From 4GB to 8GB?

[johnwillyums]

Hi Folks. I don't know whether there's already a thread about this, if so please redirect me.
I have a pre-built system as follows:
Asus P5N-E SLI, Q6600, 4GB OCZ RAM, BFG 8800GTS 512MB, 2x Samsung Spinpoint 500GB HDDs, Thermaltake ToughPower 650 watt PSU, Thermaltake Tsunami case.

I'm running Vista Home Premium 64 bit and absolutely loving it.

My RAM is in 4 x 1GB sticks. I've noticed that 2GB sticks are available so, in theory, I could upgrade to 8GB of RAM.

Is this possible and would I see any dramatic benefits from spending another £100 on my computer?

Also would I have to do anything complicated with timings as I wouldn't know where to start with that? I only just about know how to take the side off my case.

Thanks and best wishes to you all, John

 

[z3r010]

You wont see any dramatic improvement, IMHO 4gig is the sweet spot (for now).

 

[johnwillyums]

Thanks z3r010,

That's very helpful. I can't really afford it anyway. I think I just wanted to buy my computer a present for being so great.
Can't believe there's still people banging on about Vista being rubbish. I love the 64x version and have no problems at all, I couldn't imagine going back to XP.

Cheers, John:D

 

[fieseler]

theres no point going for the whole 8gb at once since you'll never use it all. Might be worth going for 2x2gb sticks first, then another set of 4gb later when you need it.

What make/model is ur ram btw?

 

[johnwillyums]

Hi Fieseler,

I believe it's OCZ. CPU-Z tells me it's DRAM frequency is 333.3 Mhz.

That's not very meaningful to me but sounds a bit feeble. So I currently have 4x1GB sticks. Are you suggesting I swap that out for 2x2GB sticks? Would that be in preparation for adding another 2x2GB at a later date?

Thanks, John

 

[rebdk]

I have 8GB ram, mostly because i had a chioce to go to 4GB instead but that wouldn't save me enough. I think superfetch enjoys it.

 

[skunksmash]

333x 2 = 667mhz

as others have stated 8gb is still overkill at the moment....
you would see a difference with faster ram not more of it

 

[johnwillyums]

Thanks, Should I get 2x2GB sticks as Fieseler suggests?
If so what would you recommend and would I have to do any messing about other than sticking it into the slots?

Thanks for your advice, John:D

 

[Fumz]

Thanks, Should I get 2x2GB sticks as Fieseler suggests?
If so what would you recommend and would I have to do any messing about other than sticking it into the slots?

Thanks for your advice, John:D

Replacing 4x1GB's of RAM with 2x2GB's of RAM is still replacing 4GB's with 4GB's. It makes no sense at all; the only thing you're doing is spending money you don't need to. You already have the perfect amount of RAM. You can put more in, but since you'll never use it, why?

Cross the 8GB bridge when you come to it.

 

[fieseler]

If you wanted to go for a set of 2x2gb sticks its really up to you. I was in the same situation where if i wanted to add more ram i would have needed to replace all of it in one because all the slots were filled, & didnt fancy spending £140 all at once.

I dont think you'd have to mess around with anything in the bios because you have an nforce board.

 

[Adrian Wainer]

Your motherboard must support more than 4 Gigabytes before you can think about installing more than 4 Gigabytes, if it does support more than 4 Gigabytes e.g. 8 Gigabytes, then: installing 4 x two Gigabyte sticks is a an option. That said unless you use 64 bit application software on a regular basis, going for 8 Gigabytes is a bit pointless, if your allready have a 4 Gigbyte rig. As for the idea of swapping out the present 4 x One Gigabyte sticks for 2 x two gigabyte sticks, this sounds like the worst of all options, in that you will still have 4 Gigabytes installed and if you then want to upgrade at a later date by adding another 2 x Gigabytes sticks you will then have to try and find the same manufacturers model of RAM that you installed, since it is a bad idea to install different types of RAM on the same motherboard. If you have some money to spend, there are lots of things you can get for a computer that would make more sense than altering the RAM.

Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

I run Adobe Photoshop CS2, Sony Vegas Movie Studio, and other programs at the same time on my workstation. I like to have 2GB per core. Adding RAM only helps with multi-tasking and multi-threading many apps at one time. Most applications use under 256MB of RAM. Physical RAM does lower using paging file usage.

 

[Adrian Wainer]

Hi Michael I am green with envy of your rig, I'm still in ASUS A-8N SLI Deluxe mobo and a Athlon 64 San Diego 4800 939 socket dualie land, the issue for John is though that even if his mobo supports 8 gigs and he was to install 8 gigs, he would likely not have 2 Gigabytes per core but 4 Gigabytes total for the whole system in that he is not likely to be running 64 bit application software. As you say Physical RAM does lower page file usage but I believe only untill one has 4 Gigabytes of RAM installed and then adding more RAM will not drop page file usage unless one would be makeing use of 64 bit application software. NB I am not makeing any commments or references here about systems such as yours with two discrete processors as I do not know enough about them.

Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

Vista has excellent RAM usage compared to XP x64 and XP Pro. In Vista x64 creates 32-bit space for each 32-bit app and runs them better with more RAM.

 

[Adrian Wainer]

Vista has excellent RAM usage compared to XP x64 and XP Pro. In Vista x64 creates 32-bit space for each 32-bit app and runs them better with more RAM.

Hi Michael, What you are saying sounds like, Vista 64 is creating a unique 32 bit virtual system for each 32 bit application ( now I presume that was not your intention but that is what it sounds like to me ) if it could do that there is no reason it could not allocate 4 Gigabytes per application for each virtual 32 bit system ( less the RAM used by each virtual 32 bit system ) it creates provided sufficent RAM was installed and the mother board supported extra RAM. Vista 64 may have a tweak over XP 64 that allows it to address some more RAM than XP 64 but I maintain that all the 32 bit applications will be running in a single 4 Gigabyte RAM space.

Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer

 

[Brink]

Thanks, Should I get 2x2GB sticks as Fieseler suggests?
If so what would you recommend and would I have to do any messing about other than sticking it into the slots?

Thanks for your advice, John:D

Hi John,

Unless you are going to get 2x2GB RAM that is a lot faster than what you have now, then it is not worth it to just switch from 4x1GB to 2x2GB. If not, then it would be best to wait until you need or want the full 8GB. This way the RAM may be cheaper then, and you can get all of it as the same brand and model for better results.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

You definitely want matching ram for 8GB. Don't mix 1Gb and 2Gb.

 

[johnwillyums]

Hi Folks and hello again Shawn,

I just looked in my programs folder and you are right. Apart from Vista 64 system and apps itself, Adobe Lightroom, Winamp and Java, all of my software seems to be running in 32 bit.
I believe that Crysis and various other newer games I have run in 64 bit. Also the next version of Firefox might be 64 bit, I already have the Minefield beta.
Another factor is that I dual boot Ubuntu 7.10 64 bit.
However I take your point that if I was to buy 2x2 GB srticks now and take out my 4 individual sticks I might not be able to get the identical memory when I wanted to put in another 2x2 GB.
Perhaps I would be better to wait until DDR2 comes down in price even further and I can get 8 GB all at once.
Opinion seems to be divided as to whether faster RAM than I presently have would makle any difference.
Further comments welcome, best wishes, John

 

[johnwillyums]

I Just looked at Overclockers site and they have a deal on OCZ 2x1GB PC2 8500 C5 1066Mhz- 32.87 GBP.
Would I get a better gaming performance etc if I got two of these and put them in?
Continuing with 4 GB but presumably faster?
Or just wait and get the 8 GB at a later date?

Ah, so many questions, cheers, John

 

[Brink]

John,

You would definitely see a performance gain with the faster 1066 MHz RAM. Especially if your older RAM is 667 MHz or lower. However, if you are going to buy faster RAM, then you should get 2x2GB sticks so you will have room for the full 8GB if you needed or wanted it later. If you currently have 800 MHz RAM, then you might wait until you get the full 8GB since 800MHz will not be as big of a speed increase to 1066 MHz.