Tech dilemma…. Need help!..... RAM

My rig:

Abit is7 mobo
P4 3.0 800fsb 1mb cache. I do not remember the letter of the p4?
2 512 corsair ddr333, 1 512 kingston ddr333
9700pro

As of late, I have been running peer guardian, Azureus torrent, UD agent (cancer project), sound forge (ripping music files), ms word and firefox, all open and working. Problem is, that’s a lot of stuff running and my comp is crying for more juice and I believe its in the ram department.

So I go to fry’s electronics to get me some more ram, 1g corsair ddr333 for $150 with mail in rebate. This will boost my ram to 2.5g of ddr333.

The “sales guy” tells me, instead of getting another gig of ddr333’s, I should drop my 333’s and, go for a 1g dual channel ddr400 corsair for $200. basically, I would be dropping 2.5g of ddr333’s and begin building, all over with 1g dual channel ddr400.

To me, it dosent make any sense to drop 2.5g overall for a 1g stick of this dual channel ram. (i dont understand dual channel and where it is really going to help me). I don’t know what to do and could really use some help before I go a start rebuilding my ram, again.

I am not interested in getting a new mobo to hold the ddr500 seeing that pci-e and the 64bit processors will become the new standard.

Here is the deal. im married, tight budget when it comes to me and my computer. i can spend the $150 for a gig of 333's and have 2.5g of ram or, drop in $200 for this 1g dual channel 400 and, after the wife calms down a bit, get another 1g dual channel in a month? 400 is the fastest my mobo will take!

Have you ever taken the time to hit ctrl-alt-del and see how much memory your computer is actually using? I have a really hard time believing that 1.5GB of memory is the bottleneck in your system.

Did you build this computer yourself? Because honestly, your setup is retarded. Not only are you running your memory at a speed lower than what the motherboard can support, but you've also got 3 sticks of memory which nullifies the dual-channel ability as well (it needs to be in pairs).

Honestly, I see no place where another GB of memory is going to help your computer. I would recommend upgrading to 1GB of 400MHz memory as well--if you don't have a problem with spending the money. Otherwise, there is probably something else wrong with your system if it feels unusually slow to you.

You can also spend less money by buying it from Newegg or other sites online.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?descr iption=20-144-310&DEPA=1
And there are others. And they don't *have* to be in a set like that, you can just buy two 512MB's, just make sure they're the same speed.

Not doubting you but just haven't had time to check your Mobo ==> just wanna know, does your PC/Mobo recognize the 1.5GB of Ram you have now ;i.e. it says 1.5GB on boot-up or 'right click' My Computer, select Properties and under General Tab at bottom says 1.5GB??

1.5GB memory can run allot of stuff... I assume you: Clean disc; Defrag; Remove Mal/Spy-ware so machine is clean and other 'minor' backround running apps are turned off!!??

What is your Virtual Memory settings??

Answers to above will give us more info to help better...

Finally, I will advise you to read your Mobo's manual very thoroughly on how much and what Ram it can handle and how it is should be configured in the slots properly before you buy more!! Also check the Ram Memory Manufacturers specs closely ---> some Ram sticks like Corsairs 512MB DDR400 PC32000 will only work with 2 sticks, won't recognize a third or forth even if you put it in, so be careful....

thanks you guys for the help.

this has allowed me to read up heavily on ram, processor and fsb and how they all should be timed properly.

i was unaware of the fsb working directly with the ram speed and now, i think that my just be the problem i am having. i will be upgrading my ram to the dual channel memory ddr400 kit.

i was also unaware or more like, i did not understand what it ment by it asking for use of duel channel memory kits. my computer recongizes the 1.5g of ram i have but, i dont think that the mobo is proberly using the 512 stick causing a timing issue with the fsb and processor.

the answers are in your replies but, it me to understand what ws wrong with my set up. about 5 months ago i bought the p43.0 and never understood that in order to get the use of teh fsb i had to upgrade the ram as well. i thought i could just upgrade the cpu and everything would be fine.

yes, UE on my part.

thank you for the direction of help i was looking for.

<3 TW!

i agree with everything in ixi's post.

but i doubt that going from ddr333 to ddr400 will increase your performance a HUUUUUUUUGE amount. it sounds like something else is wrong. do what he said.... run task manager.