Computer building advice

[barcelonic]

Im going to be buying a new PC soon and the one I have my eye on is this.
It has 6Gb of RAM but I want to add another 6Gb.

Trouble is I dont know much about computers so Im going to get my local repair shop to do it for me. Id like to source the RAM first tho so I have a few questions...

A) Is this computer 64-bit?
B) How much RAM can 64-bit systems fully utilise (i heard 32bits can only utilise 3.5Gb)
C) How much RAM can this computer hold?
D) Which types of RAM will be compatible with this computer?
E)Roughly how much does 6gb of DDR3 RAM cost these days?

Any help would be muy apreciado!!

[chigley]

Originally Posted by barcelonic

A) Is this computer 64-bit?

The i7 processors can run at 64-bit yes. Presumably the PC will come with x64 Windows installed.

Originally Posted by barcelonic

B) How much RAM can 64-bit systems fully utilise (i heard 32bits can only utilise 3.5Gb)

According to Microsoft, x64 Windows can run more than 120GB of RAM.

Originally Posted by barcelonic

C) How much RAM can this computer hold?

That totally depends on the motherboard, and how many DIMMs the pre-installed 6GB takes up.

Originally Posted by barcelonic

D) Which types of RAM will be compatible with this computer?

DDR3, of course, but the frequency of the RAM is not stated on the Dixons website. It could be 1066MHz, 1333MHz, 1600MHz, 1866MHz or maybe 2000MHz.

Definitely worth checking before you buy any more, as if you put in a speed lower than what's currently installed, then your existing RAM will be slowed down to the speed of the slowest pair.

Originally Posted by barcelonic

E)Roughly how much does 6gb of DDR3 RAM cost these days?

This depends on the speed, see above.

Some final thoughts:

1. Do you really need 12GB of RAM? 6GB is more than ample for any use. Even applications like Photoshop can't use that much!
2. Have you considered building your PC yourself from scratch? Money to be saved, longer warranty on individual parts, and generally more customisation available.

[barcelonic]

Originally Posted by chigley

The i7 processors can run at 64-bit yes. Presumably the PC will come with x64 Windows installed.



According to Microsoft, x64 Windows can run more than 120GB of RAM.



That totally depends on the motherboard, and how many DIMMs the pre-installed 6GB takes up.



DDR3, of course, but the frequency of the RAM is not stated on the Dixons website. It could be 1066MHz, 1333MHz, 1600MHz, 1866MHz or maybe 2000MHz.

Definitely worth checking before you buy any more, as if you put in a speed lower than what's currently installed, then your existing RAM will be slowed down to the speed of the slowest pair.




This depends on the speed, see above.

Some final thoughts:

1. Do you really need 12GB of RAM? 6GB is more than ample for any use. Even applications like Photoshop can't use that much!
2. Have you considered building your PC yourself from scratch? Money to be saved, longer warranty on individual parts, and generally more customisation available.

Thanks! Regarding question C, how do i find out about the motherboard and DIMMs?

Well 12Gb of RAM will mean Windows will be able to multitask better wont it? Because when I play 1080p movies (h.264, DTS audio) it uses up a lot of RAM and processing power to play, so I want to be able to unrar other files while the movie is playing, and also if one of my programs like avast automatically updates, i dont want my movie to start skipping.

As for building my PC from scratch, I keep getting told this again and again and again, but I've never done it before and am generally useless with any kind of DIY so this advice really only applies to people who know what they are doing lol. Besides, this Dixons one has literally everything i need - i7 processor, Windows 7 and a mighty 2Gb video card!! I've looked at custom built PCs on various websites and to have all those things and lots of RAM would cost far more than this unless I built it myself which as i said i cant do.