Ram?
 

I have 4 gig at the moment do you think it might be worth getting another 4 to make 8gig?

Its cheap at the moment but would rather not waste £40 just for the sake of something that might be outdated to DDR4/5 ram by the time programs get around to using 8 gigs.

I do play games but most I have seen use is 2gig I dont do any video editing or play microsoft flight simulator where 8 gigs might be needed for that.

---------- Post added at 19:00 ---------- Previous post was at 18:58 ----------

Thought I might add that in task manager its says I am using 26% of ram when idle

Re: Ram?
 

So you don't need it and don't want it, why are you asking?

Re: Ram?
 

Only reason as to why I went above 4GB is that I had a specific need for it (high end CAD) If you don't need it now then don't bother because as you say it'll probably be outdated by the time you do need it.

Re: Ram?
 

Only reason I went above 4GB was to show off.

Re: Ram?
 

I just added another 8GB which only cost £39 as the price has been rather low lately and it suddenly started shooting up again the other week, so i thought i would grab some of the same type even if i didn't need it. The price has shot up to £44 so i think i did the right thing.

Re: Ram?
 

Dunno what your idea of "shot up" is but 8GB only costs £31 right now.

Re: Ram?
 

Well I dont know if I need it or not sure if any games I have come across ever needed that much?

It was a shot in the dark really from other users point of view see what the feel is out there from some that maybe use and need it and see if its worth me going out and getting another 4 gig especially with it being cheap at the moment

Re: Ram?
 

The corsair 1600 DDR3 is around £44 now so it is a large percentage increase which was over a 7 day period. This was due to a large ram manufacture applying for bankruptcy protection if i remember correctly, so i thought i would buy it incase it went up alot more similar to how hard disk drives have.

Re: Ram?
 

I am only on 2 GB RAM, thinking of buying some more RAM. Which would be better, replace one of the 1 GB RAM with a 2 GB RAM and then have 3 GB RAM, or replace both? Loathe to replace both really, as I only bought the other 1 GB last year so would probably be better to purchase 2 GB RAM and install that in place of the older 1 GB RAM.

Re: Ram?
 

Replace both to have a matching pair thus doubling the data rate, you also need to check your motherboard manual for which specification you need.

Re: Ram?
 

Corsair 1600 DDR3 is £38 right now.

Also not sure how wise it is to base your opinions of the RAM market as a whole on one product and one price.

Re: Ram?
 

Most motherboards run ram in dual channel mode if you replace only one ram it'll default to single channel mode which is slower. To stick with Dual channel you need identical spec ram.

Be aware though that if you are using a 32bit OS then even with 4GB it'll only show 3GB

Re: Ram?
 

I don't think most people will notice the difference between single and dual-channel mode.

Re: Ram?
 

Depends what you're doing.. gaming no but cad or any other memory intensive then yes ;)

Re: Ram?
 

I was just about to ask the same 32bit / x64 question!

Re: Ram?
 

To be honest I think even in CAD the difference will be negligible. There's no real difference going from one channel to two channel in 3D Studio Max, x264 encoding, or various other encoding/rendering thingies, nor any difference going from two to four channels in Cinebench, Photoshop, POV-Ray or Lightwave 3D

Re: Ram?
 

It does make a difference especially when cut/pasting from one project to another..

...GAWD is POV still going?? I remember programming some simple scenarios in that back in the early '90s and then waiting overnight whilst it rendered a single image :rofl:

Re: Ram?
 

I went to amazon and ordered another 4 gig £22.50 free postage so that wasn't too bad.

I'm using Corsair XMS3 1600 CL9 so ordered another 2 of them.

As others said though check your motherboards manufacturer I made the mistake of getting 4 gig of cheap brand memory and it wouldn't work with my gigabyte motherboard. wouldn't post boot at all

Re: Ram?
 

Wow. I would only go up to something like 3GB RAM anyway.

Crucial.com does a scanner that tells you what RAM you need.

Re: Ram?
 

