What will doubling my RAM do for me?

[joseibarra]

I have a handbuilt desktop, XP Pro, SP3 with 1M RAM and am thinking about doubling it to 2M which is the max for my motherboard.

I am not having any issues and this is just a general purpose machine.

Before I do, I would like to do some kind of tests and then run the same tests again after the upgrade for comparison. I will only be adding RAM.

I see there are lots of things to download, but knowing what I want to do, what would you recommend for this?

I want to say something like: before I added the RAM it took this long and afterwards it is this much faster - what a fine investment!

[wonderwrench]

You will not need any benchmark software to see improvement. Most benchmark software shows little improvement when adding ram anyway. This is because most memory tests measure memory speed not quantity. CPU tests are generally designed to run from within processor cache so ram speed and quantity do not affect the results. This being said PerformanceTest 7 does have a large ram test that will show an increase when you go from 1 to 2 gigs buts it's kind of like saying I told you so. When XP came out it ran fine on 512 megs. Each service pack increased the need for ram. SP3 will run much quicker with 2 gigs of ram than it will with 1 gig. Boot times and program launch times will be greatly improved. So get the ram you will not be sorry.