Windows 7: is 6gb of RAM enough?

7600x64 i7 920 intel MOBO
Intel® Desktop Board DX58SO - Overview

The ram is DDR3 1600 speed. If it makes any difference I'm using a GTX260 for GPU. I upgraded from an athlon 6000+ at 3.2ghz and 4gb of ddr2 ram, so this is lightning fast I really would like to more efficiently use my system if possible.

I use my PC for:

transcoding MP3s
RDP to some far far away clients of mine
typing word reports based on spreadsheet data
using outlook for everything email and calendar related
I use my second monitor continuously for watching videos on hulu or WMC

I realize those tasks wont even come close to taxing the system, but usually someone is logged in remotely doing very similar tasks except not watching video remotely. Additionally it's set up to send and receive faxes which we probably get 50 pages a day.

More than enough.

Thanks, I was fairly certain I didn't need 12GB, but was willing to consider the possibility. I can't believe how fast core i7 is

None of your work items will even need 6GBs. I do most of the same with 3 and 4 GB in 32bit and have never encountered a performance bottleneck. With your configuration, the disk will be the bottleneck. Only an SSD could help that.

I figured as much, it gets very annoying to wait when the hd light is on solid for 20 seconds. The engadget reviews of the OCZ PCI ssd were really disappointing today, too! Maybe next year?

If you want to go with an OCZ, I suggest the Vertex Turbo. I have a 60GB Vertex from last year and that is very good. I am waiting for the 1.4x firmware now to get Trim support.
Another option is the Intel X25. That looks like a nice piece of hardware (with Trim support) that would go nicely with Windows 7.
Would you mind linking the review that you quoted? I would like to read it.

More than enough is an understatement. I assume you are running 64bit, and you have three times the minimum but hey ram is cheap and like money you can never have too much.

OCZ's Z-Drive PCI-Express SSD gets exhaustively reviewed

sorry I wasn't at the computer all day. I was really hoping pci-e SSDs would save the day

Thanks for the link. That review is indeed not very good. But it is not very specific either. The PCI Express SSD is very expensive ($750 I think). The R/W timings look good - at least on paper. I wonder why it is not performing. But as I said, I am happy with my Vertex, and that costs less than one third of this one. What's important is to watch for Trim support - else it will slow down over time.