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Other => General Topics => Topic started by: Chris Thomas on August 18, 2012, 04:39:24 AM
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I have read lots of articles and read so many opinion about people saying different things about having more ram. Some say 16GB is a waste of money and 16GB makes things slower when compared to 8GB ram. I have not been able to get a conclusive answer from anywhere.
What do you think? Is it just a waste of money to get 16GB and instead get a SSD drive? Or is 8GB the optimum?
Some people say that if people have only 4GB in their 64bit system, only 2GB is usable and the rest 2 is already allocated to the system.
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G'day Chris,
It depends on what you're really doing behind the PC at home whether you're doing business work, or just playing hardcore PC games like Call of Duty Black Ops which can eat a lot of RAM depends on which level part of the game.
Chris I'm a senior structural draftsperson and I do a lot of engineering work in commercial, residential and industrial developments for buildings, I used AutoCAD and Revit Structure 3D modelling package on W7 64bit with 16GB DDR RAM on a laptop because 3D modelling can eat up the PC it depends on how much design information I have to create and build.
For you as you're normal everyday used on W7 64bit just stick to 8GB RAM is enough, unless you're doing heavy graphic design work 16GB RAM is prefect it really depends on what you're doing behind the PC.
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I just built my Windows 7 computer the end of May and it has 8G of RAM.
Memory is so cheap these days I'm going to add 8G more as soon as I get over the shock of buying the parts for this one. ;D
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@ Chris Thomas
You won't get an SSD for the price of 8GB of RAM, no matter how expensive the RAM.
Is it just a waste of money to get 16GB and instead get a SSD drive?
This is also not really comparable, whilst an SSD will speed up boot, file loading, writing and file access, but it doesn't impact on RAM use as it is loading these files into RAM. So if you didn't have sufficient RAM for the tasks you are doing Gaming, Video editing, etc. then the RAM would become the bottle neck. But that probably wouldn't be as severe because the SSD would mean faster file access and that would include the swapfile if in the SDD.
Having the swapfile on the SSD and not a conventional drive is a bone of contention as you have to balance the number of writes across an SSD for there are limitations on the number of writes to a sector, etc. So the Installation and Use of an SSD is something you would need to read up on.
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Is it just a waste of money to get 16GB and instead get a SSD drive? Or is 8GB the optimum?
Some people say that if people have only 4GB in their 64bit system, only 2GB is usable and the rest 2 is already allocated to the system.
You can think of it as such that with a 64bit system, only 2GB is 'useable' of the rest while 2GB are already allocated to the system I suppose! But your systems already needs 2! The other way to think of it is that a 64bit system requires 2GB for the system itself but the rest after those 2 are availible to be allocated to be used for everything else... but how much is the optimum max, 6, 8, 12, 16, 32?
The only issue for you is weither 8GB or 16GB of RAM is worth it for you or if the extra price difference could be better put towards something like an SSD especially in relation to any different improvements each option can be gained. But even DDR3 RAM is much cheaper now days while an SSD is still quite expensive, but their price has also significantly come down too and their size has increased. (I just bought a 256GB SSD for just under a dollar per GB, finally!!!)
I'm no expert but... I have also read quite a bit on the question of how much RAM, 8GB or 16GB and TBH, my 'understanding' is that 8GB is mostly all you'll use at most for most things AIUI and there is any benefit with double that amount, unless Windows 8 changes the paradigm. Therefore 8GB probably would be optimum especially if it allows you to afford an SSD, especially since the performance improvements from an upgrade to a sufficient sized SSD for at least a boot drive will far outweigh the extra RAM, which m ight very well be a waste anyway. (An SSD might even be a better benefit just for using to place the Page file aka swap file on too, than having the extra RAM, quite frankly.)
Also, bear in mind that the speed of the RAM is just as important as the size of it, I'm using a fast set low latency 2GB in a 32bit system instead of a slower higher latency set of 4GB that I've tried. So you might be better off paying a little more for a set of low latency 1333 or 1600 at least 8GB instead of a cheap set of high latency 16GB at 1066 while getting a boot sized SSD if affordable on your budget, even if you were only going to use it for the Page or swap file.
16GB is a bit of marketing hype by the RAM manufacturers to a degree as is >2GB GPU RAM by Graphics card makers unless you have 3 32inch displays...
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You will gain more with an SSD drive than adding another 8GB of RAM(assuming you already have 8GB). Your system will boot faster, load programs faster and feel much more responsive. As has been suggested, if you don't do any heavy duty photo/video/3d modeling/running lot's of VM's at once etc. etc. than 8GB will be more than enough, being a gamer myself i can certainly tell you 8GB of RAM is more than enough for any game out there today, have not run out of RAM yet(not even close to that). The thing that made the biggest difference for me was the SSD drive, you will understand what is really holding your PC back once you put your OS on that SSD drive. :D
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Thanks SpeedyPC, jadinolf, DavidR, Saulius, Darth.Mikey for the advise :) I will try and get an SSD drive 8)
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You're welcome.
My next system as and when I get it will have a SATA3 SSD primary hard drive and secondary SATA3 HDD. But at the moment SSDs are too damn expensive in the UK.
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at the moment SSDs are too damn expensive in the UK.
Same in USA.
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at the moment SSDs are too damn expensive in the UK.
Same in USA.
That may be so, but we also seem to get stiffed with a straight $US to £ exchange rate when it is currently £1 = $1.57
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at the moment SSDs are too damn expensive in the UK.
Same in USA.
That may be so, but we also seem to get stiffed with a straight $US to £ exchange rate when it is currently £1 = $1.57
Yes, here is costly too. I am just looking at it and studying it. I think I will wait for sometime.
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Yes, here is costly too. I am just looking at it and studying it. I think I will wait for sometime.
Chris just get the SATA3 SSD which is cheaper than the SSD and it does the same job ;)
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Thanks SpeedyPC, jadinolf, DavidR, Saulius, Darth.Mikey for the advise :) I will try and get an SSD drive 8)
Chris, I ordered the extra 8G of RAM today. Price was $40 U.S. Should be here tomorrow or Friday.
I already have a SSD. By the way, the longer you wait, the less expensive they will be.
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The RAM is here and installed.
Now we shall see.
I never would have rested until I tried it. :)
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Thanks again for the advise speedy.
Thanks SpeedyPC, jadinolf, DavidR, Saulius, Darth.Mikey for the advise :) I will try and get an SSD drive 8)
Chris, I ordered the extra 8G of RAM today. Price was $40 U.S. Should be here tomorrow or Friday.
I already have a SSD. By the way, the longer you wait, the less expensive they will be.
Thats great Jadinolf ;)
How is your system now? Do you find any difference after getting 16 GB ram?