Is it worth it for me to upgrade ram?

[john9999]

Hi, im having problems to play some recent games. The problem is always the same: When I launch the game, it stutterts a lot, then it crashes. It seems to me that it's obvious the problem is the computer is running out of ram. Right now I only have 2GB of ram, and like half of it is already used in Windows 7, Skype, Firefox + its pluggins etc... so when I launch a modern game, you can guess what happens.
Surprisingly some games like Formula 1 2010 play really smooth if I adjust a bit the graphics but i can almost play it on high graphics, but other games like Gmod, 7 days to die, Starforge.. I guess they are more ram demanding so the crash happens.

The rest of my computer is:

CPU: Q6600
MOBO: GA X38-DQ6 (supports 1200/1066/800/667 mhz DDR2 8GB in total)
GPU: MSI R7850
PSU: Enermax 720W

As you can see the CPU and MOBO are old, but the GPU and the PSU are decent. If I had enough money, I would upgrade CPU, MOBO and get DDR3 ram but I dont, so my question is:

Is it worth it that I buy more ram now considering it's DDR2 and all? Will I notice a big diference and be able to play games without crashing even if I have to decrease resolution and what not, or the same will happen? Thats my fear.
My other option is saving money to do the full upgrade buy I have no idea when I will be able to have the money and it sucks not being able to play any game until then. Like I said I dont care to play them at full GFX, I just dont want them to crash.

My current ram is Geil BlackDragon 800 4-4-4-12 I think, they are 1GB stick each.
I have thought about buying 2 sticks of 2GB each of G.Skill 800 5-5-5-15, its like 56€ in ebay, so I would have 6GB in total. Will I notice a diference? Im also worried about imcompatibility with my current ram. How do I have to place the sticks?
Like I said I just would be able to resist as long possible to save money and get an even better PC for less money in the future (because things always go cheaper in the future)

Please help, thanks

 

[Supahos]

First question to ask is do you have a 32 or 64 bit OS? if its 32 bit then just either buy 2 more 1gb sticks, or 2x2gb sticks as a 32 bit OS only supports 4gb of memory. I think upgrading to 4gb of ram isn't really expensive and I would probably consider doing that. If you have a 64 bit OS you can add the 2x2gb sticks to the old ones most likely but you'll want 800 MHz 4-4-4-12 memory if you can find it its best not to mix timings. You can always downclock the current stuff but why slow your computer down?

 

[Tradesman1]

First question to ask is do you have a 32 or 64 bit OS? if its 32 bit then just either buy 2 more 1gb sticks, or 2x2gb sticks as a 32 bit OS only supports 4gb of memory. I think upgrading to 4gb of ram isn't really expensive and I would probably consider doing that. If you have a 64 bit OS you can add the 2x2gb sticks to the old ones most likely but you'll want 800 MHz 4-4-4-12 memory if you can find it its best not to mix timings. You can always downclock the current stuff but why slow your computer down?

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+1

 

[john9999]

First question to ask is do you have a 32 or 64 bit OS? if its 32 bit then just either buy 2 more 1gb sticks, or 2x2gb sticks as a 32 bit OS only supports 4gb of memory. I think upgrading to 4gb of ram isn't really expensive and I would probably consider doing that. If you have a 64 bit OS you can add the 2x2gb sticks to the old ones most likely but you'll want 800 MHz 4-4-4-12 memory if you can find it its best not to mix timings. You can always downclock the current stuff but why slow your computer down?

Win 32 bits so I will have 4gb tops then.. is it worth it?

 

[Supahos]

yeah I would probably get another 1x1gb kit and add it to it, shouldn't be too expensive. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231087 is the only kit listed on newegg, should do what you wan it to do and cost ya $40

this of course assumes you have 4 ram slots... if you only have 2 (different versions of that board don't know how many you have for sure)


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231148 is $65 and same specs, should work well for you. depending on your budget I might would consider the second option anyway to ensure they work together.

 

[john9999]

Ok so i've just read my mobo and cpu are compatible with Win 64?
Mobo: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2665#ov
If you look on the drivers, there are 64 bit drivers
I've heard the Q6600 G0 is also 64 compatible

In this case, I would be able to upgrade to Win 64 and get 4 gigs of ram so I would have 6 gb of ram (I dont have enough money to get 8)

I am right?

 

[Supahos]

Yes you are right, but if you're going to have to actually pay to upgrade windows to 64 bit (IE buy a whole new copy) it wouldnt' be worth the upgrade anymore. I'm not sure how much it will run you to upgrade, if its cheap enough I guess that is a viable option if its not cheap then umm I would just stick with 4gb will still be a big increase for you in a lot of situations.

 

[john9999]

Yes you are right, but if you're going to have to actually pay to upgrade windows to 64 bit (IE buy a whole new copy) it wouldnt' be worth the upgrade anymore. I'm not sure how much it will run you to upgrade, if its cheap enough I guess that is a viable option if its not cheap then umm I would just stick with 4gb will still be a big increase for you in a lot of situations.

I can upgrade.
So I could buy these 4gb G.Skill 800 5-5-5-15 for 56€. 4GB with the low latencies I have now are way too expensive, and I dont think no one can notice the diference. I think my current 2GB + these 4GB even if at higher latency, will be better than 2GB at my current latency. Plus 32 bit only allow for 3.something useable ram anyway afaik.

 

[Supahos]

Yes that is correct just making sure you don't end up sinking like 1/4 of the price of a whole new rig into that one. You can make a build faster than your current one for under 500€ easily. Maybe under 400 if you reuse parts of your current rig (case/power supply/optical drives, maybe even hard drive)