The general "snappyness" from going to 2 to 4GB is noticeable. Infact, i only sell machines with a minimum of 4GB of RAM these days, mainly due to how cheap it is, but because it's the "sweet spot".

The same could be said from 4 to 8GB depending on how well used your system is, how many programs you have running (especially when booting).

Windows will use most of your memory to cache programs and files you use regularly, the more memory you have, the more it will cache, which helps with the speed of your system since RAM is so much faster than your HDD. It doesn't show in task manager as using all of your memory, as when something needs the memory, it immediately re-allocates it to the opened program.

The Crucial scanner is good for beginners and people with pre-builts, but you'll find the 95% of memory will work in any motherboard. It's usually the non branded memory or ungodly cheap stuff which has compatibility issues. Most manufacturers provide a compatibility table which has a list of brands and modules they've tested with their boards just to be on the safe side.

Re: Ram?
 

I've not had problems even with the ungodly cheap stuff. Even overclocked it by 40% without issue, so it's not all bad.

Re: Ram?
 

Indeed, you'll probably find that most value RAM will overclock these days but as ever, if overclocking was something you were interested in you'd go for DIMMS which have a reputation for good clocking, or buy a set of 1600MHz DIMMS. Value RAM may overclock but it's always going to be up in the air how far you can push it. Also, if overclocking is of interest, buying a set of 1600MHz DIMMS and tightening the timings would be of more benefit than increasing the frequency, but the amount of people who buy value RAM anyway to overclock is probably small, and memory is so cheap these days that a few quid more will get you a decent set of branded modules loaded with high quality memory.

Re: Ram?
 

I don't buy RAM to overclock. I just buy the cheapest RAM I can find and save 50% of the cost. If it overclocks, great. If it doesn't, well, I haven't run into that situation yet. Even if I do, I'll have still saved a giant ton of money over buying uselessly upmarketed "overclocking" RAM.

My "value" RAM has never been the limiting factor in my overclocking, even when pushed beyond 40%.

Re: Ram?
 

I wouldn't say it was useless, but RAM overclocking is pretty much pointless if you have the idea that it will increase system performance, higher frequencies are mainly used for e-peen purposes, but like you say if you can get away with a 40% overclock on value RAM then there's no need to go for anything more as the only reason you need to overclock it anyway is because it goes up with the FSB, or baseclock as they call it these days.

Re: Ram?
 

Like I said, I don't buy RAM to overclock it. Since you clearly know increasing base clock increases RAM clock then you should also clearly know that alone gives reason for more than 40% overclock.

Re: Ram?
 

Nobody should buy value RAM and have reason for a 40% overclock. I'd love to see your proof for a 40% overclock on an unbranded stick of generic memory, as DDR3 is generally 1333Mhz memory you'd be approaching 1900Mhz for a 40% overclock...

Re: Ram?
 

I think you'll find DDR3 is 666Mhz and there's no such thing as 1333Mhz DDR3 RAM. Mine's been running as high as 900 but I never said DDR-3 specifically.

In any case going back, I've had
PC66 overclocked to 100Mhz
PC100 overclocked to 150Mhz
PC133 overclocked to 150Mhz
DDR-333 overclocked to 400Mhz
DDR2-533 overclocked to 800Mhz
DDR3-666 overclocked to 900Mhz

And that's without specifically trying to overclock the RAM.

---------- Post added at 00:49 ---------- Previous post was at 00:39 ----------

Oh and I never said anything about unbranded stick of generic memory either, I said cheapest value RAM I could find, which has in the past included Ebuyer Value (PQI) Kingston ValueRAM, Corsair generic and Crucial generic.

Incidentally the highest overclock I've tried was simply setting the Ebuyer Value 533Mhz to 800 with no voltage or timing increase and it just worked out of the box, in a mixed size, mixed brand, mixed module setup.

I contend all this rubbish about matched pairs matched brands premium memory is just a load of *******s.

Re: Ram?
 

Ebuyer value ram would never work with my gigabyte board so sent it back