Working on upgrading my computer

[omgitswes]

Yesterday I made a post about adding a second monitor, and today I realized that all I needed to do was to reformat my hard drive to make it go back to normalspeed and now it works fine.
Now I want to upgrade it completely...it has an old version of XP and I want to change to windows 7 (dont know if it's commercially available or not) orVista. Just as I was about to do that my dad said I needed to check to see how much memory is required before I do it, good thing I did because it doesn'thave enough memory. So now I have to buy more.
My question is, is there a limit on how much memory a machine can handle?

 

[spsfinest212]

Yes,

If you don't get a 64-bit os your computer won't recognize any memory past 4gigs.

 

[joe dirt]

Yes. Visit Crucial.com and enter the make/model # of your computer they will show you the max memory and what kind to buy/use.

 

[spsfinest212]

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/41531554-d5ef-4f2c-8fb9-149bdc5c8a701033.mspx

this will help you greatly.

 

[omgitswes]

dang I wanted 4 gigs but it can only handle 2. so looks like I can only run a 32 bit OS.
is windows 7 available yet?

***wait you said it wont recognize anything past 4 gigs without 64 bit, does that mean i can still run a 64 bit OS with only 2 gigs of RAM

 

[joe dirt]

Windows 7 is available, it's free until June next year when you either have to buy it or un-install it....

 

[omgitswes]

okay i'll look into that, it's probably just the beta that's out now.
i already have a Vista disk so I might just install that if it's the beta

 

[spsfinest212]

Ya if you get 64-bit you might as well have 4 gigs or more.

Unless your motherboard can't handle that much.

 

[omgitswes]

okay. it's gonna be a ##### finding Memory that's compatible with this old model.
only one I found was 361 and it's a gig

 

[spsfinest212]

what kind of computer do you have?

 

[omgitswes]

Dell Dimension 8200
don't think they even make them anymore

 

[dr spaceman]

yeah get windows 7 rc, and hold on to that vista money for the retail upgrade.

 

[kdawg]

Don't install Vista - it's slower and you'll spend about the next 10 years trying to find new drivers for things.

More RAM will help - and with 2Gb you should notice a decent difference. I have 4Gb (although XP only recognises 3 or so) and it's awesome - but I alsohave a new quad core processor.

2Gb is plenty for most situations though.

 

[omgitswes]

i really don't have much of a choice now anyway, i'm not paying over 300 dollars for a gig of RAM
looks like my only option is to buy a new desktop