"...A poll by any other name would smell as sweet as DRAM..."
by Gary Key on April 9, 2009 11:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Gary's First Looks
Now that William Shakespeare is rolling over in his grave due to the hack job on one of his more famous quotes in Romeo and Juliet, we can proceed straight to our poll for today. The first of several DDR2/DDR3 articles arrives shortly and we would like to know your thoughts up front on a variety of subjects surrounding system memory.
We will sidestep sticky questions like what is your favorite and worst memory supplier until later on this month. For today, we would greatly appreciate a response (informed or otherwise) to our three questions. Our first question concerns the primary driving factor that determines why you select a particular memory type or supplier. Personally, I want a quality product that is stable and never once makes me wonder why that BSOD occurred right before saving my article document. I am probably in the minority on this one but it will be interesting to see what you think.
Our second question is a simple one. How much system memory do you have currently? Once again, I am probably in the minority, as I tend to run eight to twelve gigabytes in my personal systems. My family and I tend to multitask a lot - or perhaps we are just too lazy to close multiple applications. Either way, I prefer a responsive system when working or playing and additional memory does tend to help. How much it helps is a question we will answer this month.
The final question is actually very simple. With Vista 64 finally having decent driver support, memory prices near all time lows, applications consuming even greater amounts of memory, and Windows 7 shipping later this year with an emphasis on 64-bit support, do you think it is time to buy more memory. The memory manufacturers are hoping for a resounding yes to this question. I think you can never have enough memory and at today's prices that isn't too difficult to accomplish.
We look forward to your answers and any comments you might have on this subject.
{poll 129:1200}
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mindless1 - Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - link
What do you mean "almost"? Caching everything in main memory is multiple times faster than SSDs.nubie - Sunday, April 12, 2009 - link
Just a quick nitpick, SSD with the Indilinux chip in 32GB capacity is only $108 - $130While 8GB of ram may be a 'fraction' of that cost, I would bet it it an awfully large fraction.
I realize 32GB isn't that much, but prices are coming down, and I bet your 10 most used apps and games would fit on 32GB if you relegated the other apps and media files to a spinning drive.
nubie - Saturday, April 11, 2009 - link
I only have 2GB, but I really should get 2x2GB. Now that DDR3 is cheaper it seems like the next system I get could have it. (not really foreseeable when, maybe 6 months, maybe a year or two)I don't have any money (really, no 'employment' for going on 3 years, just some odd handyman type jobs), so I put price as my first concern.
I checked the price/performance at first, then realized I don't get a choice :P .
I would like to hear from these articles what kind of latency we should look to get, and if the speed of the ram actually impacts the experience of general computing as much as the latency.
DILLIGAFF - Friday, April 10, 2009 - link
i believe upgrades are a relatively small piece of overall revenue for the manufacturers compared to oem deals/initial purchase of a computer.with projected growth in mobility sector, the desktop is becoming a dinosaur. i expect alot of people will not be upgrading their dinosaur with ram, and instead going to a mobile platform.
question is, how much memory will this new (mobile?) platform have when you buy it?
manufacturers must be getting killed with 1gb netbooks...
Aquila76 - Friday, April 10, 2009 - link
I'm still running my 939 Opty 170@2.8GHz w/2GB OCZ DDR400. Running XP and Win7-x64 just fine. Never any issues, and just as snappy as the day I built it about 5 years ago.For me, it's price and reviews on AT & NewEgg.
mindless1 - Friday, April 10, 2009 - link
... anyone who chose "I hate the thought of possible data loss and BSODs, which makes product stability and quality my primary concern."Any memory you buy either meets specs, or is returned for refund. Unless a specific memory incompatibility is known, this is exactly what specs are for, so you can pick based on the other variables without thinking there is a difference in possible data loss and BSOD, but of course as with any product the system stability should be tested immediately to rule out possible instability.
I don't see quality as an issue, only counterfeiting if you buy something generic but these days there's hardly any savings buying generic with all the deeply rebated modules in the market for the past few months.
BikeDude - Sunday, April 12, 2009 - link
There are an awful lot of bits to keep track of in any 2GB memory DIMM. How can you at any time be 100% sure the 6th million bit will still be set to 1 a minute from now?You can run memory diagnosis to the cows come home, but if you want to be reasonably sure then it is hard to avoid resorting to ECC.
mindless1 - Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - link
Agreed, and yet many people made the choice I questioned but are unlikely to be running ECC memory themselves (as a % of PC owners, how many do you know that run ECC outside of a server?) so their choice contradicts their claim.piroroadkill - Friday, April 10, 2009 - link
I have 4GB in my main system, 2GB in my older rig, and 2GB in both my laptops. It's good enough.UNHchabo - Friday, April 10, 2009 - link
I'm still running DDR1, so it's not worth it for me to buy any more RAM for my current machine. I currently have 1GB.I'll probably build a new machine this fall, and put in either 6GB or 8GB (depending on whether I get a triple-channel or dual-channel board).
As for my purchasing decision, I put stability, but these days even compatibility seems to be an issue; you have to make sure that a given RAM kit will work with your board. Past that, I'd say a blend of price/performance -- if I decide I want DDR2-800, for instance, I'll get the cheapest kit I can find at those speeds that has good reviews. There's a small chance I might go for faster timings if I can find it reasonably. If I can find a 4GB kit at CAS 5 for $40, and the same kit with CAS 4 is $45, I might be tempted, despite the fact that it makes near-zero difference in anything other than benchmarks.