Worth adding an extra 1GB or should I wait until Vista

[marshahu]

I have 1 memory slot left in my motherbaord and it supports a maximum of 1GB in that slot - I have used the previous 2 with 1GB in each channel running as dual channel memory.

Can Windows XP MCE 2005 work with more than 2GB of memory? I heard that XP with more than 2GB of memory is like Me with more than 512MB. Under Me when I used more than 512MB RAM (768MB) it worked but after performing intensive tasks I has incredibly slow performance to the point where the system almost grinded to a halt!! I wouldnt even dare make full use of the 1GB as I saw articles on MS website saying that 1GB will cause 9x OS's to completely not start at all!! Oh and lets not forget the glorious BSOD - those bring back some memories!

Once I upgraded to XP the 768MB of RAM worked fine. Then went onto 1GB and then afterwards a nice comfy 2GB.

Simply put, if I have 3GB of RAM, will I experience slowdowns or lockups in XP MCE 2005 much like I did in Me, when I had 768MB of RAM? Is 2GB of RAM the "ceiling" in XP MCE 2005 for good reliable performance.

 

[Zoron]

If you're running 2GB in dual-channel mode, don't bother adding a third stick. It will take advantage of up to 4GB of RAM... but it's better to have a 64-bit OS if you really want to take advantage of 4GB+.

You won't notice enough of a difference from 2GB to 3GB to make it worth it.

And XP is nothing like 9x when using more than 2GB of RAM. It won't make it slower and it won't make it blue screen... but then it probably won't make a huge positive difference in performance either. In most cases, if you have 4GB installed, XP will only see 3GB... unless you use PAE. (Physical Address Extension). Be aware though that 32-bit XP will only address 4GB with PAE... you need to upgrade to 64-bit if you want to make use of any more RAM than that.