12GB RAM Too Much?

[Cosaides]

I'm building a new PC, and I plan to use 64-bit Windows 7, so I can utilize more than 3GB of RAM. Looking at people's recommendations, I can see the favored amount is 6GB of RAM. I wanted to future-proof my RAM needs however, so I was looking at getting 8GB of RAM. Then I found out that DDR3's performance advantage over DDR2, only happens when you have RAM installed, in multiples of 3. So to get more than 6, and get the benefits of DDR3, I would need 12GB of RAM. Is this too much? Is there any advantage to 12GB? Would this be a disadvantage, somehow? Thanks for any info

[md1198p]

Originally Posted by Cosaides

I'm building a new PC, and I plan to use 64-bit Windows 7, so I can utilize more than 3GB of RAM. Looking at people's recommendations, I can see the favored amount is 6GB of RAM. I wanted to future-proof my RAM needs however, so I was looking at getting 8GB of RAM. Then I found out that DDR3's performance advantage over DDR2, only happens when you have RAM installed, in multiples of 3. So to get more than 6, and get the benefits of DDR3, I would need 12GB of RAM. Is this too much? Is there any advantage to 12GB? Would this be a disadvantage, somehow? Thanks for any info

I have 12 on Vista 64. Ram is not very expensive, so if your going for the gusto, get it. If you are trying to save some money get 6. My MB has 6 slots, if your does also, get 6 now, and get another 6 later if you think you need it.

[ua549]

I have 16GB of memory and am considering adding another 16GB. My system can handle 64GB.

The amount you need depends entirely on what you are doing.
Are you running out of memory?
Is your page file being used excessively? (Some use is normal.)
The only drawback to having too much memory is that you've wasted money.

[Spank_Me_Hard]

Isn't DDR3 pretty cheap these days?

If so, I'd be tempted to go with 12GB.

Way back in the days of EDO RAM, I remember waiting for it to get constantly cheaper. Then an earthquake hit Taiwan and the prices jumped sharply... never to come down for that RAM again.

The lesson to me was to jump if you had any question while it was relatively cheap.

[Steve R Jones]

I look in Task Manager and see that I have 1.5 gigs of ram and that I'm not using HALF of it..Adding more ram for me would be a waste of hard earned cash cause there would be NO benefit to adding it...

As far as future-proof -> odds are my computing habits won't change anytime soon.

[Nater]

What do you do? If you're just playing games and ripping DVDs, 12GB of ram is a waste of money. If you're doing bracketed HDR exposures in CS4 then it's worth the cost.

I don't see why you're leaning towards an X58 system either, the P55 platform is a better value. The only advantage X58 has is Gulftown support, unless you do professional level video work or HD encodes for a torrent group you're not going to use the 6-cores and 12-threads of a Gulftown enough to warrant the $999 price tag.

[gkline]

For the Intel MBs and the I core 7s multiples of 3 for triple channel memory ( 6 gigs or 12). The I 750 is dual channel so 4 or 8 gigs. I have an AMD 965BE on my MSI 790FX-GD70 with 8 gigs and it is very smooth. It also was with 4 gigs. The comments above about wasting cash have merit. My suggestion is go with 6 gigs and snatch one of those Intel 40 gig ssd hds for your operating system. Your machine will FLY!
Here's the link to the ssd:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820167025

[genwarfare]

what do SSDs do and why are they so small in size? can someone explain their purpose or how they work to me?
i see lots of great reviews and people keep mentioning them but i cant figure out why.

do they just act like a regular hard drive that you would store larger/more demanding programs on?
or is it some sort of passive device that helps speed up your system? (i really am clueless )

and what you said about the triple channel memory, using either 6GB or 12GB, does that rely entirely on weather the specs say triple or double channel? as in: putting 8gb of ram in a triple channel motherboard doesnt make any sense?

[slupry]

12GB of ram costs too much.

[James]

Originally Posted by genwarfare

what do SSDs do and why are they so small in size? can someone explain their purpose or how they work to me?
i see lots of great reviews and people keep mentioning them but i cant figure out why.

do they just act like a regular hard drive that you would store larger/more demanding programs on?
or is it some sort of passive device that helps speed up your system? (i really am clueless )

and what you said about the triple channel memory, using either 6GB or 12GB, does that rely entirely on weather the specs say triple or double channel? as in: putting 8gb of ram in a triple channel motherboard doesnt make any sense?

If you want a really comprehensive overview of SSD technology, what it's good for, and what you should look for in an SSD, try reading the Anandtech SSD anthology.

If you just want a quick overview, SSD's are solid state storage devices. This gives them multiple benefits:
- Near zero access times compared to mechanical hard drives.
- Insanely high random access speeds compared to mechanical hdd's.
- Much higher transfer speeds than mechanical HDD's.
- Much lower power consumption than regular HDD's.
- The ability to offer more I/Ops than an entire RAID array of normal HDD's

They are best suited for any kind of data that needs lots of random access, large amounts of I/O, and large amounts of bandwidth for reading/writing. This generally defines an Operating system. The majority of people who have SSD's have their OS and primary applications on them, and then all of their data and secondary apps on a normal hdd. This majority includes myself after picking up one of the new Intel X25-M 80GB SSD's.

[gkline]

Cosaides: To stay on your point, if your MB has 6 memory slots get 6 gigs of quality ddr3 ram (use of 3 lots in triple channel) and with the $$$ you saved on the additional 6 gigs ram(@$150-175) buy the Intel X25 V ssd for $129
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820167025

You'll have enough room to install your operating system and perhaps an app you use alot. Then add a large mechanical HD for storage etc. Best bang for the buck. You can always add the ram later.

[Nater]

Originally Posted by genwarfare

what do SSDs do and why are they so small in size? can someone explain their purpose or how they work to me?
i see lots of great reviews and people keep mentioning them but i cant figure out why.

do they just act like a regular hard drive that you would store larger/more demanding programs on?
or is it some sort of passive device that helps speed up your system? (i really am clueless )

and what you said about the triple channel memory, using either 6GB or 12GB, does that rely entirely on weather the specs say triple or double channel? as in: putting 8gb of ram in a triple channel motherboard doesnt make any sense?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive

And what do you mean 'specs say double or triple channel'? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me, you either have 3/6 DIMMs (tri-channel) or you have 2/4 (dual channel).

[ua549]

Originally Posted by Nater

And what do you mean 'specs say double or triple channel'? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me, you either have 3/6 DIMMs (tri-channel) or you have 2/4 (dual channel).

The specs make the difference, not the number of memory slots because there are boards with more than 6 slots. My desktop board has 8 memory slots and my server board has 18 memory slots. I've owned boards with 2, 4, 12 and 16 memory slots.

IMO one should not make a generalization based on the number of memory slots since there are boards with 1, 2, 3 and 4 memory channels.

[fluffmonster]

Different cpus/mobos have different numbers of memory channels, with the vast majority being dual channel and 1366/x58 being triple channel. The best performance occurs when you have identical sticks for each channel, though the margin of "best" here can be very thin. Much as it pains me to defend Nater, consumer boards which are probably what is relevant here do usually come with two dimm slots per channel, hence 4 or 6 dimm slots. Intel LGA 1156 or 775 systems and any AMD system less than 5 years old are all dual channel and so you would want either 2 or 4 ram sticks. If a stickis 2GB, then you want either 4 or 8 GB ram total. LGA 1366 systems have 3 memory channels and most x58 boards have 6 dimm slots, so best performance comes from 3 or 6 sticks (though they perform damn near as well with just 2 ram sticks), so for 2 GB sticks you're talking 6GB or 12GB total.

To answer the question though, 12GB of ram is greatly excessive. 6GB should be plenty, and you can always pick up more if really necessary. However, if you do not have an x58/1366 system, then you should not be buying either...get either 4GB pack or 8GB. Note that this has nothing to do with whether the ram is ddr2 or ddr3 in particular, though x58 boards require ddr3 and so you will only see 3-stick packs of ram in ddr3. 2-stick ram packs come in both ddr2 and ddr3 flavors.

[Timman_24]

Originally Posted by ua549

I have 16GB of memory and am considering adding another 16GB. My system can handle 64GB.

The amount you need depends entirely on what you are doing.
Are you running out of memory?
Is your page file being used excessively? (Some use is normal.)
The only drawback to having too much memory is that you've wasted money.

What do you do that uses that much memory? I only have 4 gigs and I never run out of room even playing the new games.