Should I Upgrade?

[slipstream]

I have a:
ASUS M2N-E Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000 Brisbane 2.6GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)


   I had been running 32bit Windows 7, because of hardware compatibility issues.  I got rid of the old hardware and recently installed 64bit Windows 7.  I would like to take advantage of additional memory capacity.  I've been thinking of putting another 2gig in my machine at a cost of $37.  Would I see much difference in system performance?  I'll likely build a new system middle of next year, but wouldn't mind investing a little to get better performance in the short term.


Thanks

[onan]

At 37 bucks why not just try it? Memory is important if you are really tasking your machine but if you are writing term papers... not so much.

[slipstream]

At 37 bucks why not just try it? Memory is important if you are really tasking your machine but if you are writing term papers... not so much.

I'm a "power user" with multiple applications open running tasks 24 hours a day.


Thanks for your response.

[ziznak]

I say go for it.  4 being the ceiling for win7 32 bit and I think it only can really use 3 but for a 64 bit system it looks like the sky's the limit.  I'd go with the upgrade and then see where your processors are at.  Make sure you get a baseline before you install the chip so you can check the baseline after and I would also get a maxed out snapshot of your processors workload as well before and after.  Run everything you would possibly use throughout the day all at once.  I'm pretty sure you'll see after you make a comparison that when it comes to ram usually more is better... especially in your case.

here's a great link for win7 I use all the time. 
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7

[analog kid]

You're running Win7 with only 2GB of ram? You'll definitely see a performance boost with 4.

[slipstream]

Thanks for your feedback guys.  I went ahead and purchased the memory.