8GB overkill?

[tigersty1e]

I'm thinking of making the switch to Vista 64 bit and see that most people have 4GB and even most benches use 4 GB.

The machine will only be used for gaming, internet, school, and basic general stuff.

Is 8 GB overkill?... or are we fast approaching the time when 4 GB will not be enough?

 

[n7]

Yes & no?

4 GB is certainly enough, but with Vista's aggresive caching & DDR2 prices so incredibly cheap, i think it's become somewhat of a "Why not?!" situation

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

Overkill. 4GB is enough, maybe more than enough for general use. There is no such thing as "too much" memory but, if you like keeping your money in the bank, the question is "why?" and "why not?" Vista 64 will use as much memory as you can throw at it for cache but at some point the value of additional memory diminishes. For most people that point is 4GB.

On Newegg the cheapest 2x2GB kit runs for $79.99+4.99s/h, getting an additional kit (4x2 kits are lol) will double the price and you'll hardly notice the difference.

Edit:Don't be a pussy. Do it.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

delete

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

In general no, 8Gig isn't needed. Some programs it might help with, like large photo/video editing, but for general stuff, no.

 

[her209]

16GB is overkill.

 

[walterthedog]

Tom's did an article a couple of days ago about the benefits and drawbacks of using 8GB in Vista 64.

Vista Workshop: More RAM, More Speed

 

[taltamir]

for what you describe as your usage you only need 4.

Tom's hardware article about the issue was atrocious.
It was mostly "OMFG, there is 64bit OS! and it can address more ram! WOW... but there are driver issues!"
Terrible. Really below what I have come to expect from tom's

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: n7
Yes & no?

4 GB is certainly enough, but with Vista's aggresive caching & DDR2 prices so incredibly cheap, i think it's become somewhat of a "Why not?!" situation

I agree. There is no such thing as overkill.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: Rubycon

Originally posted by: n7
Yes & no?

4 GB is certainly enough, but with Vista's aggresive caching & DDR2 prices so incredibly cheap, i think it's become somewhat of a "Why not?!" situation

I agree. There is no such thing as overkill.

:shocked:

 

[lopri]

What the..

What are the rest of the system spec? Please do tell.

Oh and to the OP: One thing I learned with Vista/RAM is that HDD performance and acoustics is just as much important for a pleasant computing. Due to its aggressive fetching, HDDs will run quite vigorously after your RAM is released (after gaming or any app that uses lots of RAM). It's kind of an ironical situation because the Super Fetch was conceived to lessen the access to HDDs for your most often used applications. Those apps load faster, yes, but it's not very pleasant to deal with the spindling noise every time you finish a gaming session, etc. I am abandoning Raptors for that very reason and going with quieter HDDs in RAID0. Of course if money is no object there is always this thing called SSD. High-performance SSD will give the best of both worlds. Just have a Valium handy before you check out the prices.

 

[n7]

This off topic, but how do you like Windows Home Server lopri?

I assume WHS is that.

I'm interested in it, but was going to do some more research before ordering the 120 day trial discs...

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: Rubycon

Originally posted by: n7
Yes & no?

4 GB is certainly enough, but with Vista's aggresive caching & DDR2 prices so incredibly cheap, i think it's become somewhat of a "Why not?!" situation

I agree. There is no such thing as overkill.

Work or home machine?

 

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: lopri
What the..

What are the rest of the system spec? Please do tell.

What the..

What are the rest of the system spec? Please do tell.

 

[Rubycon]

Ok since you asked...

SuperMicro X7DWA-N -interesting model number as its my first name spelled wrong.
NV QuadroFX 5600 (1) Overpriced video card that's slower than my 3870x2 (ignorance I know) but works great for the simulation software it runs.
64GB (8 DIMMS) DDR-2 6400 ECC FB RAM This stuff gets HOT even with a 92mm screamer blowing on it!
Areca ARC-1680 SAS HBA w/2GB DDR-2 ECC CACHE and LiPoly BBU. The CPU on this HBA gets hotter than most fanless video cards!
24 Fujitsu MAX SAS 146GB 15K drives in Supermicro SAS external cages on 2X expanders (RAID0 scratch disks and single member logical disks with WB schema for database dump files, etc.)
(2) 1.2kW Etasis Power supplies
Dual Pioneer BluRay writers
USB Floppy :roll:
Partridge in a pair of trees (RAID1)

Oh and since I um work and live at the same place - I guess you could say its a home system.

 

[imported_wired247]

you need more 15k drives ... 24 is weaksauce with their miniscule storage

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: wired247
you need more 15k drives ... 24 is weaksauce with their miniscule storage

Well space-wise it is relatively short I guess. But those SANS have lots of storage. Anyone using I-SCSI on Vista these days?

What would be nice is 512GB cache on PCI-E 2.0 and filling the channels with SSD's. The 2GB cache is noticeable on the current setup as it is and has a real bandwidth of about 2GB/S both ways. I just wish it was bigger. More power! :evil: