will upgrading from 2 to 4gb ram be noticeable?

hello all,
i have a gateway gm5474, amd athlon 64, x2 dual core processor 6000+ 3.0Ghz,32 bit system, running windows 7 home premium

i use the pc for general web surfing, checking emails, storing family photos, videos, and it serves as a home jukebox occasionally...no heavy gaming or other use really

would it be worth it to upgrade from 2 to 4gb...would I notice anything different/better??

thanks in advance

 

Nope, keep your money. In your case you wouldn't notice a thing.

 

DEFINITELY, to be running that proggie with the amount if ram you are is SQEEKING by.....If that thing wants some RAM...(so does mine), GIVE IT TO IT!

from a newbie, I am a techie Geek Thru & thru...at least on MS PC's - ME thru XP3.

 

You would see a little improvement in how fast Win 7 loads and if you have a couple or more programs open at the same time. Pictures and movies wouldn't see much if anything, they rely more on the video card.

And because of how a 32-bit operating system handles memory you'd only end up with 3 to 3.25Gb of the 4 usable. Adding 1 more gig (to give you 3Gb total) would give you the same performance results at half the cost.

Sam

 

All depends on activity 4Gb may make Win 7 look a little nicer and be a "little more responsive" but you probably wouldn't notice any significant differences (visual) with the activities you describe.

Save your money for a later system.

 

one more follow up....

will using a thumb drive for ready boost really do anything in terms of performance? if so, is bigger better....e.g. use the biggest thumb drive possibble?

 

ReadyBoost is just like a faster version of the page file on your computer. The amount of usage you page file gets depends on how much RAM you have and how much of it is in use at any one time, and how much Windows wants to swap, which with free RAM should be nothing. However, windows is crazy, so I wouldn't be surprised if it moves stuff out for the heck of it.

Basically, what is happening with the way data is moved in a computer is ( and this works both ways) processor <--> L1 cache (fastest RAM, based on the processor, normally extremely small (about 512KB if I am correct) <--> L2 Cache (slower than L1 but faster than L3 (if present) and RAM, on processor, generally only about 4-8MB, depending on processor and price) <--> L3 cache (if present, on processor, will be 20-30MB, not very common, slower than L1/2 cache but faster than RAM) <--> RAM <--> Hard drive paging file (slowest)

If you put ReadyBoost into that, it goes: Processor <--> L1 cache <--> L2 cache <--> L3 cache (if present) <--> RAM <--> ReadyBoost Device <--> Hard drive

Of course this assumes that the hard drive is slower than the ReadyBoost Device, which with the implementation of SATA, might not be true in some cases.

Before I can answer your question directly (do you need a bigger ReadyBoost device?) I need to know the following:

1. How much RAM do you have?
2. Do you use RAM intensive applications often?
3. Are your hard drives SATA?
4. Does all your RAM get used up? (to check, press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC to open task manager directly and choose the Performance tab. Then look at the Memory usage chart & graph, run your intensive applications (if you have them) and post back the lowest "free" figure at any point, or the highest usage point on the graph in an approximate percentage if it is easier to tell that.)
5. How big is your current ReadyBoost device?
6. Do you notice a speed difference if you remove the ReadyBoost device from the computer?

 

Thanks Drill Sgt Collins...most of the questions you ask me are above my skill level.
I have an 8gb thumbdrive sitting idle in a desk drawer...I'll just use it for Ready Boost and hope for the best!
Cheers.

 

It should be OK, if you need it. I used one in the past and it did not help at all, but then I did have 3GB of RAM at the time.