Buy Now or Wait?

[FastChapter]

I dunno, right now it's at 46% with Firefox and MSN open. Maybe I've got crazy viruses, XD

Edit: I looked at my copy of Window's system requirements, it says it recommends 1Gb. So... seems I'm using too much RAM somewhere.

Time to look through my system processes,

Edit 2: Here's what I have for programs running and Windows processes. I don't suppose anything looks a bit leery, out of the ordinary?

Programs
Windows Processes

[aj]

I dunno, right now it's at 46% with Firefox and MSN open. Maybe I've got crazy viruses, XD

Edit: I looked at my copy of Window's system requirements, it says it recommends 1Gb. So... seems I'm using too much RAM somewhere.

Time to look through my system processes,

Edit 2: Here's what I have for programs running and Windows processes. I don't suppose anything looks a bit leery, out of the ordinary?

Programs
Windows Processes

Nothing looks out of the ordinary... though the list of programs looks somewhat cut off.

And there are some programs that you can probably safely kill to get some memory back... the Rio program, Java's updater and HP's AIO software jump out at me.

While it's going somewhat off topic, what is your startup time like? 60 seconds? 90? Approximations are fine.

[FastChapter]

Startup takes about 50 seconds. Always less than a minute since I built it.

Oh, the list does cut off a few programs that take up about 0.0001% of the RAM and aren't ever actively running. Minor stuff that I know isn't important.

[RobbieThe1st]

What about This, or, if you want 1066... This
It has better reviews, a better heatpipe-based heatsink(Heatpipes are the best type of air cooling money can buy from personal experience, and its cheaper also!


-RobbieThe1st

[FastChapter]

I've never heard of heat pipes until I bought my motherboard, which has copper tubing and spiral-razor-thingies all over the damn thing.

But what about timing with those chips? They're not the same as my current RAM. Could that cause complications or boot failures?

[aj]

Startup takes about 50 seconds. Always less than a minute since I built it.

Oh, the list does cut off a few programs that take up about 0.0001% of the RAM and aren't ever actively running. Minor stuff that I know isn't important.

I'd say closer to 0.4% ( ), but, yep, doesn't make that much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. Strange that Vista would be taking up so much RAM though. Would be interesting to see if it continues to use 30%-40% of your RAM after you upgrade, given that it seems to be using ~30% regardless of how much RAM you have.

I've never heard of heat pipes until I bought my motherboard, which has copper tubing and spiral-razor-thingies all over the damn thing.

But what about timing with those chips? They're not the same as my current RAM. Could that cause complications or boot failures?

From what I remember (~4 years ago, when DDR ram was 'in' and DDR2 unheard of, so YMMV), the timing would default to the lowest common denominator - i.e. whatever the fastest speed ALL the chips support.

Technically there shouldn't be complications, given that OCZ is a known good and reliable brand, but every RAM chip is different and may be just a little bit off, or something's off with the mobo that makes the RAM screw up, etc.

Yes, I've had bad experiences with RAM before, but that was 2x 512 Crucial RAM (their cheap line too) on a MSI P4 mobo. I think it was the mobo that was the problem. But it works as long as I don't mess with it.

You can always try it, then return it if it doesn't work, right? (<- because I don't know newegg's policies)

[avwolf]

The only time you really need to care about trying to match the RAM is when you're dual channelling it. Otherwise, like aj said, it'll run itself down to the lowest common set of timings and speed. You do want to make sure that you match the type of RAM (DDR2 without ECC is going to be my guess), because that will cause you serious grief. I don't think you'll have trouble with that though.

I do have 4GB of RAM at work that, inexplicably, causes our webserver to kernel panic, crash, and die, but it passes tests and seems to work find for limited amounts of time (effectively, the RAM works great...until something pages into or out of swap). I'm guessing that it's not ECC RAM and the BIOS was expecting ECC, but I've been too busy with other things to do a full investigation yet.

[FastChapter]

You're going to have to explain what "ECC" is. I know all about DDR, DDR2, DDR3, but this ECC is a new one.

[avwolf]

ECC RAM has built-in error correction. It's meant for use on servers, where the ECC circuitry's latency is easily acceptable in exchange for the additional reliability. It is (or at least was) notably more expensive than non-ECC RAM. And it's released in every RAM family since simple DRAM through DDR2 anyway (not sure how much market penetration DDR3 system RAM has yet). Don't worry too much about it -- ECC RAM will have that noted in its specs, since that's sort of important.

[FastChapter]

Well would you look at that, it pays to wait!

My folks decided that buying some RAM as part of my graduation gift would be a nice thought, Plugged it in today, instant recognization, no boot errors, runs wonderfully. Grand Theft Auto IV now runs at High Rendering, High Textures, and 60/100 on draw distance and detail, It's not perfect, but the remaining shortcomings fall on my dual core processor now. I won't be replacing that any time soon, either. Right now, GTA looks [censored] glorious compared to what it was, and I'm easy to please.

Of course, that didn't stop me from cranking all settings to MAX when I first installed the memory, thereby crashing GTA almost 5 minutes in, 8D