So, I've been looking for ways to speed up my pathetic render times, and I've thinking about upgrading my RAM. I have 895mb of RAM on Windows Vista Home Basic(32 bit). I want to move up to 4gb, is this a good idea?

If anyone had any suggestions, I would appreciate them.

32 bit vista only sees 3.5gb of ram but you can't put that in so you'll have to put 4gb in to get it.Just as important is your proccessor speed.
What speed is yours ?
I've got a quad core pc (32 bit vista) but only 2gb of ram,i render my EX1 footage,HD down to SD and it only takes 2x.
If you're thinking of buying more ram,better proccessor and board,i wouldn't bother,for the price i'd buy a new pc,they've come down in price enough.
What program are you editing with,some programs require more ram and proccessor than other programs.
Paul.

Ray,
paul is right, while you need ram at least 2gig. Your processor is your first priority. the fastest dual core should do. a good graphics card with 256mb gpu memory.
Does your motherboard support dual channel ram? whats your current processor?

Ted

Thank you for your help. I can't really afford replacing my computer, and I won't be buying a new mother board or processor.

No, my mother board does not support dual channel RAM.

My processor is:Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00 GHz 2.99 GHz