3 Gb RAM

blue chuzzle

i just upgraded my pc from 1 to 3 gigs of ram.

have i wasted my time getting more than 2?

i spent a while reading about the /3GB switch and it seems that it will allow a very limited number of programs access more than about 1.7 gigs. what is the other gig doing??

now that im using 4 slots instead of 2 do i have double the bandwidth from memory to the processors?

also im using XP media center edition, not professional. is the 3GB switch supported?

Thanks...

Ginger

Technically yes.. XP Pro is the only XP that runs with the 3GB switch

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/PAEmem.mspx

Large memory itself is under-utilised in a 32bit system because there is a 4GB limit to the total amount of memory that the system can see and that includes memory allocated for devices. I came across this when i put together the system with 4GB and in the BIOS

Windows can patition it into Application and System spaces where the OS has a dedicated amount of RAM and the applications see 2GB free mem.

blue chuzzle

i have a copy of xp pro, should i install it and will i notice a difference?

the programs that use more than 2 gigs have to have a large memor aware thing in their header and i assume that most dont.

would any games benifit from more than 2 gigs of ram?

and does anyone know weather the memory to processor bandwidth has doubled with the extra slots beinmg put into use?

thanks

blue chuzzle

i only recently came across this concept and i cant believe its not talked about more!!

especially by people that are obsessed with speed. now, i accept that memory is expensive, but its reasonably plentyfull at this stage.

what programs do people know about and do they work for them?

i installed quake 3 in mine last night and it was amazing running the entire game from memory. more amazing as a concept i accept, as quake 3 runs at amazing speed on any modern computer.

i know if i stumble across a big wad of money ill be buying a mac pro and loading it with 16 gigs of ram and vista (well, i cant expect to stumble across the money tomorrow!) and installing games into the memory, effectivly eliminating loading times. also putting your web cache in there increases the speed of web browsing hugely. im sure there are hundreds of other uses (photoshop has been mentioned as somthing that would benifit)

memory being at least 100 times faster than hard drives, it has so many applications!

i havent had the chance to think of others in the 24 hours ive known about this.

any suggestions?

NB* obviously when you switch off your system everything gets wiped. this can be good if you have your temp folders there but bad if you forget to transfer stuff to the hard drive. im sure there is, or could easially be, a program that transfers stuff when your shutting down.

petes

blue chuzzle wrote:

i only recently came across this concept and i cant believe its not talked about more!!

Posting this once would have been sufficient.

Cuddlesworth

You might want to check out I-ram, would be a cheaper solution.

Also, 15k server drives with SAS connections in Raid 5 on a pci-ex 64bit slot. While your at it try dual slot motherboards taking quad cores.

You dont need 16gigs of ram. Or any of that crap.You dont even need 3 for windows xp. 2gigs is fine, and I have only ever met 1 person who needed anywhere close to 3 for anything and he used photoshop for a living and had huge amounts of png images open. And Mac's are over-rated over-priced pc's. If you only do video-editing or some music related editing then by all means get one, since most programs are designed for the native Mac OS then ported over to windows.

Ram cant store data, data is copy'd onto ram, then accesed by the cpu. Any changes made are then made to the hard-drive and ram. Hard-drives have changed little since they first came out because at the end of the day they are the only working viable storage solution for a pc.

Vista will need double, so 2 gigs is ok, 4 is great.

blue chuzzle wrote:

obviously when you switch off your system everything gets wiped. this can be good if you have your temp folders there but bad if you forget to transfer stuff to the hard drive. im sure there is, or could easially be, a program that transfers stuff when your shutting down.

There is, its called Windows/Linux/OSX.

Might be a good point, windows Xp uses about 350 megs in normal operations on its own. Games about 500-1500 megs.

kippy

Its not actually possible to install a full game on the convestional RAM that one of the posters above talks about. The game may use the Ram when running but it is installed on the HDD.
Personally, 2 gig is enough for almost all people unless they are opening massive video/graphics files and editing them.
3 gig aint gonna make your life heaven.
These are what you are looking for if you want heaven. Basicilly a RAM"harddrive"drive.

http://www.hyperossystems.co.uk/
Kippy

Cuddlesworth

kippy wrote:

Its not actually possible to install a full game on the convestional RAM that one of the posters above talks about. The game may use the Ram when running but it is installed on the HDD.
Personally, 2 gig is enough for almost all people unless they are opening massive video/graphics files and editing them.
3 gig aint gonna make your life heaven.
These are what you are looking for if you want heaven. Basicilly a RAM"harddrive"drive.

http://www.hyperossystems.co.uk/
Kippy

Hmm, they seem to have ripped off gigabites I-ram patents. Could be a big lawsuit coming up with that one.

kippy

I dunno,
I've heard of these guys about 4 years ago and its possible they had the technology long before then.
Could be interesting though.
I dont know anyone who has bought the hardware.

woodyg

8GB (max) HyperDrive IV £399 (+ PP and VAT) $698.25 (+ PP and VAT)

16GB (max) HyperDrive IV £599 (+ PP and VAT) $1048.25 (+ PP and VAT)


That might be why people dont have one, a full system for the price of 16gb hard drive it may be quick but hell thats expensive!:eek: