Ram question

I've been saying I was going to get some more ram since I bought my computer (still factory 256) well its been a year and 256 just doesn't quiet cut it anymore. I get an incredible amount of spinning beachballs. I can open 4 tabs and i have to stop for the stupid beachball about 3 times.

So I am going to buy a little bit now and little bit, in about 5 months.

I can max out at 2 1 gigs. I thought about going ahead just doing this, but its really expensive. So I've thought about 1 gig and 1 512... and thats an option. Or 512 now and a 512 down the road.

I don't want to just go up to 512, I atleast want to go 768.

So my question is, if it were possible to lay my computer out 5 different times, one with 2 gig, one with 1 gig and 512 and one with two 512's. Am I going to notice that big of a difference in speed between the three? I'm sick of this horrid lag and "thinking". I paid way to much for my computer to have to put up with the spinning beachball every night. I hope the 256 I have isn't corrupt

What is cronz?

I use to repair premissions at a good rate, but I got lazy the past 4 and half months and only do it like once a month sometimes I've done once every 8 weeks! neye:

I probably leave my computer up too long to. I use it 4-6 hours a day, leave it open and on but dont touch it for probably two hours a day and then it sleeps the rest of the day. And I only turn it off for like 4 hours a week. Is that bad?