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Ram in XP 1 gig vs 2 Improved speed?

#1 audioAl

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Posted 07 December 2009 - 05:57 AM

Morning guys: I recently added a gig of Gskill 3200 series ram to an XP machine. If I add another, will it perform much faster? I heard the computer may ask me for verification of Certification, or some business, is this true? Thanks Alan

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#2 audioAl

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Posted 18 December 2009 - 05:45 AM

As I build and service older machines, I wanted to know if 2 gigs of ram would be an improvement over just 1 gig upgrade? Anyone?

#3 Platypus

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Posted 18 December 2009 - 06:51 AM

Does the system lag due to page file HDD access with the 1GB fitted? If so, having the extra RAM will speed things up noticeably when this would otherwise have occurred. If the system never or almost never needs more than the 1GB, there could still be a modest improvement in general application response due to more space being available for prefetch.

The outright performance would also be influenced by whether the existing memory and the extra memory configurations both permit dual channel operation.

This post has been edited by Platypus: 18 December 2009 - 06:54 AM

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#4 the_patriot11

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Posted 18 December 2009 - 10:13 AM

depends on what your using it for. If your just using the computer to check email and basic stuff, you will probably never notice a difference between 1 gig and 2 gigs of ram with XP. If your gaming, or doing a lot of work like video editing or other memory intensive programs then you may notice an improvement.

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#5 ThunderZ

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Posted 18 December 2009 - 10:59 AM

2 Gig seems to be the sweet spot for XP.

Adding another gig of properly matched RAM sure won`t hurt. As mentioned, under some circumstances it will only help. It can also save wear and tear on the hard drive since the page file will be used less.