Win7 & RAM

loudbob · 4 Oct 2009 at 00:34

Just a quick question:

Gonna upgrade to Win7 when released and was wondering:

Would 8Gb Ram be overkill?

Or is 4Gb enough?

Thanks in advance for any thougths

alex24 · 4 Oct 2009 at 00:34

4GB should be more than enough, but it's going to depend on what the PC is used for.

LeJosh · 4 Oct 2009 at 00:38

4GB is fine I believe.

loudbob · 4 Oct 2009 at 00:39

Thanks

Most of the time it is crunching SETI work units.

However, I do a little bit of video conversion (mpeg>avi etc) for friends maybe once or twice a month.

alex24 · 4 Oct 2009 at 00:43

Then I see no reason to go higher than 4GB. Put the money towards another component if it's really burning a hole in your pocket!

LeJosh · 4 Oct 2009 at 00:45

Video conversion is mainly controlled by the CPU isn't it?

loudbob · 4 Oct 2009 at 00:45

Erm....

Can't fit anything else in there.....and it's a BIG case.

But I shall put it in the GTX300 fund.

Once again.....Thanks

loudbob · 4 Oct 2009 at 00:53

I just found another thread covering the same question.

Gonna have a read thro it.

But thanks for the prompt replies.

Kennysevenfold · 4 Oct 2009 at 00:53

Hope all goes well mate

Audigex · 4 Oct 2009 at 03:50

I've never seen mine go over 1.8gb, so I'd surmise that 2gb is survivable, 4gb is plenty and 8gb is a waste of cash :-)

theheyes · 4 Oct 2009 at 10:05

I run it with 2GB and I've never thought "hmm, could do with more RAM" and I use VMs and all sorts. For the sake of future proofing I would go with 4GB but I wouldn't bust a gut to stretch to 8GB.

Make sure you get the 64bit version of Windows.

Axil · 4 Oct 2009 at 10:22

8gb is only really useful is you have a lot of programs running at the same time. In general use 4Gb will be more than adequate
I'm using win 7 x64 myself with 8Gb after moving from 4Gb and the gain is at best small until you start using a lot of RAM intensive programs at the same time. Of course if you somehow end up using a badly programmed program with a memory leak the extra memory overhad does keep you going for a little extra while

braveheart · 5 Oct 2009 at 13:29

I used 8GB OCZ DDR2-800 cos it was so cheap on OCUK that I bought last year (4x2GB) and yes it would overkill with windows 7. between 2Gb to 4GB usually and few using 8GB or more - 4GB is much enough but it up to you to sped to get 8GB.. I got cheap last year.. it was good price to grab

bledd · 5 Oct 2009 at 14:25

I was running 8gb

had to put 4gb into another machine with the intention of replacing it in my desktop, I didn't in the end and can't say I notice the difference..

all I do is play games on that machine though