Oh what a difference 2GB makes...

[Jand3rson]

I just got 4GB of PC 5300 DDR II 667MHz ram at Fry's for $70 ($60) after rebate, upgrading my Dell Inspiron 1721 from 2GB to 4GB. Let's just say that even though it really wasn't that slow before, Vista has suddenly gotten quite a bit faster...

These are just a couple of rough timing benchmarks I did with 2GB of ram, then with 4GB. These are after a fresh restart, and opening the program/utility once, then timing the second and third starts.

With 2GB:
Adobe Photoshop CS: 9.5 seconds
Mozilla Firefox: 3.3 seconds
Winamp: 5.0 seconds
Trillian Pro: 7.0 seconds
My Computer - Properties: 2.5 seconds
Control Panel: 5.5 seconds
Windows Media Player: 4.0 seconds
Windows Media Center: 11.5 seconds
Microsoft Word 2007: 7.0 seconds

With 4GB:
Adobe Photoshop CS: 8.0 seconds
Mozilla Firefox: 2.0 seconds
Winamp: 3.0 seconds
Trillian Pro: 5.0 seconds
My Computer - Properties: 1.0 seconds
Control Panel: 3.5 seconds
Windows Media Player: 2.0 seconds
Windows Media Center: 7.0 seconds
Microsoft Word 2007: 5.5 seconds

These may not be huge differences, but they're noticeable, mainly Photoshop, Media Center and opening different utilities and files in Windows. And webpages, even those loaded with graphics and pics, are screaming fast. That's one of the biggest noticeable differences, for sure.

[Jon325i]

In short, mo' ram is mo' betta ;-)

Jon

[sumyungguy]

nice..

You may know about this..
All the sites (sony, new egg, tiger direct, pny) that sell ram say my comp (sony vaio vgc-rb34g, XP SP2, 3.20ghz pentium 4 w/HT) can have up to 2gb, but Intels site says my mother bored/processor can handle 4. Who's info should I go with?

[AndrewBird]

Is the mobo made by Intel (I'm assuming)? If so, go with them.

[Jand3rson]

Definitely follow the mobo manufacturer's specs. Just be SURE you are looking at the correct model number. One digit/letter differences in mobo model numbers can mean HUGE differences.

[Jean]

it takes less time on xp pro for me with less ram to open winamp, why does it take so long in vista ?

Winamp: less than a second.
Control panel: just over a second

NM, this must be a on a laptop, must be a slower hhd .

[Jand3rson]

it takes less time on xp pro for me with less ram to open winamp, why does it take so long in vista ?

Winamp: less than a second.
Control panel: just over a second

NM, this must be a on a laptop, must be a slower hhd .

5400 RPM 160 GB SATA drive. Also, what version of Winamp, what skin are you running (if any), and how long is your playlist?

Also, with programs like Winamp, I open them once and leave them open. I only restart my comp every few days to a week. But I just timed both of those 2 things again, Control Panel is down to 1.5 seconds, Winamp is 2.5 seconds, MS word is 4.0 seconds. I literally just installed this ram about an hour ago, so I'm sure as Windows goes through the motions, things like prefetch and other system utilites will realize they have a lot more memory to work with, and start to react accordingly, going faster and faster.

[Jean]

winamp 5.3, small playlist with less than 10 items, basic skin.

get a flash hdd ;)

[RudeBoy37]

Nice... Really makes me want to upgrade mine. I'm running Vista on 512 :(

Sometimes, ok a lot of times, I want to shoot my self in the head waiting for things to happen... Makes me miss my old ibook. It had 256 and was soo much faster at running multiple windows when I had OS 10.4, which is supposed to slow it down too.

[Jand3rson]

winamp 5.3, small playlist with less than 10 items, basic skin.

get a flash hdd ;)

Winamp V5.5, playlist is just under 2000 songs, WMP 11 style skin.

I'm actually probably going to get a new HD soon, another 160 GB, but this one a 7200 PRM or higher (my laptop has room for 2 HD's), and relegate the current HD to be my videos/pics/music/files drive. Then if the RIAA or Chris Hansen ever decide to show up, the second HD goes in the crawlspace. :D

Nice... Really makes me want to upgrade mine. I'm running Vista on 512

Holy shit. Isn't the minimum requirement for Vista 1GB? Damn man, you need to just go back to XP, that will make your life a lot less stressful!

[sumyungguy]

Thanks guys.. My spec sheet says is that its an Intel 915g chipset. as you can see in the two links its different info. And Crucial's site says "Each memory slot can hold DDR PC3200 with a maximum of 1GB per slot.* (I have 4 slots)

*Not to exceed manufacturer supported memory." (2gb)

Quite the predicament...

[Jean]

It's not uncommon for a pc/motherboard manufacture to have different specs on the mainboard even though a chipset can support more etc...

I would go with what the mainboard says, not the chipset , as it depends on how the mainboard manufacturer implements it during the build.

[sumyungguy]

I C I C.... Looking to get a MacBookPro this year or or overhaul the system I have now.. Id like to get more than 4gb ram though.. Doesn't really matter what OS I use cause I only use the Adobe creative suite and FireFox..

[TwoJ's]

get a flash hdd ;)

You make no sense here.

[Jean]

You make no sense here.

Flash memory based hard drives, you know the ones w/o any moving parts.... google is your friend.

set one up as quick boot drive, if you remember the days of dos and ramdrive and it's benefits then you'll understand.