Upgrade? Sunk cost = lost $?

[jelifah]

Good morning all,

I just purchased a Sony HC3 Hi-Def camcorder. I'm confident the system will run well enough to edit HD, but with the price cuts a simple upgrade itch has struck.

Currently running
3200+, overclocked from 2.0 to 2.4
1GB PC-3200 Mushkin (512 x 2)

My motherboard has 4 slots.

So what and how would you upgrade?
Would you spend the money and get the nice dual core X2 3800?
What performance hit would I take if I dropped in 2 more 512 RAM sticks? Would it be MORE performance beneficial to buy 2 x 1GB sticks and sell the 512 sticks I currently own?

Then of course there is the whole problem of knowing the memory I am buying can't make the upgrade to the next socket in a few years.

Currently NewEgg shows 512MB sticks for $49 and 1GB sticks for $85

 

[Bobthelost]

4x512 vs 2x1GB results in a small (1-3%) difference in performance. Considering the doubled cost i wouldn't bother. Also some motherboards can't run with 3 Dimms, check the manual.

A Nice juicy 3800X2 would be nice, but try it out as it is first, could be that it's fast enough for you.

 

[GrammatonJP]

I dont edit HD, I have digital hi-8.. I'm running x2 3800 but with 4gb ram.. Originally Had 2gb, worked great... but up to 4 so I can have a little more head room...

if cost isn't an issue, drop in 2x1 and use it with existing 2x512.. but yeah, the speed will drop to ddr333...

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Buy the DDR used, there are already killer deals in FS/FT forum on premium stuff, as folk migrate to DDR2 based platforms. Should be able to get a used X2 very cheap too, since the 3800+ is already in the $150 range new. sub $250 upgrade to double ram and add a dual core that can OC 2.5ghz+ on air + SMP aware encoder, would be money well spent for HD video work.

Having to sell the DDR down the road could be a good thing, as it gets more scarce in a couple years, it may fetch a premium on ebay@that point.

 

[jelifah]

Speaking of the memory performance difference wasn't an article done, on HardOCP or Anandtech, comparing 1GB vs 2GB? Google was no help

 

[Bobthelost]

Loads of them done, Anandtech has one if you go back far enough, THG had (a rather iffy) one too.

Short answer is most people don't need or benifit from 2GB, gamers do as it eliminates pauses as the swap file is accesssed, photoshoppers might if they use it enough.

 

[jelifah]

When using 4 sticks of RAM is it okay to have 2 sized at 512MB and 2 sized at 1GB? Assuming you pair them correctly.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: jelifah
When using 4 sticks of RAM is it okay to have 2 sized at 512MB and 2 sized at 1GB? Assuming you pair them correctly.

With my K8N SLI, it just states that all 4 need to be either all single sided/SS will run *DDR400*, or all double sided/DS will run *DDR333*. I have used 4 DS sticks in mine, and can run past DDR400 by setting it manualy and boosting ram to 2.8- 2.85v, but with 2T command rate.

 

[Penth]

X2s should be able to run 4 sticks at DDR400 but they will run at 2T command rate.

 

[jelifah]

But dropping to 2T command rate would only result in a 1-3% performance difference, according to Bobthelost above, right?

Which actually brings me to the other thought. Which gives more of a performance boost, since both upgrades are similar in cost?

Moving from 1GB of RAM to 3GB of RAM (2-512 & 2-1GB sticks)?
Or
Moving from a Single Core 3200+ to an x2 3800+?

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: jelifah
But dropping to 2T command rate would only result in a 1-3% performance difference, according to Bobthelost above, right?

Which actually brings me to the other thought. Which gives more of a performance boost, since both upgrades are similar in cost?

Moving from 1GB of RAM to 3GB of RAM (2-512 & 2-1GB sticks)?
Or
Moving from a Single Core 3200+ to an x2 3800+?

you would probably have to run 3 sticks in 2t anyway (not sure) so just 4x512 and a 3800 and o/c to 2.2-2.4 to make up for the 2t hit (you will never notice it unless you benchmark)

but to answer your question - the 3800 w/1GB of ram would be better than a 3200 w/ 3GB unless with the 1GB setup you are hitting the pagefile all the time. it is easy to find out how much ram you are maxing out at

 

[stevty2889]

Video encoding will benifit a lot more from a dual core, than from more memory. Most encoding is much more cpu intensive than ram intensive. A large portion of the encoding applications are SMP aware and would benifit greatly from a dual core.

 

[jelifah]

So the encoding would benefit.

But when you're in the app, don't you load the video you are editting in to RAM? So the encoding is normally press the button and walk away anyway, right? Or is there some encoding done on the fly as you work on the video?

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: jelifah
So the encoding would benefit.

But when you're in the app, don't you load the video you are editting in to RAM? So the encoding is normally press the button and walk away anyway, right? Or is there some encoding done on the fly as you work on the video?

you definately do not load it into ram, at least all of it consider that uncompressed mini-dv is like 12GB/hr and i am sure HD stuff is much more, unless it is already converted to mp4...don't really know much about HD stuff.

why don't you just start your editor up, do a small amount of editing, do some encoding and then see what your max ram usage is under the task manager performance tab. just to make sure you would be using more than your current 1GB of memory, use a test file of 3-4GB.