16gb to 32 gigs or ram worth it? (even for fun?)

djxput

djxput

djxput

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Running a mb that has 4 dimm slots and 16 gigs of mem in there atm ...
but had been debating about upping to 32 gigs using 4*8.

I do currently use a 256gig m4 ssd and 4 other HDs ...

Ive been curious as to how good using a ramdrive would be for games like (diablo) or even some things with windows ... or perhaps some other programs like my wife is into photography and installing something on here for her (no idea what she uses photoshop?).

anyways ... ya there is a cost ... can buy the new ram and sell my old stuff ... but still cost me a bit prob looking at a 100pound difference~

I know I can use a ramdrive with 16 but; really isnt that much space - 32 gigs would provide a bit more ...

what do you think? ... big waste? or ya go for it?
 
One thing you will need to check is what operating system your using, as Home Premium can only register 16gb ram.
 
RJC said:
One thing you will need to check is what operating system your using, as Home Premium can only register 16gb ram.
Click to expand...

use win7 64 bit professional ... and to answer numatic - nope dont use all 16gbs maybe get to 11-12 at times ...
 
I'm using 16gb of my 24gb ram as a ramdisk. This leaves me with 8gb of ram for Windows and whatever else is running.
Makes some stuff load almost instantly such as BF3, MMOs and Photoshop.

It works nicely but requires quite a bit of tweaking to get it right and you'll need to recopy all the data on the ramdisk + back it up constantly in case of a shutdown/restart.

Gimmicky but worth it if you know what you're doing.

Edit: Alternatively, consider small sized SSDs in raid 0. Speed should be decent, similar price to 32gb of ram and can actually save data :)
 
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I have used a RAMDisk (Dataram's variant) to produce an 8Gb RAMDisk out of my 16Gb. I play Arma2 which can benefit from speeding up by having some content on it, though with the game on an SSD I think the main benefit for it and BF3 etc it to speed up entry to maps. The Dataram tool allows a disk image to be stored and auto loaded at startup, which takes away some of the worry and pain.

I am also playing with a beta tool called FancyCache, which is currently free but time limited and likely to be chargeable if it makes it to a final product. It uses 'spare' RAM to make a cache for disks, and tbh in a lot of playing I can't see a major difference other than the speed of getting in to games.

I would also like to move to 24/32Gb RAM but use the home premium of Win 7 64bit, so although Windows will be limited to 16Gb I think these RAM tools see all memory (I used to have 8Gb on Win XP which only saw 3.5Gb, but the RAMDisk saw and setup the remainder). I see conflicting arguments on the benefits of moving the windows pagefile to a RAMDisk, but think it can only be goodness, unless your work/data is precious and not often saved.

cj
 
Most game engines etc can only utilise 8GB anyway. Unless you are using really sophisticated video editing software then its pointless.
 
I was wondering the same.

I might get 2 x 8 instead of 4 x 4 to give me the option on 32G in a year or two when I build a new rig. I run Virtualbox a lot with VM's.
 
Get 2x8gb memory.

I myself am running 32gb of Corsair Vengeance (4x8gb) & using 16gb of my ram as a ramdisk.

Plus using the ram disk for the Firefox Cache,etc, makes FF much quicker, & reduced disk read/writes for my ssd.

CJPH: I haven't bother moving my page file yet, happy with were it is, but I might experiment a bit with my new pc, & see if it's worth moving.
 
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Lots, just google, I use W7 64bit Pro, as it allows up to 192gb of memory, compared to W7 Home Premium is 16gb, & 'Dataram Ramdisk Pro' (cost me £6)which allows unlimited ram disk size, whereas the free version restricts you to 4GB disk size.

Link: http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk

I use this guide mainly for moving Fire Fox cache to it's new home, plus there is info on a ram disk, etc, but google & there is plenty of info.

Just realise about setting up a ram disk on my media centre pc, which would allow it to be used as a buffer when recording.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...te-Tweaks-amp-Utilities-*&p=442160#post442160
 
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raralis said:
I'm using 16gb of my 24gb ram as a ramdisk. This leaves me with 8gb of ram for Windows and whatever else is running.
Makes some stuff load almost instantly such as BF3, MMOs and Photoshop.

It works nicely but requires quite a bit of tweaking to get it right and you'll need to recopy all the data on the ramdisk + back it up constantly in case of a shutdown/restart.

Gimmicky but worth it if you know what you're doing.

Edit: Alternatively, consider small sized SSDs in raid 0. Speed should be decent, similar price to 32gb of ram and can actually save data :)
Click to expand...

cjph said:
I have used a RAMDisk (Dataram's variant) to produce an 8Gb RAMDisk out of my 16Gb. I play Arma2 which can benefit from speeding up by having some content on it, though with the game on an SSD I think the main benefit for it and BF3 etc it to speed up entry to maps. The Dataram tool allows a disk image to be stored and auto loaded at startup, which takes away some of the worry and pain.

