RAM query...

[xyzzyman]

Running with 5GB's of RAM may be slower than going with 4GB's. Are you running 2x2g+2x512MB or 2x2g+1g? I don't know your usage, but most people don't use all of their 4GB's (I don't) so if you have a multi-core CPU, dropping your RAM to single-channel slows things down. Using matching pairs to stay in dual-channel is best.

[Slim Odds]

Running with 5GB's of RAM may be slower than going with 4GB's. Are you running 2x2g+2x512MB or 2x2g+1g? I don't know your usage, but most people don't use all of their 4GB's (I don't) so if you have a multi-core CPU, dropping your RAM to single-channel slows things down. Using matching pairs to stay in dual-channel is best.

That all depends on the motherboard.

[pooper]

i'm running ubuntu 10.04, thinking of going for a nice clean install of 64bit 10.04

[xyzzyman]

With the new LTS 12.04 coming up in a few months, maybe you might want to put 11.10 64bit on, as 12.04 is mostly stability and usability tweaks and will be less of a change for the upgrade.

If you are not going with 11.04/11.10 because you don't want to use Unity, then maybe you might want to look at xubuntu 11.10.