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8GB of memory worth it?

sonnygdude

sonnygdude

Member
Hey all- hoping you could give some advice. I am replacing a 7 year old system and this is my first time building a computer. This is what I'm looking at for a potential config:

E8400 or 8500
ASUS P5Q Deluxe
4GB or 8GB of Corsair DDR2-1066 (TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF)
Radeon HD4870
1x WD raptor 74GB, 1x WD Caviar 500GB
Corsair HX520
Case TBD
Vista Ultimate 64bit


Is there really a benenfit to running 8GB of memory vs 4GB with this configuration? My limited worldview is that you can't have too much memory, but I notice from a lot of the signature blocks that it's much more common to see 4GB.

The computer will be used mostly for my... I mean, ahem, my kids', yeah that's it... games, including lots of older ones like the IL2 flight sim. Maybe some video editing

Am I pissing away money to be cool or will I notice a difference?

Any advice appreciated. Thanks!
 
its better to get 8GB of DDR2-800 then 4GB of DDR2-1066...
other then that, good choices. the diff between E8400 is negligeble, but the E8500 is priced a lot higher due to its higher multiplier, making it a better overclocker.

Vista has new caching algorithms that can use any and all ram you throw at it for a good boost. Even if not, with a 7 year upgrade cycle your BIGGEST long term issue would be lack of ram. why do you only upgrade every 7 years?

Set a $/year value.. and try to upgrade whenever it makes sense, which is 6-12 months for individual components... or 12-18 months for whole systems.
 
Get the DDR2-800 speed RAM unless you plan to overclock that CPU....if you are, then get the Gskill DDR2-1000.

8 Gig won't help much unless you run more than one program at a time (multiple virtual PC's are a good example), or if your program (not OS, but the application) is itself a 64-bit program. Of course, 3-4 years from now, more programs may be 64-bit (the new Photoshop will be 64-bit), so getting 8gig now isn't that bad a decision for future-proofing your PC, since RAM is so cheap now.
 
EarthwormJim - Awesome - thanks for the tip. I was pretty much buying on name, but in retrospect since they're probably all using chips that are made by the same shop it makes sense not to pay extra for just a brand name. I will go with your suggestion, buy the 8GB and save the money - thanks!

Taltamir - the 7 year cycle is (I hope) an anomaly. Mostly, has to do with my wife not letting me spend any time on the computer (plus having kids, etc)! My plan on going forward is to refresh on a more regular cycle.

Garfield - I think I'd like to leave the door open to doing a little overclocking if I feel things are sluggish a year or two down the road, so maybe the 8GB makes sense given the price. To my understanding, I have to tweak a little to run even at DDR 800, since the stock 1333 on the E8400 would be running at DDR 667, right? Very new to all this

Thanks again all for your help!
 
Originally posted by: sonnygdude
Garfield - I think I'd like to leave the door open to doing a little overclocking if I feel things are sluggish a year or two down the road, so maybe the 8GB makes sense given the price. To my understanding, I have to tweak a little to run even at DDR 800, since the stock 1333 on the E8400 would be running at DDR 667, right? Very new to all this

Thanks again all for your help!
Click to expand...

If you think you will overclock, especially with an e8400/8500, go ahead and get the DDR2-1000 RAM (Gskill is only $90 for 4gig). The price difference between 800 and 1000, is so low that if you might do it in the future, just go ahead and get what you need now.

At default speeds, your e8400 can RAM at 667, but motherboards have "memory dividers" that will run RAM at speeds higher then the FSB. So at a 1:1 ratio, it will run at 667Mhz. But if you buy DDR2-800, it should use a divider to run it at it's full 800Mhz speed.

With the E8400's 9X multi, many people are getting close to 4Ghz with that CPU, which means running a FSB of ~450MHz. With 1:1 memory divider, you will need DDR2-900 (which isn't made, so DDR2-1000 is the closest) to hit 4Ghz.
 
Is 8 GB worth is from an improved performance point of view?

Not likely, at least from what you said you're using your system for.

