The L2 cache isnt your RAM. My 512 MB of RAM is being used just fine by XP <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />. The L2 cache is a set of exceedingly high speed memory built into the CPU itself. (And its not MB its only KB). What it does is help the CPU buffer information coming into it so that it has a backlog of information ready for processing. This speeds up how fast your CPU runs. XP wasnt using this L2 Cache at all, even though I had 512kb of it available to buffer into.
Onto the subject of RAM. XP eats up a lot of RAM. If you only have 256MB of RAM, you only have so much left over for games, so the computer has to compensate by using the Hardrives swap file. This results in lots of hard disk access and slower performance. If you have 512mb RAM the computer can store more of the game there, and has to use the Hardrives swap file much less. Thus, faster perforamance <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Windows will automatically know how much RAM you have BTW, its not something you have to set up seperatly in a tweak program. So if you buy more, they will just plug it in, and when you start your computer, XP will automatically take advantage of it.
