4 or 8 gigs of ram?

[skogskalle]

Hi all!

Im gonna buy a new workstation in a couple of days, and I could really use some advice... this is what ive been looking at so far:

mb: ASUS P5K
cpu: Q6600 quadcore 2.4 Ghz
graphics: MSI GF 8800 GTS PCI-E 320 MB OVERCLOCKED

the rest is pretty much standard stuff - hd, dvd-burner etc...

what Im not sure about is the amount of Ram ill need. I have 2 gigs in my current computer, and thats just not enough. Im sick of being on the verge of crashing at the end of every project.
So ill get atleast 4 gigs.
I read somewhere (i think) that some people with quads couldnt get their computers to render as fast as they should because they didnt have enough ram... that the ram was somehow devided between the cpu-cores, so with 4 gigs of ram each cpu-core would only get 1 gig and that caused slowdowns. I thought i read it here somewhere on this forum, but now I cant find the thread... maybe ive just dreamed it

Anyway, my question is - will 4 gigs be enough? Or will I need 8 gigs to make the most of my Q6600?

Also... which kind of ram should I get? Ive been looking at this: "4GB 667MHZ DDR2 NON-ECC CL5 KIT X2 KINGSTON"...
Will I see a big performance difference (working in max/rendering)if I get the more expensive ones at 800MHZ or is that just a waste of money?

and... if you think I can get a better graphics board for the same price or anything else... feel free to tell me

All input is greatly appreciated!
thanks
/k

[Blitterswitch]

Get 8gb!

Its only about £300 for DDR2 at the moment. You wont regret it.

[glorybound]

RAM

Buy as much ram as you can afford.... you can't go wrong. This, of course, is if you are using x64.

[skogskalle]

thanks

Yes ill be using x64...

what do you think about the speed? Is it worth the money to buy a faster type of RAM? (800 mhz instead of 667 mhz)

If the price is similiar, would it be smarter to get 6 Gb of 800 mhz ram, or 8 Gb of 667 mhz ram???

thanks guys
/k

[glorybound]

Resources

All I can suggest is buy what you can afford, but spend your money wisely... get the most bang for you buck. I have a slower processor with 4Gb of ram and would buy more ram before I bought a faster processor. This is my personal opinion and I would love to hear others feedback.

[werticus]

8 gb of 800mhz ram which is the maximum that p5k supports.

667 wont let you overclock that q6600 very far.

[skogskalle]

werticus - cant afford 8 gigs of 800 mhz ram at the moment... could probably buy 4 or 6 gigs and then buy the rest in a couple of months... or get 8 gigs of 667 right now.

Ill probably not overclock it anyway. I really dont know anything about overclocking and even though speed is allways nice, I prefer a safe system. (am i wrong in thinking that the system gets less and less reliable the more you overclock it?)

if i wont overclock it, you think 667 mhz is good enough?

thanks
/k

[Mathew Everett]

With Intel's new chips a 20% OC is very possible with just a few small adjustments without worrying about any issues. Its when you really push the chip is when you start getting unstable readings.

The goal is to push your chip to a easy OC level that wont effect system performance and get the best running system your dollar allows.

[skogskalle]

thanks Mathew!

right... well if I do overclock it 20% to about 2.88 Ghz, which ram do you think I should get? 8 gigs of 667? Or 6 gigs of 800 mhz?

also, could you give me some pointers on how to overclock it? As I said, i really dont know anything about that. Is it just done by changing something in the bios? Or do I have to do something to the actual processor/mb?

[DaForce]

Also have a look at corsair ram, they are very good and I would recommend them over kingston.

[SonOfNimrod]

all right guys...sorry skogskalle to hijack the thread for a bit here...would 16 bg ram be a bit of overkill?

[DaForce]

Depends what your rendering

[SonOfNimrod]

[skogskalle]

no worries.... hijack all you want

DaForce - the store im buying from has mostly kingston-ram... could probably order some Corsair if I asked them though...
But whats the difference? Have you had any problems with kingston before?

/k

[werticus]

if your not going to overclock then 667 or 800mhz wont make much difference.

i think you SHOULD over clock, give you've figured out how to model in 3d and use vray, you're obviously intelligent enough to figure out how to do this

667 will only overclock 10% or so.

800mhz ram could get you to 3ghz without trying. I've gotten my 2.4 up to 3.6ghz, that is a HUGE difference, but I have fancy cooling. (with 800mhz ram)

however I think 4 vs 8gb of ram... 8 is very very useful - I'm so glad I got 8, use more than 4gb ALL the time now. And without a doubt an 8gb machine at 2.4ghz is going to be faster than even a 4.8ghz machine if that machine runs out of ram!