That said, i got 8 GB for the simple reason it's so cheap these days, which to me means that while you may not see a huge improvement...i figured why not considered the small premium needed to get it.

I will say though...if you don't plan to upgrade soon again though, you should be looking quad.

Duals are great; better for high OCing if you primarily just play games (one that don't utilize quads)...but duals are going to dated very soon.
IMO, they already are.
 
Garfield - thanks for the basic info about the motherboard memory dividers. I'd read about it in the memory FAQ, but after reading your post the little light bulb finally went on.

n7 - I went the same way as your thinking and got the 8GB for the "why not" factor. Also, if the new Photoshop is 64bit then it'll be handy to have pretty soon

Are there any games out there that can really take advantage of four cores? I thought I'd read somewhere that for all practical purposes games these days are running single thread. The reason I ask is that on Saturday I bought an E8500 - it was $50.00 off at Newegg when bundled with an Antec P182 case, so the bargain (stepping up from E8400 for $30.00) seemed worth it. Hopefully in 2 or 2.5 years I'l be getting a new mobo, CPU and memory anyway

Thanks again for all your help folks - all this stuff is confusing for a mechanical engineer (usually if I can't grab it with a pair of pliers I stay away from it!!) and I think you guys and gals are definitely the best resource out there for learning what the real deal is. I owe you all a beer
 
UE3 games, Sup Com, the latest MS flight simulator & there's lot more i can't remember.

People used to argue no point in dual cores for games, single core was fine.

Now i'm hearing the same thing for quads.

While it's certainly true for most games, there is a growing presense of quad friendly games.
And of course, for multitasking, the more cores, the merrier.
 
Yup, went ahead and got the 8GB recommended above for future overclocking - thanks to the overclocking guide here, I've now got the bug to delve into it.

n7 - you're making me have a little buyer's remorse about getting a dual core instead of a quad. On the other hand, moving off my current dinosaur should be such a quantum change that I probably won't know what I'm missing! 😀

So I'm gathering that running four sticks will be hard on the NB, but hopefully the mobo I selected (P5Q Deluxe) is meant to take it, the heat spreading looks pretty robust. When I'm running asynchronous, does reducing the divider ratio also reduce the load on the NB/memory? It sounds like no matter what bus speed I run on the memory I'll have to keep it a little over-volted (2.0-2.1V) for these sticks, right?
 
Originally posted by: Ichinisan
Originally posted by: EarthwormJimThat memory you picked out though is a bit (more than a bit) overpriced in my opinion.

Pick up this while it's on sale: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...0231166&Tpk=20-231-166
Click to expand...
This seems like a better deal to me. I went with 8GB for $160 (after rebate). They keep putting out a new rebate every time the old one expires.
Click to expand...


Originally posted by: sonnygdude
Yup, went ahead and got the 8GB recommended above for future overclocking - thanks to the overclocking guide here, I've now got the bug to delve into it.

n7 - you're making me have a little buyer's remorse about getting a dual core instead of a quad. On the other hand, moving off my current dinosaur should be such a quantum change that I probably won't know what I'm missing! 😀

So I'm gathering that running four sticks will be hard on the NB, but hopefully the mobo I selected (P5Q Deluxe) is meant to take it, the heat spreading looks pretty robust. When I'm running asynchronous, does reducing the divider ratio also reduce the load on the NB/memory? It sounds like no matter what bus speed I run on the memory I'll have to keep it a little over-volted (2.0-2.1V) for these sticks, right?
Click to expand...

Gah! I forgot to post the link to the cheaper/better memory that I mentioned!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145194

Sorry about that...

It's 4-4-4-12 @ 2.1v instead of 5-5-5-15, and only $80 after rebate for 4GB!
 
NP - it was good info but didn't help, I bought the memory on Saturday. Thanks for the tip though, that is a good deal
 
Originally posted by: sonnygdude
NP - it was good info but didn't help, I bought the memory on Saturday. Thanks for the tip though, that is a good deal
Click to expand...

I just bought more of the Corsair on Saturday. That $30 rebate expired last night, an a new one appeared today.
 
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