11 - The Verdict

The Verdict

Truthfully, I had an extremely hard time pointing out the benefit of 2 versus 4 GB of memory in this article. Granted I was limited as we used a 32-bit platform. But let's walk through some facts. This is really affordable memory, it roughly delivers as much performance as a 1143 MHz Corsair Dominator DDR2 kit, yet you get to play around with more memory.

How on this earth can that be a bad thing ? I'm really impressed at the value returned here. Fact is that if you are on Vista you can use every megabyte available. Fact is that with more memory your games swap to the HD a little less, but fact is also that we really can't tell the difference performance wise between 2GB and 4 GB when it comes to gaming. It's very hard to measure, though there definitely is a better effect when it comes to loading times of games as everything is cached so much better. There are however certain scenario's where the difference will matter, 64-bit Vista for example would have likely shown a small gain.

Check some of the shops as they offer rebates you can deduct of these prices.

Why not test at 64-bit then you ask ? Because we review in an environment that the majority of you guys use as well. Last weeks poll was showing that an incredible 65% of you guys is using a 32-bit operating system. So that's what we need to measure at this time. Overall and even on 32-bit despite losing some memory, I'm still recommending 4 GB. OSes get bigger, page file's fill up, applications get more demanding. See where 2 GB is the new norm, 4GB really doesn't sound that uncomfortable anymore.

It's the same reason you purchase an 800 Watt power supply, to have some reserve ensuring an optimal PC experience.

Next to that, the baseline prices for DDR2 memory have fallen incredibly. I was just checking prices of this kit and stumbled into some pretty good deals. In Europe expect a price like 88 EUR. In North America, check the prices as we have some good deals guys. A lot of rebates are going on. At the time of writing I have seen CompUSA sell this memory for 81.99 (after rebate), and that's exactly this kit with the low latency timings and 2x 2GB !

This memory kit is downright sexy and offers a lot of punch for the money you drop. Bare in mind that in a 32-bit environment you can not utilize all 4GB as system memory. On Vista 32-bit for example you'll end up with roughly 3 GB. It's a shame but if that is too hard to swallow then consider making the move towards a 64-bit Vista. And yes, we know about the PAE; you can use PAE on Vista to access more than 4GB of physical ram, you'll only get 4GB of virtual address space though. More info on that here. But be careful.

Last but not least I just have to mention that the kit comes with a life-time warranty. At this price-level and with such timings this memory is really interesting to purchase.

4 GB, low-latency, life-time warranty, less than 90 bucks. You get the idea .. run to the store man, do it now. Check some great deals here.

SKU: TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX
Info: Corsair