slots are 'keyed' to only fit in one way. Check the little notch in the middle.

It doesn't matter what size stick is in which slot.

You can split a two stick kit, no problem. They are only sold together for matching used in dual channel.

[bd1886]

Alaron, Thanks for the quick response. Good, good. The thing with that RAM is that it is the same that was used in the adjacent slot and it is being inserted correctly. Apparently some small deviation is there in that slot. Going to swap and run with that then. Thank you very much. All good!