Member Avatar for cronus88

Hello everyone, I'm about to buy 4 Gigs of ddr2 ram for my computer. Its a Dell Dimension 9100, and it came with 1 Gig.

Basically i'm upgrading the system, getting a better video card and now the ram.

What i'm worried about is that i remember reading that too much ram is actually bad for your computer. That in some instances, having as much as 4 gigs of ram can slow your computer down rather than speed it up, for whatever reason.

Is there any truth to this? Should I pass on the 4 gigs and only get 2? Thanks for any help!

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The idea that "too much RAM" will slow a PC is mostly a myth. RAM itself doesn't make the CPU or disk work harder; what can happen is that the platform (OS, BIOS or chipset) changes the way memory runs when you add more modules, or the OS can't address all of it. Those secondary effects are why people sometimes blame extra memory for a slowdown.

On 32‑bit Windows the big gotcha is addressability: a system with 4 GB installed frequently shows noticeably less usable RAM because parts of the physical address space are reserved for devices. If you need all of the installed RAM, a 64‑bit OS is the straightforward solution. PAE exists but is not a practical way to "unlock" the extra RAM on most consumer Windows installs.

Motherboards will usually negotiate a safe speed/timing when you change the DIMM population; mixing different sizes or speeds can force the controller to use the slowest settings. That can slightly reduce memory bandwidth, but in real workloads the benefit of having more free RAM normally outweighs the small timing penalty. To get the best result use matched modules (a 2x2GB kit for dual‑channel), update the BIOS, and run a full memory test (Memtest86) after installation.

Quick checklist: check OS bitness and how much memory it actually reports, watch real workloads in Task Manager (or Resource/Performance Monitor on newer Windows) to see if you ever use most of your RAM, consult the motherboard manual for slot population, use matched DIMMs, keep a pagefile, update BIOS, and test stability. As pointed out, populated slots can change timings — but if your workloads need the RAM, more is usually better.

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Member Avatar for nizzy1115

Well, i think 2 gbs is the max one would want to go. I recently upgraded mine from one gig to 2 gig and the performance is no different under normal usage, but i do notice that under multiple huge aplications and video editing, and encoding and everything going at once, i was running out of ram with 1 gb and it would start to slow the whole system a bit. The 2 gb fixes this nicely with pleanty of ram to spare. 4 gbs is overkill. I dont care what applications you are running right now, but if you are running windows xp, you will not really notice the difference from 2 gbs (besides some extra cash in your pocket).

Now, the other topic, can more ram actually slow down your computer. To an extent, yes it can, but will it be significant, no. The biggest problem you may run into is that your ram is currently running pc 3200 in dual chanel, which amounts to 200 mhz per channel (400 mhz total). However, most motherboards, when running 2 pairs of dual channel, can not run 4 sticks at pc 3200 speeds, so they run them at pc 2700 speeds which is 166 mhz per channel.

Member Avatar for cronus88

Thanks for the help. I ended up getting the geforce 7600 GS and 3 gigs of ram, and i've never been happier. Couldn't have done it without the great advice, thanks again!

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