On Adding more RAM and getting Vista 64bit

[Black Panther]

I've been suffering through the "upgrade/spend more money on my rig" bug lately.

Been thinking about a possible CPU upgrade but having my E4300 stable at 3.0Ghz with 2.0Gb of RAM, 8800GT 512MB and all the rest, I've decided that I won't be seriously upgrading until I get a good mobo which supports SLi and possibly DDR3, and CPU and GPU to match, even if that could be a year from now.

So... money is jumping in my pocket . I get satisfactory performance, I think what I currently lack is DX10 for gaming, which means Vista.

And while on the track of getting Vista.... I reason it out that it'd be worth to get Vista x64 and add another 2GB of RAM.

The motherboard in my system specs is a P5B.

I was thinking of adding the following:

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
I have 4 slots for RAM and am currently running mine (see system specs) at 833Mhz 1.9V 5-5-5-15, so I think I'd be safe to assume I can also run the above together also in dual channel without necessitating me to reduce my overclock below 3.0Ghz?

I am currently using XP Pro 32 bit, so I was thinking to upgrade to Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM.

That way I'd be getting DX10 for gaming and having 4GB of RAM recognised due to having a x64 bit OS.

The total package would cost me USD190 including shipping and all.

I know there is much better and faster ram on the market but I plan to keep using the 2x1Gb already in my system specs, so anything higher than 800Mhz would be overkill.

But what is your opinion? Is it a good decision to spend the above amount on my rig? And more importantly, is the RAM I linked to above compatible to run in dual channel together with the ones I have so as to fill all 4 slots?

Thanks!

[freaksavior]

if you want to upgrade then yes, i think its a good upgrade. 4gb of ram is sometimes over kill but sometimes it helps in gaming and normal tasking.

You also could upgrade your proc to a e8400, when i went from my e4300 @ 3.4 to my Q6600 i didnt see any speed boost in startup or tasking, gaming, a little and video encoding yes for sure. thats why i switched back to dual. so your good for your proc also imo (unless you do encoding then opt for the e8400)

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

get a 2 + 2 kit

[Black Panther]

Originally Posted by freaksavior

so your good for your proc also imo (unless you do encoding then opt for the e8400)

Yeah although I like getting high benchmark scores I only game (high graphics though) and browse the net on my rig so probably I am not in dire need of a quad right now...

[I.R.A]_FBi --- I thought of that but apparently from OcUK the 2x2GB kits are much more expensive. Plus that having that together with my 2x1GB ram totalling 6GB Ram would be overkill since I'm sure I'd be changing this pc within a year or so maximum?

What I wanted to know is whether I can be sure that my current RAM will work with the one I plan to buy?
Heck off-hand I'm sure I will but I also play around a bit with older pc's and recently bought a 256MB 168pin sdram module thinking it would be working with an identical 512MB 168pin sdram module but apparently there was stuff related to mobo FSB which prevented windows from loading at least that is what I think the problem had been in this thread ... and well I didn't want to just get another 2GB + vista 64 bit and finding that my 2GB don't get recognised and I'd have further to that bought a 64 bit OS for nothing......