Increasing Ram

[tguarino]

Hi all...

I currently own a system with the ASUS P5E motherboard (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_775/P5E/) and 2 sticks of

G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)

I am about to load 64bit Win7 on the machine, and wanted to upgrade my memory a bit to increase the performance of the machine.

I have 2 mem slots still open, and was curious if I can put 2x4gb in the other two slots to get me to 12gb, or if I should just go for 2x2gb and order another exact duplicate. Will it be worth going to 12gb or should 8gb do fine. Mostly do some gaming, internet cruising, some home movie editing stuff. Etc...

Just for summary sake, I am upgrading my PC.

So far I have upgraded:

core2duo to core2quad.

Upgrade from g router to n (1pc, 3 laptops, tivo, wii, ipod)

I am about to upgrade:

SSHD 65gb

Windows 7 64bit

Memory?

This is why I am asking now, my machine was getting bogged down quite a bit, but didnt want to spend the money for a new one. So got the CPU used and now curious about if I should get more ram before installing windows7. Since I have an OEM version of windows7, I am unsure if I can increase ram without violating the "new system" condition. Anyone know for sure?

Thanks for the help guys, this place answers tons of questions, normally I can search and find answers, but this is pretty specific to my system, so want to make sure I get it right

 

[tisue001]

Not sure about violating the "new system" condition bit; but as far as adding RAM 2x2gb vs 2x4gb, I would suggest getting the exact same ram you currently have and adding two more sticks of it. I'm pretty sure it's best to keep it consistent for both the capacity and speed etc. for all your ram sticks. That way you should have not problem. 8gb total will be fine for your use it seems. I don't think you'd notice a difference between 8gb and 12gb anyway, unless you do hardware-intense photo or video editing. Normal editing should be fine with 8gb.

Actually, it depends on what version of Windows 7 you are planning on upgrading to (Home/Professional/Ultimate?).

Check out 'Physical Memory Limits: Windows 7' : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7

On 64-bit systems, Windows 7 Home Basic will only recognize up to 8gb. Windows 7 Home Premium will recognize up to 16gb.

Hope that helps.

 

[tguarino]

Thanks, didnt realize the windows7 limits, thanks.

I am planning on installing Pro, so it looks like I am good on that.

I sent an email to G Skill as well, since I am reading that in order to get to 1066, I was supposed to overclock it, didnt realize that either

Thanks for the response, I think I will order the new ram, and consider myself done with the upgrade.

 

[AM2A]

I think by "new system" condition you are asking if it would violate the oem license. No, adding more memory should not be a problem. If for some odd reason it does invalidate your copy, call Microsoft and they should fix it.