RAM for the future

[gilmar]

Hi,
I'm running :
Windows XP Pro 32 bit
Intel R Pentium R D 3 Ghz 3 Ghz CPU (XE 925)
Micro-Star P4M890M3-V Mainboard
GeForce GT 440 1024MB DDR3 graphics card
450 W of power supply
3G of RAM DDR2-SDRAM


I'm thinking of putting more RAM for the future and was wondering how much of RAM would I need in order to run all current EPs and SPs and taking into account future EPs and SPs (say maybe 3 EPs and a few SPs)?

I'm considering a Windows XP 64 bit or RAMdisk.

Edit : If I were to put 4G of RAM on this machine now, it might read 3.5 G. That would not be good enough?
If I understand correctly, I was thinking of installing 6 G of RAM, setting aside 1.5 G for my system and 4.5 G for RAM disk. Would this be right?
Truthfully if possible, I would really like to run XP on this machine.

[Jeebus]

I would suggest Win7-64 over XP-64.  You should have, at the very least, 4 gigs.  You might want more than that; I would not suggest any more than 6 GB right now, though.

[Skadi]

Keep an eye on the power supply too.

6 gigs is a good amount, if it's a good price get more, but you won't see a huge improvement off the bat. Unless you pull a Pescado, get 32Gb of RAM and make a RAMDISC.

[saraswati]

You could even get a Solid State drive, they're apparently about as quick as RAM disk. The only downside is that they're very expensive at this point.