Amount of RAM to use?

[Xanthian]

I am in the process of gathering info on building a computer, i have brought many in the past and it is about time i gave it ago, in my research i've been told on afew forums etc that their is no point buying anymore than 4gb of ram as the computer will not use it, is this correct? i've presumed the more the better as long as the motherboard can take it.
The computer will be used for gaming up to date games aswell as WOW and other older games also it will be used to play DVD/Blue-rays and steam programs off the internet (iplayer/4oD)

 

[Aastii]

I have, in the past, done everything you have mentioned simultaneously on my current system. I've had WoW up, a video up, be it on youtube, BBC iPlayer or any other streaming service, TeamSpeak and had another game open, including recent games. If you look at the system in my sig, that is 4GB of memory.

I would, however, say that if you look at the prices of memory, you can pick up 4GB for ~£30, which isn't exactly bank breaking unless you are looking to build on a budget, so you could go to 8GB and maybe see a bit more performance at not a whole lot extra price wise, but it isn't essential, and you can always upgrade later when it is a necessity and memory is (probably) cheaper

 

[tremmor]

One of my computers has 4 gig with a 32bit operating system and see's 3-1/2 gig.
I installed windows 7 64bit and see's all 4 gig. I don't need more though im not a gamer. 64bit you can pretty much add what ever ya want or need. Don't think you would need more than 8gig for gaming and a 64 bit system.