Windows 7: Upgrading RAM - Need advice

Hello I have currently 4GB of RAM but I am often lacking RAM so I have decided to upgrade to 8GB or 16GB.

My current config is old but still powerful enough for all my needs:



CPU : QuadCore Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
MB: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
MB Chipset: Intel Eaglelake P45
BIOS Type: Award Modular (01/25/10) version F12
RAM : 2 x 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM
GC : ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 (2048 MB) crossfire
Power: Corsair HX620W
Tower: Antec Twelve Hundred
OS: Windows Seven x64 SP1

What do you recommend to update my RAM?
Something compatible, performant and not too expensive please.

TIA.

Any of these from Crucial are guaranteed compatible:

Computer memory upgrades for Giga-Byte GA-EP45-UD3R (rev. 1.0) Motherboard from Crucial.com

You will probably find that older DDR 2 RAM is more expensive than DDR 3, by a large margin.

Thanks.

Is DDR3 not compatible with my mobo?

No it isn't,

GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 775 - GA-EP45-UD3R (rev. 1.1)

I very seriously doubt it.

I just looked at Newegg--it appears that 4 GB sticks of DDR2 are quite uncommon and expensive---Newegg's price is 180 for two 4 GB sticks of that Crucial RAM.

You have a few more choices if you go with 2 GB sticks. You can get two 2 GB sticks for 100 to 110 from several manufacturers.

Are you positive you are running out of RAM?

I'd guess your PC is 4 or 5 years old. Considering the high cost of RAM for it, you might consider getting a new motherboard, processor, and 8 GB of DDR 3 RAM (which is much cheaper). If you spent 400 or so, you would effectively have a new PC that would be noticeably faster than your existing PC, with more RAM to boot.