4GB RAM necessary/preferred for Q6600

[dowhopdedodo]

I hate asking dumb questions. But, it's never stopped me in the past. So, here it goes. I'm building my first system. My question is whether I should buy 4GB of RAM for the uses I have in mind or does it matter given the Win 32 memory barrier?

I do a little gaming, but not a lot. I will be doing multiple concurrent tasks with this machine though, large graphic files in PS with a 3D app open, perhaps another graphics app as well. I often need to burn DVDs while working as well. The idea then was to distribute load by dedicating processors to tasks/apps when needed or using multi-threading on processor intensive tasks. (I thought about just going with a OC'd 6550 and maybe building a separate 2140 file server that could do DVD recording as well.)

In the end, the issue comes back to memory, and I'm not really clear on what I should do or why. More RAM is better with graphics apps, but there's the Win 32 memory issue (I'll be running Win XP Pro for the time being). My question is whether I can actually use 4GB for the uses I have in mind (allocate 2GB for multi-threaded PS, 1GB for the 3D app, 1GB for DVD or is 4GB moot given Win 32?) The processor hasn't shipped yet, so if my thinking is wrong, I can still shift to the 6550.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562Q6600
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit (5)
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black PATA Model SH-S202G - OEM
EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W Active Power Supply Retail
COOLER MASTER RC-534-KKN2-GP Centurion 534 Tool-Less Mid Tower Case

PS. The video card is the cheap ($75) alternative to the not yet shipping 8800GTs.

I'm not getting the faster RAM since I'm way over budget already and don't expect to do much, if any overclocking.

Is this is the latest version of the Q6600? Newegg wouldn't say nor would they promise the GO stepping version of this processor (oddly). Does it matter if I'm not overclocking?

Any help will be greatly appreciated and likely valuable to noobs like me as well. Thanks.

 

[stevty2889]

No point in going to 4 gig of ram, if you are running 32bit windows. You won't be able to use it all. If you plan to go to a 64bit OS later, it wouldn't hurt, but it's not going to benifit you in 32bit windows. But you can still use the quad core, you don't need 4gig of ram to take advantage of the extra CPU cores..

 

[Acanthus]

My may actually encounter stability issues going over 3.2GB on 32bit windows. Drivers tend to write themselves into unadressable space.

 

[myocardia]

For 32-bit Windows, the best thing you could do would be to add 2 x 512 MB of the same RAM to your order. 3GB of RAM will be completely usable (assuming you don't have two high performance video cards), and doesn't seem to give problems with some motherboard's, like 4GB sometimes does.

 

[kenrippy]

it doesn't matter which stepping of q6600 you get if you're not going to overclock. however, i suspect the resale value will be considerably higher if you get a G0 stepping q6600 from clubit since they offer you a choice. it won't cost you anymore now, but will gain you some when you sell your parts.

i was in your boat when deciding between 4/3/2gb of ram. i feel since 32bit windows only sees around 3.2-3.5gb of it, it was worth it to me to get 4x1gb in my system. i don't like having mixed pairs of ram in a system (2x1gb + 2x512mb) which may cause instabilities or timing issues. i'd rather have 4 matched pairs. i went with 4x1gb crucial ballistix ddr800 and they run just fine @ their rated timings, speed & voltage. so, my vote goes for getting 4 matched 1gb sticks while you can. you'll be hard pressed to find another matched 2gb kit in a year or two when you decide to upgrade or go to x64 bit OS. get them all now.

 

[dowhopdedodo]

Thank you all very much. It's quite reassuring having experienced people offering insights.

I was thinking I'd wait for the first Vista SP release to stabilize before upgrading to it and 64bit. It seems like it might make more sense to go to 64bit then, buy two 2GB sticks and move the current ram to an upcoming file server.

Oddly, I had the 4x1gb combo orginally selected for purchase before realizing it might be more efficient to by 2x2gb sticks instead.

I wonder if the Intel part # specifies G0 stepping? Seems like it should. The ClubIT retail Q6600 GO has a product id of BX80562Q6600. The Newegg part is the same. I would assume it's safe to say they're the same parts, as in GO.

As for OCing, well I added an OCZ Vendetta cooler last night as the price was right and it got such a great review here recently. So, I may try to push things a little understanding there's not a lot of room given the RAM I've purchased (5).

I've done lots of R&R of parts over the years, Mac and Intel boxes. This is my first build rather than disassembly and repair, however. So, I'm quite excited, not only getting a new and vastly more powerful system, but building to my spec (and budget) as well.

Thanks again.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: dowhopdedodo
Thank you all very much. It's quite reassuring having experienced people offering insights.

I was thinking I'd wait for the first Vista SP release to stabilize before upgrading to it and 64bit. It seems like it might make more sense to go to 64bit then, buy two 2GB sticks and move the current ram to an upcoming file server.

