Okay, so I'm talking hypothetical again. I'm soon going to be building a new system that I want to "future proof" as much as possible (baby arriving very soon, so won't have any cash for 18 years at least! ). Would I be better going for 4GB (2x2GB OCZ sticks) or 8GB (4x2GB OCZ sticks) in the P5n32-E SLI PLUS mobo I'm looking at? I'll be running it with 64bit Vista, 32-bit XP and one or more flavours of Linux for number crunching. I don't really want to have to spend anything on it for a couple of years (going to be using a Q6600, hopefully overclocked to 3GHz) so "future proofing" is a must. The linux number crunching could involve large Monte Carlo models if that helps. My feeling is, with DDR3 becoming the standard and DDR2 prices falling to rock bottom (I read that in Micro Mart this week) I may not get memory this cheap (£130 inc VAT for 2x2GB sticks from Aria) for much longer. Any thoughts? Am I being greedy or am I looking too far in the future (remember this has got to last at least as long as my current system, which was built in late 2003 and had the final processor upgrade in 2004)? Thanks for any thoughts you can provide. Andy
I have a Q6600, Vista64 and 4GB of RAM and the RAM utilization rarely reaches 100%. I'm not running the kind of apps you are but i would think 8GB is overkill atm and the immediate future.
Unless your intending on running multiple virtual machines at the same time and doing much other RAM hunry stuff, 4gb will be suffcient. I am using the P5N32-E SLI board and cpu you intend to use, running vista x64, using 4gb drr2 ram, which seems to be more than enough, even when ive 3 other virtual machines loaded (xp, debian, leopard). I think by the time your system would need to start using as much as 8gb, we would prob be in the realms of DDR4 ram for motherboards at this rate. Also take note that the P5n32-E SLI PLUS motherboard is a bit picky with the ram it uses, make sure to check out the QVL sheet(pdf) for certified ram. The only 2gb sticks I see that the board has been certified with is "2048MB NANYA NT5TU128M8BJ-3C DS NT2GT64U8HB0JY-3C" @ DDR2 667mhz so I would certainy advise finding confirmation that the board will work with the ram you intend using before purchase. Ive seen to many tales of people sticking ram into this board thats not on the QVL sheet, and either fry their ram or motherboard, or both, or find the board just wont POST.
hehe you guys don't know what monte carlo models are, do you? my suggestion mate, is to go with 4gb now, and see what your ram usage patterns look like while running your sims. you can always upgrade later. one thing i will say is that the p5n32 boards are a little fussy with large amounts of ram, and you're probably better off going with the EVGA 680i board, as it's proven to be more stable.
Yikes that is hard core number crunching! You mind if i ask what your use this for? I know you say your not going to have any money but you'd be better getting the 4gb and putting the money for the other 4 aside then get it when ram prices come down a little, if you need it of course.
Steveo, it'll be for MCNP shielding and (eventually) criticality models. I've seen a system grind to a halt because of lack of memory with some of these models (and that had 4GB RAM and 4GB swap!) Okay, I'll go with the general consensus and get 4GB. I'm surprised at the problems with the mobo though. I'll ask around on the OCZ forums and see what they say. Andy
MM? Pfff. We have a readership of several hundred of times these guys /brag If I were you doing such intensive work - I'd seriously consider a workstation or basic server board. Is it mission critical? Can it set you back a significant chunk of time if it crashes? Desktop chipsets aren't made for maxing out the memory tbh - you can end up maxing out the banks available because to get the capacity some modular makers double up DIMMs with two lots of memory ICs. Check manufacturer forums like OCZ or Corsair to see what they can do for you. Corsair do do 4GB TwinX modules and I'm sure OCZ do the same. Ideally you'll be looking at FB-DIMMs if you want to insist on an Intel board, but that's a massive chunk of change. The other option is a Barcelona and ECC Reg DDR2 which should be cheaper. However by the looks you might be a student so money = limited? Personally I'd stick with an Intel chipset because they have a historically better QA when maxing out the memory. DDR3 will give you more memory because it's designed to access more banks, but it'll cost you as much as FB-DIMMs (if not more).
Thanks Bindi. It will only be my home system, not mission critical, so anything I do at home will only be in the form of "testing" before I really clog work's systems up! The number crunching will only be done on the Linux install(s) anyway, the Windows bits will be for the gaming part of life Thanks for all your replies. I'll be getting 4GB to start with and I may increase this to 8 in the distant future. You have given me something to think about re the mobo though. I may have to rethink my choices (was thinking of a cheap graphics upgrade to SLi in a couple of years when the 8800GT costs the same as a 6800 does now , but that may not happen if I go with an intel board). I don't think I'll go DDR3 just yet. the cost is slightly too much for me (£100+ per GB is a little too expensive at the mo...) Thanks again! Andy
You'll be wanting to scrap that XP 32bit from the list, as you'll definitely hit the 4GB address space limit depending on how much RAM your graphics card has, and possibly other devices, you'll get limited to ~3.25-3.75GB RAM For the record, 64bit XP works a treat
