Should I upgrade? (256MB-->512MB RAM)

[NTB]

I was looking in the weekend ads the other day and noticed that Office Max has 256MB sticks of Kingston DDR on sale for 59.99 each, and I'm debating whether or not to pick one up. I though maybe everyone here could help me decide.

I use my computer for a little bit of everything, including: Divx encoding using Gknot & Divx 5, image edititng (from my digital camera), and gaming. Regular school work too, of course . It's also not uncommon - especially while I'm waiting for a Divx encode to finish - for me to have several windows open such as word or excel, and explorer window or two, etc.

So, should I get the extra memory, or should I just leave it and use the 60 bucks for something else?

Edit: this is a 2k (mostly for programming) / XP (pretty much everything else) dual boot system, don't know if that should afffect the decision or not.

Nate

 

[Adul]

yes u should XP will love it

 

[sak]

Heck yeah You should

 

[ObiDon]

Do it!

 

[tbates757]

yes

 

[PoolMaster]

I just recently decided to upgrade to 512MB from 256MB on a XP machine. I even put the same kind of post you did as to whether or not it would speed things up as my system was a little slow . I got conflicting statements from everybody so I had to just go for it. I can happily say that it speeded things up VERY much. Plus I was having problems with a couple of games locking up and it took care of that too . Anyways my answer is heck yea . I got the same kind of deal at my local Office Max.

 

[bgeh]

yes, you should

 

[Siddhartha]

Originally posted by: NTB
I was looking in the weekend ads the other day and noticed that Office Max has 256MB sticks of Kingston DDR on sale for 59.99 each, and I'm debating whether or not to pick one up. I though maybe everyone here could help me decide.

I use my computer for a little bit of everything, including: Divx encoding using Gknot & Divx 5, image edititng (from my digital camera), and gaming. Regular school work too, of course . It's also not uncommon - especially while I'm waiting for a Divx encode to finish - for me to have several windows open such as word or excel, and explorer window or two, etc.

So, should I get the extra memory, or should I just leave it and use the 60 bucks for something else?

Edit: this is a 2k (mostly for programming) / XP (pretty much everything else) dual boot system, don't know if that should afffect the decision or not.

Nate

Yes, get the extra RAM. If your system develops problems after you install the RAM you know what to do.

 

[hdeck]

go for it. i wish i had the extra cash laying around to upgrade my comp to 512

 

[Lint21]

I think moving to 512 is a wise move. Heck, I have 512 and I wish I could afford 1GB... there are plenty of times when I use all 512MB. One way to see if you actually need it would be to run a program while you're doing your usual stuff. I use Samurize, but you could just use the performance tab in task manager, or motherboard monitor with coolmon, or something similar. If you see your ram getting filled up, bust out and get that other stick

 

[Anubis]

yes you will ntice and love teh difference

 

[cutty]

It's good to have 512MB RAM of course, however the price is not so great. I got my 256MB Kingston PC2100 at bestbuy when it's $50-$15.

 

[BFG10K]

You should definitely upgrade. 512 MB is pretty much the minimum if you want your system to work well in all conditions.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

I noticed a big difference going from 256->512 in WinXP.

 

[Talon02]

I won't run XP with anything blow 384mb

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: cutty
It's good to have 512MB RAM of course, however the price is not so great. I got my 256MB Kingston PC2100 at bestbuy when it's $50-$15.

I know. That price was actually after $20 instant rebate and before $20 MIR, but I have yet to ever actually recieve a rebate that I've sent in for, so I don't count them most of the time.

Nate

 

[Ionizer86]

I'm probably the odd one out, but I noticed only a minimal gain from 256 to 512. I've taken my PCs and moved one from 128 to 256 (long ago), and the gain was fabulous. Then when I took it to 384, the gain was pretty small. When I took this box from 256 to 512, there really wasn't a big gain. (but then again, my system is clean, and I boot into XP using about 70mb ram)
<--using 161mb of 512 right now. It's really up to you to go for it or not.

Well, at least my ram was cheap (I got my 2nd PC2100 256mb stick when it was $40)

 

[boyRacer]

It really depends on how you use your computer... and you should be watching your pagefile to find out. But generally... 512MB shouldn't hurt.

 

[Davegod]

I've tried my comp after taking out one 256mb stick (PC2100), about 10mins later I put it right back, really noticed the difference, especially but not just in gaming. Got a 3rd 256mb stick (i'm now at 768mb) and didnt get anything like the same improvement, hardly notice it tbh except in loading maps in games.

512mb? Definately.

 

[NTB]

Alright, you convinced me . Went out and bought another 256MB as soon as the store opened this morning haven't noticed a whole lot of difference so far, but then I haven't tried XP yet. I did notice one thing though; the extra memory helps considerably in one of the Divx programs I use. I encode a lot of anime, and the easiest - albeit slow - way to do it is with Fair Use. Talk about a memory hog...I'm runing FU (no offense meant ), IE, and the taskmanager, along with AOL-IM & getright right now, and according to the task manager memory usage is around 242MB mark. Something between 110~115 of that goes strictly to FU. From the estimates it's giving me though, the extra workspace has cut encoding times considerably.

Nate