After being inspired by JLee, I went and bought Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR 400 PC 3200.

Paid just over $140 including shipping and tax [edit: oh not tax, just shipping. I don't pay tax on online purchases in ID]. They'll be here by Wednesday or so.

I'm excited. I've been getting by with 512 MB for about a year and half (had 1 GB before that, but one of the sticks went bad).

Quick question. I've heard that you're better off with 2 1GB sticks for 2 GB total, than 2 1 GB sticks and 1 512 MB stick for 2.5 GB total due to something about the RAM not running as fast, even though there's more. Is this true? Or should I leave the 512 stick in (it's also PC3200) and have more RAM?

I dunno. Test it and find out!

advice from a man who can't even get a 3d card to work.

ooooo.... where did you get the ram from? thats a pretty decent price.

Oh, and another question. What cool games should I get now that I'll have a fast computer.

I like FPS mainly.

(Dual Core AMD Opteron, and nVidia GeForce 7600 GS)

[Got the RAM from Newegg.com]

HL2
Oblivion
GTR2
HL2
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
HL2



Hey now, it's working just fine.

Just not in the system I want it to work in.

hmm.. I have Oblivion actually. Just haven't gotten around to playing it. I need to get on that.

and what's GTR2?

GTR2 is a most excellent racing simulator. Not arcade-ish in the least...every time I (try to..ha..) play it, I'm reminded of my desperate need for a wheel.

ooh, and I just so happen to have a Logitech Racing Wheel (designed for PS2, but works on a PC :))

http://www.gamershell.com/download_14723.shtml

That would only be true if one of the DIMMs was of a different speed. What you probably heard was some hogwash about 2x1GB in dual channel being faster than 2.5 otherwise.

ok, so you're saying that since they're both PC3200 I'm better off using all 3 sticks?

(That's kind of why I doubted it in the first place, cause they were saying that your RAM is only as fast as its slowest... err member. Which makes sense but the whole time I was thinking "Yeah, but they all run at the same speed")

I should probably clarify this. Two 1 GB DIMMs in dual channel may, theoretically, be faster than 2.5 GB, but the benefits of dual channel are small, and you're better off with more RAM.

Actually in most application you won't see the difference between 2 and 2.5 GB of RAM. I'd go dual if I were you.

No ****. The point of more RAM is so that you can multitask more efficiently. :downs: