Should I feed a Quad 6600 with 8 gigs of ram?

G

GSRwBOOST

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 14, 2001
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488
It's cheap these days and I hate having to buy more of anything later... my gf will ignore a computer upgrade if she doesnt know how much it costs but later down the road in say 6 months... she wont understand upgrading again.


Is 8 gigs (4 x2gig sticks) plenty for Windows Vista and a Quad core cpu?


I'm trying to run vista now on a p4 2.4 with a gig and it's just not cutting the mustard.
 
I think it might be over doing it but that just my opinion. What will you be using the computer for?
 
I would stay get 4 gigs and be done with it. The 32 bit version will only see 3 gigs or so, 64bit should see all 4. Don't really see why you would need more for a while unless you really are doing something that needs it(and if you are running a gig now you don't)
 
if you dont care about money, go for it; and get 64bit OS
if you care somewhat about money, get 4GB and get 64bit OS
if you're pretty tight on money, get 2GB

i personally dont think i'll use more than 4GB for at least another year or more. by then, i'd probably upgraded to something better anyway.
 
Making the o/s run smooth and fast is the main concern...

Games on occasion (i have a 360 as my main machine for gameing)
Occasional photoshop stuff with pictures
Some website design for work on occasion
Surfing the web

general stuff, nothing too crazy.


I don't mind buying 8 gigs of ram if it will let the machine run smooth and fast. I just dont want to buy only 4 gigs and then later have to upgrade.

A small waste now might not be a waste down the road when something takes advantage of it... at least thats what I tell myself.

It's been probably 4 years since i upgraded last on my desktop if that helps.
 
Yeah I would just save your money, by the time you need to get more RAM with that usage style, you'll have to go DDR3.

...actually..I would suggest just getting 2GB...but that's just me.
 
FanZ said:
if you dont care about money, go for it; and get 64bit OS
if you care somewhat about money, get 4GB and get 64bit OS
if you're pretty tight on money, get 2GB

i personally dont think i'll use more than 4GB for at least another year or more. by then, i'd probably upgraded to something better anyway.
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I can get the 64bit version from work, so thats not a problem.

i'll have to decide in the next week or so and then buy.

thanks
 
gwai lo said:
Yeah I would just save your money, by the time you need to get more RAM with that usage style, you'll have to go DDR3.

...actually..I would suggest just getting 2GB...but that's just me.
Click to expand...

If he is going to run the 64 bit version I would go with 4 gigs becuase it is so cheap right now.

2 gigs would prob be fine though.
 
swatbat said:
If he is going to run the 64 bit version I would go with 4 gigs becuase it is so cheap right now.

2 gigs would prob be fine though.
Click to expand...
I guess it depends on how you'd value your money, I'm just a cheapskate :p

..and I'm a heavy power user than him ( firefox, matlab, word, excel, blah blah running while i world in conflict ) and my 2gb are fine :D
 
I'll be getting 8GB shortly, hopefully using some holiday gift money. I'd much rather max out all of my current hardware.

However, Vista x64 doesn't even work well on 4GB, let alone 8. Even with KB929777 installed, I still get random BSOD's at an idle desktop. Cutting back to 2GB has caused no problems, with over a week of uptime.
 
i don't think an extra 4 gigs of ram is gonna make vista run too much smoother. Stay with 4 gigs.
 
GSRwBOOST said:
Making the o/s run smooth and fast is the main concern...

Games on occasion (i have a 360 as my main machine for gameing)
Occasional photoshop stuff with pictures
Some website design for work on occasion
Surfing the web

general stuff, nothing too crazy.


I don't mind buying 8 gigs of ram if it will let the machine run smooth and fast. I just dont want to buy only 4 gigs and then later have to upgrade.

A small waste now might not be a waste down the road when something takes advantage of it... at least thats what I tell myself.

It's been probably 4 years since i upgraded last on my desktop if that helps.
Click to expand...

It should actually run fine on 2gb. But if I had the money, I'd go with 4gb, to be safe. I can't see general games and photoshop taking up more than 4gb, let alone 3..
 
I've been running 8gb for a long time now, you would be insane not to go for 4-8gb's in todays market... memory prices are insane.
 
Ockie said:
I've been running 8gb for a long time now, you would be insane not to go for 4-8gb's in todays market... memory prices are insane.
Click to expand...

but if you really don't need it... I'd rather spend the extra $100 on a nice set of headphones.
 
4gb should be plenty for your stated uses. dont even really need the 64bit OS imo, just see how the 3.2gb you can use with 32bit handles, and if you need more then maybe switch to 64bit. seems like running 64bit apps might actually negate alot of the extra 800megs you pick up due to the larger memory footprint of 64bit apps anyway
 
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