damurrelet wrote:Question 4 - I have heard my laptop (with Vista 32 bit) will only be able to utilize 3.3 gb of ram - what is with that... and is it still worth getting 4 gb then?
This has to do with how Windows accesses memory. In the 32bit versions of Windows, the numbers it uses as addresses for memory don't go up to 4GB worth of memory. It's like building more houses on a street when all address numbers for that street are already taken(sort of). You could upgrade to 64bit Windows if you like, but if you don't then any RAM you install above and beyond the approximate 3.3GB limit that Windows uses will sit there completely unused.
As for why pairs of RAM sticks of the same size and speed perform better, it's because of the Dual-channel architecture of modern motherboards. It's a technology that was developed years ago to try to reduce the bottleneck caused by memory being much slower than the CPU. It tends to work better when using identical RAM chips, but at the least they should be the same speed, timing, and size.
