My set up is an Intel e2180 dual core processor, gigabyte ga-p35-ds3l motherboard, 7800 gtx gfx card, and 2GB G.skill ddr2 800 mhz memory. I have vista ultimate. I just put everything together and it works great right now, but the g.skill memory is only 45 bucks from Newegg so I am considering 2 more gigs. right now, my windows vista experience rating is held back by my ram...everything is well over 5 except the memory is 4.8 (although I guess these numbers don't really matter). do you guys think that 2 more gigs of RAM would be worth buying since they are so cheap?

More RAM is always good, especially if you want to do graphics or to play games; it also improves the performance of office suites. If you are not unhappy with the current performance, then getting additional RAM is up to you.
Cheers,
John

hi,, vista 32bit only recognises 3gig of ram,,, 64it can take 4gig and up,,,, if you have 32bit it could be a waste of money,,, good luck.

IME most newer 32 bit systems will run just fine with 4gB of RAM - but they'll only recognize around 3.26 gB of the RAM.
That being said, it seemed to improve performance on my systems - and it did increase the Vista score.

Also, I noted no significant performance increase using 4 gB between 32 bit and 64 bit OS's

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. I went ahead and ordered it from newegg...I couldn't pass up good ram for 45 bucks (it has $40 off instantly right now). Hope it makes an improvement! I do have 64 bit by the way.

An interesting article on the RAM thing between 32 and 64 bit systems: http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/15/vista_workshop/

Thanks for the link, that was informative but it left me with a few questions. Am I going to need to adjust a lot of settings like they show you to take advantage of the 4 gigs of ram or is that only to take advantage of the full 8 gigs of ram?

Well, it all depends on your motherboard and how it's setup to handle that much memory. Since it's a fairly new chipset, I wouldn't expect problems - but that's just a guess on my part.

The surest way to find it is to try it and see what happens. I've got a Core2Duo and an Intel 975x chipset that's running fine with 4 gB of RAM. And sitting on my desk is 8 gB just waiting to be installed - so we'll see what happens when I put it in!

Well, the 8gb went in fine, and the system is working great - but Windows says that I don't have a processor or any memory

CPU-Z detects it all, so I'm not worried - but I'll need a bit of work to figger it out.

Did you get yours figured out usasma?

I got my other 2 gigs in for a total of 4 gigs and I notic the office suite opening up faster as well as everything just seeming a little quicker so I am pleased. It is weird though, the new memory didn't change the vista experience score for Ram calculations per second. I would have thought that would have gone up. Oh well, I would rather have my system run good than get a good score.

I'm still fussing with mine (but it may give me an excuse to buy a new mobo and processor!

My opinion is that the benchmark/scores really don't mean a heck of a lot in the real world. What counts to me is how it feels - does it feel faster or peppier? If so, then that's good enough for me.

Benchmarking can be used to document issues - but I prefer not to get wrapped up in the numbers myself.