I am also playing with a beta tool called FancyCache, which is currently free but time limited and likely to be chargeable if it makes it to a final product. It uses 'spare' RAM to make a cache for disks, and tbh in a lot of playing I can't see a major difference other than the speed of getting in to games.

I would also like to move to 24/32Gb RAM but use the home premium of Win 7 64bit, so although Windows will be limited to 16Gb I think these RAM tools see all memory (I used to have 8Gb on Win XP which only saw 3.5Gb, but the RAMDisk saw and setup the remainder). I see conflicting arguments on the benefits of moving the windows pagefile to a RAMDisk, but think it can only be goodness, unless your work/data is precious and not often saved.

cj
Click to expand...

Nightglow said:
Get 2x8gb memory.

I myself am running 32gb of Corsair Vengeance (4x8gb) & using 16gb of my ram as a ramdisk.

Plus using the ram disk for the Firefox Cache,etc, makes FF much quicker, & reduced disk read/writes for my ssd.

CJPH: I haven't bother moving my page file yet, happy with were it is, but I might experiment a bit with my new pc, & see if it's worth moving.
Click to expand...

thanks guys for the info ...

currently I am running 4 of these sticks
http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=357

was looking at getting 4 of these or these
http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=424
http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=493

The first ones are not that expensive ... read some articles on the different speeds of ram and suggests I might get a maybe 1 fps or maybe 2 using my current sticks over slower speed ram but thats about it.

Still debating
 
Any particular reason for Ripjaws?

OcUk has these http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-065-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=813

Pointless in my opinion going for anything faster, 1600mhz memory seems to be best for i5/i7 setups.

But, you could still have a ram disk with 16gb of memory, say split it 8/8 or some other size, depends what you want on the ram disk, but I settled on 16gb ram drive, but on my media pc, I've added some spare memory making a total of 32gb, so I'm considering a ram disk of 24gb - 28 gb for buffering, & the rest for system memory.
 
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cjph said:
I have used a RAMDisk (Dataram's variant) to produce an 8Gb RAMDisk out of my 16Gb. I play Arma2 which can benefit from speeding up by having some content on it, though with the game on an SSD I think the main benefit for it and BF3 etc it to speed up entry to maps. The Dataram tool allows a disk image to be stored and auto loaded at startup, which takes away some of the worry and pain.

I am also playing with a beta tool called FancyCache, which is currently free but time limited and likely to be chargeable if it makes it to a final product. It uses 'spare' RAM to make a cache for disks, and tbh in a lot of playing I can't see a major difference other than the speed of getting in to games.

I would also like to move to 24/32Gb RAM but use the home premium of Win 7 64bit, so although Windows will be limited to 16Gb I think these RAM tools see all memory (I used to have 8Gb on Win XP which only saw 3.5Gb, but the RAMDisk saw and setup the remainder). I see conflicting arguments on the benefits of moving the windows pagefile to a RAMDisk, but think it can only be goodness, unless your work/data is precious and not often saved.

cj
Click to expand...

This was an interesting read. How do you maniopulate the game files to interact with RAMDrive? BF3 particularly?

The tutorial link only talks about relocating IE & FF cache files etc, it doesn't touch on other uses.
 
Nightglow said:
Any particular reason for Ripjaws?

OcUk has these http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-065-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=813

Pointless in my opinion going for anything faster, 1600mhz memory seems to be best for i5/i7 setups.

But, you could still have a ram disk with 16gb of memory, say split it 8/8 or some other size, depends what you want on the ram disk, but I settled on 16gb ram drive, but on my media pc, I've added some spare memory making a total of 32gb, so I'm considering a ram disk of 24gb - 28 gb for buffering, & the rest for system memory.
Click to expand...

well the ram you listed are 8by 4gigs - Im running a z68 board which only has 4 dim slots ... so would have to go for 8 gig dimms to get the 32. Well liking the ripjaws that I currently have and have read some good reviews on them in general. Seems other brands 8 gig dimms are a bit expensive atm; excpet for the ripjaws
 
Can anything above 8GB really be utilised on a desktop machine used for gaming and converting avi's to mpegs so you can play them on your iPod?

Surely more ram just means that converting videos goes faster? not exactly slow on 8GB though
 
Jay794 said:
Can anything above 8GB really be utilised on a desktop machine used for gaming and converting avi's to mpegs so you can play them on your iPod?

Surely more ram just means that converting videos goes faster? not exactly slow on 8GB though
Click to expand...

Running virtual machines - which I do for my studies - eats memory. True, 8 Gig has a good stab at it and 16 would be even nicer. But, 32g nicer still (I assume, and TBH and hand on heart not 100% sure it will make any difference over 16G).
 
I have no idea about VM's but for the average desktop user, over 8GB is just wasting money IMO, after you spend so much on a PC it all just becomes benchmark numbers...
 
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