Upgarde ram or cpu? Is it worth it?

[Ilikepiedoyou]

I currently have an e6300 over clocked to 2.45 Ghz. If I move to a Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz, will I notice a huge improvement in performance?

Also I only have only 2 GBs of memory, would moving up to 4 make a noticeable difference? I am currently running windows XP sp2, and I was told that xp can only "recognize" 3 GBS of memory, and therefore upgrading is useless. Is this true?

 

[bamacre]

32bit Windows, yes, can only recognize roughly 3.25GB of memory. The highest amount I have seen is 3.5GB.

As for the cpu upgrade, you'll most likley only see a difference if you are running a multi-threaded application, or doing some very heavy multi-tasking.

 

[Slugbait]

For the apps you use on a Quadro system, yes...you will see a VERY significant perf increase by going quad. You could add another gig of RAM if you want, but the quad core will be a far better upgrade.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: Ilikepiedoyou
will I notice a huge improvement in performance?

nope

 

[Snooper]

Roguestar got it right. You will not see a huge improvement with either upgrade. I would have to add that the CPU would PROBABLY give you more of an upgrade than the memory would unless you run apps that use a huge amount of memory AND are written to support more than 2 GB of RAM.

 

[Slugbait]

Originally posted by: Snooper
Roguestar got it right. You will not see a huge improvement with either upgrade. I would have to add that the CPU would PROBABLY give you more of an upgrade than the memory would...

Re-check his video card. Apps for his system are usually written with multi-threading as a default design. A couple more cores would likely be fully utilized.