32-bit Windows: 32-bit versions of Windows 10 can only handle up to 4 GB of RAM, no matter whether you're running the Home, Professional, or Enterprise edition.

Whatever is lower is what you're stuck with, but it's typically the motherboard that's the more limiting factor. There are two factors here: the maximum RAM your version of Windows can handle, and the maximum that your motherboard can handle. The other part of the RAM equation is knowing how much total RAM your computer can support. If we had found that only two slots were taken up by two 16 GB RAM modules, we could have simply added another pair of modules-two 8 GB modules for a total of 48 GB, or two more 16 GB modules for a total of 64 GB. If you're a gamer, or you often multitask lots of bigger programs, you'll probably want 32 GB GB, if that fits in your budget. That's kind of the sweet spot for how the majority of people use their PCs. Right now, we generally recommend at least 16 GB of RAM for most people. Of course, some of that depends on what you use your PC for. And moving beyond 32 GB is going to be a smaller boost still. Moving from 16 GB to 32 GB still shows some good gains in performance, but not as much. Moving from 8 GB to 16 GB of RAM is likely to make a huge difference. That said, the law of diminishing returns applies. Here are some of the things you'll need to figure out when making your decision. After that, physically installing your new memory is a breeze by comparison. Choosing Your New RAMĪs with most things about upgrading your PC, figuring out what you need and then doing some comparison shopping is the hard part. Great post though, for a large majority of people, this is not common knowledge.Adding memory is one of the easier ways to boost your PC's performance. There are a few things to check before spending your money, though, so let's talk about them.

that this isn't to big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.

However, I would just like to point out that the difference between fast and slow ram with the same timings is fairly insignificant (less than a 5% difference in total system speed for sure). Most OC'ers have known for a while that OCin with all 4 dimms full leads to lower stable ram OC's. The IMC is a great design, and is a huge improvement over the old fsb based designs, but when enough stress is placed on the IMC (through lots of dimms that are trying to be OC'd), it has a tendency to become unstable. In order to get things working, you would have to lower the speed on the ram. Unfortunately, that probably wont work out so well. If i got another DDR2-1100 4gb kit, would i be able to pair it up with my Phenom II 720? I'd like it to actually run at 1100, is this too much to ask for?

Bets ram speed for gaming ddr2