Possible Comp Rig

[MooseMan1]

Why? He allready has 4GB of ram, and 32bit wont recognize it all...

Because 32 bit will recognize 3.5GB, and the other half gig he will recognize will be taken up by the extra 32-bits. 64-bit isn't really very beneficial unless you are going to get more than 4GB ram, in Vista's case at least.

 

[worshipme]

Because 32 bit will recognize 3.5GB, and the other half gig he will recognize will be taken up by the extra 32-bits.

wat?

 

[MooseMan1]

^lol....

with 32-bit OS, the max RAM one will be able to utilize is about 3.5GB. Different hardware work differently, so some will see/use a little more or less, but 3.5 is pretty much a standard. With 64-bits, you can utilize a lot more ram, but your bits are twice as long. Therefore anything running using 64-bits will need more memory to hold them, which means basically the extra .5GB that one can use in 4GB of ram will be taken up by the extra length of your bits.

With that said, unless you want to expand to 6 or 8GB, then your just as good using 32-bit. It's also a little less complicated when using 32-bit because all your processes and what not are using the same length, rather than some being 64-bit and some 32-bit. In Vista you also have two Program Files folders. One, Program Files for the 64-bit apps, and Program Files(x86) for the 32-bit apps.

 

[Yes_ima_n00b]

Okay so I put my close to final rig in an edit of my most recent comment.
@Prodigy- Two things one im gonna haf to go w/ worship on the motherboard
and two what PC gamer doesn't play WoW but in addition to tht i'll play probably ES4, Half Life2, Modern Warfare, and if I can, I want to try crysis but thts a stretch
@Mooseman- I see how the xtra 32bits will be kinda wasted but if i get the 32bit, wats gonna happen w/ the extra .5gb?

 

[MooseMan1]

@Mooseman- I see how the xtra 32bits will be kinda wasted but if i get the 32bit, wats gonna happen w/ the extra .5gb?

The extra .5 ram will look pretty. It wont benefit performance at all. What I would recommend you do is get vista x64 and 6GB or 8GB of RAM. RAM is really cheap right now. You can get 8GB for under 200 i believe, but dont quote me on that. Vista will run much better with 8GB RAM. Toms hardware did an article on it saying that if you get Vista 64 get 8GB ram.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

Got a link to that Tom's hardware article MooseMan? I'd like to see where you've been getting your information from. . .

 

[Prodigy146]

Yeah its ddr3 but it still represents the same thing: more memory usually doesnt equal better performance

Gaming
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264-3.html

Encoding
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264-4.html

Boot times, Vista Footprint, Power usage
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264-7.html

 

[Atomic Rooster]

Conclusion

Not much has changed since 4 GB of RAM became the “sweet spot” for performance and price in the enthusiast market. While 32-bit operating systems previously limited those 4 GB configurations to around 3 GB of useful memory space, today's test shows that 3 GB is still usually enough.

We remember days when having multiple Internet Explorer windows open could cause a system to become sluggish. But even that scenario has become unrealistic, as all the configurations we tested in this review supported over 100 open windows simultaneously.

If 3 GB worked so well, why do we continue to recommend 4 GB to 6 GB triple-channel kits for performance systems? Perhaps we're just a little too forward-looking, but we can certainly imagine scenarios a typical “power user” could encounter where 3 GB might not be enough, even if today's tests didn't reveal any of them. For those folks, stepping up to a 64-bit operating system at the same time is undoubtedly the best course of action.

We can only recommend larger capacities of 8 GB to 12 GB for professional applications where its usefulness has already been documented and for servers. None of our tests required high-memory capacities and wasted RAM is a burden both financially and ecologically.

Well, that about sums it up.

 

[MooseMan1]

Got a link to that Tom's hardware article MooseMan? I'd like to see where you've been getting your information from. . .

I think this was the link:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vista-workshop,1775.html

It's been awhile since I read the article.

In response to your post right above mine rooster, right now I am using 3450mb of ram on vista 64. and I am not even playing a game.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

Our testing brought us to a clear conclusion: if you often use several memory hungry applications simultaneously, then there's really no way around upgrading your system to 8 GB.

In this case, he really wont need that much memory. The typical gaming rig will be fine with 4GB to 6GB.