Oddly, I had the 4x1gb combo orginally selected for purchase before realizing it might be more efficient to by 2x2gb sticks instead.

I wonder if the Intel part # specifies G0 stepping? Seems like it should. The ClubIT retail Q6600 GO has a product id of BX80562Q6600. The Newegg part is the same. I would assume it's safe to say they're the same parts, as in GO.

As for OCing, well I added an OCZ Vendetta cooler last night as the price was right and it got such a great review here recently. So, I may try to push things a little understanding there's not a lot of room given the RAM I've purchased (5).

I've done lots of R&R of parts over the years, Mac and Intel boxes. This is my first build rather than disassembly and repair, however. So, I'm quite excited, not only getting a new and vastly more powerful system, but building to my spec (and budget) as well.

Thanks again.

Youre looking at the part number, not the vendor ID.

if it ends in SLACR its a G0, if it ends in SL9UM it's the older B3.

 

[Bacstar]

Just a little aside if you're thinking about going 64bit Vista:

Before I upgraded this last time around, I was running a dual boot system using WinXP64 and Vista32. I kinda had to because I couldn't get a Cisco VPN to work on any 64bit operating system. Vista was flakey but it worked however with some glitches in Vista.

Well I upgraded last week to an AM2 system, and I was sick of dual booting so I did a little digging around on Microsoft's website. They're offering Virtual PC for free which allows you to run a "virtual pc" in a window on your native operating system.

It works great. My native OS is Vista64 Home Premium, and I have a Virtual machine using Windows XP. Now any work apps I have, I installed on XP and everything else I run in Vista64. My hardware is all new so finding drivers was a lot easier than when I first installed XP64. (Virtual PC is not officially supported on Vista Home Premium, but it works perfectly)

Check out the info on Microsoft's website.

http://www.microsoft.com/windo...virtualpc/default.mspx

 

[BoboKatt]

I have 2 systems that I use most. One is a C2D e6850 and other is Q6600 G0. Both have 4 X 1024 of RAM. One has 4 Crucial Ballstix and other has Patriot. Both run WinXP 32. Now it's true I do not see anywhere need the 4 GIG?s of RAM. In fact in one I am using a 8800GTX and I actually see even less RAM than the other which uses an ATI X1950XT.

Anyhow, I can attest that before with only 2 GIG's of RAM doing some intense apps all while playing say, 3 instances of Everquest etc, all while burning, all while doing this and that, I would get issues or crash here or there. With the added RAM... those issues have gone away.

I tried installing my copy of XP64, which I had ordered. I have it at home. I installed it and was so hopeful to see the full 4 GIG's of RAM. Everything went off without a hitch. I really thought I had found my calling and my new OS. I was very lucky and still am that all my hardware actually has Xp64 support except wireless NIC but I found a workaround. Anyhow long story... I honestly did NOT notice any improvement at all in memory management or better stability even with the full 4 GIG?s showing. Thus either I am really not stressing the system as I had thought and never will and thus Xp64 wont ever show off any benefit... or xp32 was doing just fine with 3.2 GIG's of RAM out of its 4 GIG's. I am passing on Vista for now.

What I honestly wish more than RAM usage would be to actually see my quad core being used. I have yet to see core 3 and 4 ever being used other than when I am running some stupid bench or stability test. I had hoped that somehow through magic or voodoo, that when my first 2 cores were being dragged to the ground.. somehow XP would be smart enough to let the other 2 cores do something. I guess all I can hope for is to physically assign say the last core to burn a DVD or play an MP3 in the background. Is that what folks are doing? Is there any point to that? Do I have all this stuff wrong? Why can?t I eat 48 hot chicken wings without having to suffer next day??

 

[jmmtn4aj]

Originally posted by: myocardia
For 32-bit Windows, the best thing you could do would be to add 2 x 512 MB of the same RAM to your order. 3GB of RAM will be completely usable (assuming you don't have two high performance video cards), and doesn't seem to give problems with some motherboard's, like 4GB sometimes does.

But dual channel..?

 

[PCTC2]

Originally posted by: jmmtn4aj

Originally posted by: myocardia
For 32-bit Windows, the best thing you could do would be to add 2 x 512 MB of the same RAM to your order. 3GB of RAM will be completely usable (assuming you don't have two high performance video cards), and doesn't seem to give problems with some motherboard's, like 4GB sometimes does.

But dual channel..?

Yes. If you run 2x 1GB and 2x 512MB in the correct corresponding slots (alternating) then it will be dual channel.

On a similar note, if you do have some high performance cards, then the extra 1 GB is useless in a 32-bit OS. I have 2x 512MB 7950GT's and a 32-bit OS only sees 2.3GB of my 4GB. That's when I switched to XP 64-bit and Vista 64-bit triple-boot. Each has it's own pro's and con's. (XP 64-bit is based off of Windows Server 2003, not XP).