ram and the limiting factors

[hmmmnz]

ok i have a sff pc that runs sodimm ram (laptop ram)
im running win 7 64bit

the manufacturer recommends a max of 2 x 2gig
so 4 gig, which seems pretty shit for a quad core,
ok i probably don't need any more than 4 gig,
but whats to stop me putting in 2 4 gig cards running at the same frequencies ect,

whats the bottle neck ??
let me know if you need more details
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[Frost]

Nothing stopping you, but if the manufacturer states a 4gig max then that's all the system will register. It's the motherboard that's the limiting factor here.
With regards to system performance people seem to think "Needs more RAM" is the reason for any slow running. A guy i know has 8gig and was asking me the best place to buy more as his PC was too slow. I had a look at it and he was never using above 2gig, he did however have over a dozen system tray icons, a bunch of spyware and all the fancy display stuff turned on.
My 6 core system is running 4GB of ram in 2 x 2GB layout. It's dual channel fast DDR3 so it's quick and so is my system. Quantity has never been a problem.

[CaNsA]

put it in, see if it will work.

i suspect it wont.

[chris-red]

[neil.]

Check for a BIOS update for your board. Sometimes they add support for more RAM in a later revision. You never know...

[Dr. Quack]

[Seb]

As above, most people don't really need any more than 2gb, 4 is a nice round figure even for games and modest content production. If the machine is bogging down you'll likely find something else is the bottleneck.

Oh and imo, high performance ram just isn't worth the extra unless you are planning to start overclocking. The benefits at stock frequencies are not worth the expense compared to what you get from other components.
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[hmmmnz]

im currently running 1 gig which was fine untill firefox 4 came out,
thirsty bloody program, more than doubled in consumption overnight,
i tend to run very bare bones systems, my pc is pretty much just for watching tv shows and browsing,
it talks to the server pc via remote desk top which does all the hard work,

cheers for the advice guys,
____________________
the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[el_oso]

the bottleneck depends on what you are trying to accomplish with the pc.
if you do a lot of compressing/decompressing then RAM might be a bottleneck if you have a fast HDD/SSD or processor. i have only once run out of RAM on my pc. was compressing something, decompressing something else, installing a game while watching a 720p video file
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[Ayrton]

[hmmmnz]

as i said my system runs barebones, it doesnt need to be cleaned it has no excess programs on it,
its just firefox that has forced me to upgrade my ram,
i'll go to 4 gig, but if i could have gone higher i would,
i might not need more than 4 gig now but as always programs get thirstier as time goes on.

my server pc kind of prooves this, it was made in 2002 and has been running 4 gig since ive owned it, and at the time 1 gig of ram was considered alot, now its just the norm

i didnt do enough research before i bought my new one, i just looked at the processor and didnt notice what the max ram was,

essentially its only a touch faster than my 10 year old pc
____________________
the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[tsmith]

on my system firefox takes 145mb
thunderbird 65mb
comodo 3mb
anti vir 3mb

thats on a p4 3.8 with 2GB RAM. Win7 32bit.