A question of ram...

[LoneGreyWolf20]

As some of you may know, I am building a new system. I am going to just take the chance and get the 8800GT since there are no other cards that compare to it at this time IMHO. I don't like ATI cards, so that limits me to begin with.In this new system I am going to put 4 gigs of Ram. At this time I only have Windows XP Home. I am currently looking for a cheap XP Pro 64-bit, but so far my search has been fruitless. I won't go with Vista at least for another year or two as I don't think it's mature enough. So Vista is currently not an option.I know that the 32 bit OS only sees up to 3.5 gigs or roughly in that area of Ram. There isn't a whole lot going into my system. One HDD, One DvD burner a Soundcard, Vid card and Ram. I am pretty good at keeping the services from Windows XP down to a minimum and at boot up if I didn't have an AV on my computer it would come in at around 99mbs or so used.My question is will the games of today happily take the roughly extra GB of ram (I'm guessing that there will be at least 3gbs of Ram after everything takes what it needs) or would they run just as well with only two gigs?I have a couple people telling me to just get the Four gigs of ram because it may never be this cheap again in the future.

[Ravinex]

Your search on XP64 was fruitless, because XP64 IS fruitless. It lacks a ton of driver support, and was really a side thought. Vista x64 is great, I know that there is so much anti-vista hype out there, but it really is an awesome OS. 4gb of ram in Vista x64 would fly. Vista essentially watches what programs you use most, and then automatically caches them to ram when you boot up. This means your apps load super fast. Most of the negative comments on vista come from people using old computers that just don't have the power to keep up. Game wise, I don't think you will see too much of a difference between 2 and 4gb when it comes to current games. If you went with vista, I'd say certainly 4gb. I know that sounded like a microsoft rep lol, but I'm just saying that you should at least look into it a bit and don't believe hype.

[LoneGreyWolf20]

<cite>Ravinex wrote:</cite><blockquote>Your search on XP64 was fruitless, because XP64 IS fruitless. It lacks a ton of driver support, and was really a side thought. Vista x64 is great, I know that there is so much anti-vista hype out there, but it really is an awesome OS. 4gb of ram in Vista x64 would fly. Vista essentially watches what programs you use most, and then automatically caches them to ram when you boot up. This means your apps load super fast. Most of the negative comments on vista come from people using old computers that just don't have the power to keep up. Game wise, I don't think you will see too much of a difference between 2 and 4gb when it comes to current games. If you went with vista, I'd say certainly 4gb. I know that sounded like a microsoft rep lol, but I'm just saying that you should at least look into it a bit and don't believe hype.</blockquote>I don't believe the hype from the normal people that just browse the internet and look at e-mail. I have talked with many, many gamers with current rigs and they still say to stick with XP , that Vista just isn't worth it at this time and may never be. They compare it to Windows ME to be honest with all it's problems. I tend to trust the hardcore gamers.I'm not saying that your wrong or anything, but too many people have told me not to get Vista at this time and to get XP Pro 64 bit. They say they have no real issues with drivers and you can find a stable driver for it.