The RAM and XP question

[Beskar]

It'd be more like £50-£60 to get 2GB of RAM that matches what I've got; moving to 4GB of the kind of RAM which costs £30ish would be something of a sidestep and likely wouldn't help that much. I've got corsair XMS6400 800Mhz DDR2 at the moment, and at the time of buying that was one step below their uber high end Dominator sticks. That still seems to be the case; it's still being made and the timings etc are all still very high on the scale. That's how I've managed so well with 2GB; smaller and faster can beat larger and slower.

Alright, I been looking around, my usual supplier has a problem with the fact they all moved over to DDR3, hence you can get better DDR3 prices then DDR2, but even then, 2GB is still around £30-40 which seems to match what you got.

The closest they have to yours (make and stat wise):
Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 6400C5 TwinX Dual Channel (TWIN2X4096-6400C5C) 800Mhz is £82.24

But even then, you can get:
Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel (KHX8500D2K2/4G) for £75

Which is better and cheaper.

So it really depends on your supplier, but if you are looking at £50-60, you are getting ripped off. Though, I don't recommend looking at DDR3 prices, they will make you cry at how cheap that is.

Corsair XMS3 6GB 2GB DDR3 16000C9 2000MHz Triple-channel is only £45