I've been reading a lot of debate here about whether two ram sticks is better than four.

I'm getting ready to build a new rig. I'm going to use the Asus A8N32-Sli mb with the 4800 duel core, and two 7900GT's.

My question is, (other than the obvious) would four gig of ram be better than two?

2 gigs is optimum for gaming i think. most mobo's reduce speed and command rate when more than 2 dimm's are used. go with 2GBs

I've read articles that say for xp-pro64 edition, 4 gigs is optimal. I haven't put 4 sticks in my 64bit opsys yet, so I don't know. However, all my machines except 1, have 2 gig.

That may be true, but I've had no problems with Half-Life2 or FarCry on Win64.

afaik we aint talking about 64-bit. 64-bit can theoretically handle hundreds if not thousands of gigs so no point inmentioning that. in noraml win xp it is usually 2 gigs which windows runs best afaik

Isn't xp-pro 64bit somewhat "unsupported"?

Would it make the system "better" if I was using the 64bit version?

depends on the apps you use. mostly there would not be much benfit for everyday apps and games

That's right. I went for it and am PISSED OFF. waited almost a year and there are no 64 bit plugins for IE. Real Player won't install, MusicMatch JukeBox won't run. MS doesn't even ave 64 bit drivers for MS mice/keyboards. I had to spend ANOTHER $100 for Logitech.

Most games work but only if they have no 16 bit code. Some launchers aren't compatible.

It does seem a litle snappier, but it could be better supported. I hope Vista 64 is better supported because the increased RAM needs and lack of WinFS are steering me away from it. Add to that the fact that MS' test process has changed for the worst and Vista is not on my Xmas list.

I may even go back to XP32.

I've got 2 GB in my box and it flies. I don't hink it will make a differnce fo rmost tasks since they don't use more than 2GB per process - the limit on XP32. It will et you have more programs open and running though. I never have to close anything ot play D3 or Q4. BF2 will love 4GB though.

Well, a nub question then...

Some of the up comming games (like ut2007) will be able to handle 64 bit procs. Does that not mean you need a 64 bit os? How does that work?

If they release a 64-bit version, yes you need a 64-bit OS. With XP x64, using an A64 (I would surmise the same for EM64T) it runs in one of the legacy modes, and it sucks for IA-64 because it has to translate all 32-bit code into 64-bit before it can process it. This also means that 64-bit XP, supposedly, can suffer a small or no penalty in performance when running an A64 or EM64T as well. I've been running XP x64 since the first Beta and now I use the Corporate version, I can't notice any performance loss in 32-bit apps but my CPU Performance and Memory Bandwidth (according to SANDRA) is 10% faster.

EDIT: Windows XP x64 and Windows XP 64-bit are different, the former is for x86 while the latter is for Itanium systems. x64 was designed around Server 2003, while Itanium version was designed around Windows XP x86.

EDIT: Some x64 Apps:

7-Zip Archiver
Arctic Torrent BitTorrent CLient
Avast!
Bet On Soldier
COSMOSWorks
Daemon Tools 4.x.x
Diskeeper
Dreadnought
Far Cry
Firefox
Ghostscript
GSview
Half-Life 2
IBM DB2
Internet Explorer 6/7
Java JRE
Lightwave 3D
SQL Server 2005
MinGW
Mozilla Thunderbird
NOD32 Antivirus
O&O Defrag
Oracle 10.2
Peerguardian
POV-Ray
PuTTY
Qliktech
Shadow Ops: Red Mercury
SolidWorks
StyleXP
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Unreal Tournament 2004
VirtualDub
X-Mouse Button Control

I've never had problems w/ Drivers, I don't use a printer but all my other drivers are working fine.

~~Mad Mod Mike, pimpin' the world 1 rig at a time

I'll give the 64 bit version a try when I build this rig (starting next week).

I've been working on my masters part time and can buy that from school for a mear $10. No real risk if I decide to use the 32 bit version instead (another mere $10)...

2 Gb is good enough for gaming and having 4 Gb of ram does not make difference since there's no game to date that takes up more than 2 Gb of ram. Take, BF2 for example with the huge maps on multiplayer, the game sucks up 1.2 Gb of ram. So 2 Gb of ram should be the optimum for now.

If they release a 64-bit version, yes you need a 64-bit OS. With XP x64, using an A64 (I would surmise the same for EM64T) it runs in one of the legacy modes, and it sucks for IA-64 because it has to translate all 32-bit code into 64-bit before it can process it. This also means that 64-bit XP, supposedly, can suffer a small or no penalty in performance when running an A64 or EM64T as well. I've been running XP x64 since the first Beta and now I use the Corporate version, I can't notice any performance loss in 32-bit apps but my CPU Performance and Memory Bandwidth (according to SANDRA) is 10% faster.

EDIT: Windows XP x64 and Windows XP 64-bit are different, the former is for x86 while the latter is for Itanium systems. x64 was designed around Server 2003, while Itanium version was designed around Windows XP x86.

EDIT: Some x64 Apps:

7-Zip Archiver
Arctic Torrent BitTorrent CLient
Avast!
Bet On Soldier
COSMOSWorks
Daemon Tools 4.x.x
Diskeeper
Dreadnought
Far Cry
Firefox
Ghostscript
GSview
Half-Life 2
IBM DB2
Internet Explorer 6/7
Java JRE
Lightwave 3D
SQL Server 2005
MinGW
Mozilla Thunderbird
NOD32 Antivirus
O&O Defrag
Oracle 10.2
Peerguardian
POV-Ray
PuTTY
Qliktech
Shadow Ops: Red Mercury
SolidWorks
StyleXP
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Unreal Tournament 2004
VirtualDub
X-Mouse Button Control

I've never had problems w/ Drivers, I don't use a printer but all my other drivers are working fine.

~~Mad Mod Mike, pimpin' the world 1 rig at a time

I heard that I can still get Windows XP Pro X64. Does anyone know where I can get it from I am ver interested in putting it on my raptor drive.

64 bit can theoretically address over 17 BILLION gig. Realistically, there is no memory limit to 64 bit memory.

Here's a little on the article..... I have the pro x64 version.

It says, " as long as 32-bit apps don't have some kind of device driver, they run fine under x64.

You'll want at least 4gig to fully utilize 64bit functionality.. Even with 4gb there are few 32 or 64bit windows apps to take advantage of it.

Microsoft claims that over 400 apps are under developement, but at press time, those are few.

I had trouble finding an antivirs program for it, but it says eTrust works.

I'm convinced that 64bit is the future, so turn in your windows 98, and your pac-man programs, and join the 21st century.

Here is a list of games I have found that absolutely refuse to work under x64:

Splinter Cell 3 - Chaos Theory - Error message comes up
Doom 3 - It never ran in the beta's I had and I haven't tried since
Area 51 - Installer Error comes up saying it can't run in x64
Farenheit (Americans know it as "Indigo Prophecy" ) - The installer won't run correctly

~~Mad Mod Mike, pimpin' the world 1 rig at a time

I have Doom3 running on mine.... the full version....... the other games I haven't played.

I forgot one:

Cross Racing Championship 2005 - Error message comes up

Yea, I'm sure Microsoft fixed an issue as obviously the beta's had alot of issues. Doom 3 never ran on beta 1, I didn't try the game on Beta 2 or Final but I don't really play it anyways so it doesn't matter to me.

~~Mad Mod Mike, pimpin' the world 1 rig at a time

two, unless you are a video/gaming PRO.