RAM

[SnowyCheetah]

No, not the animal. I am talking about computer RAM - random access memory that is, to make a long story short, a computer's short-term memory.

As some of you know I am building a performance PC - geared heavily toward gaming and graphics-heavy stuff. I was originally planning to equip it with 8GB of RAM until I changed my mind and chose to max out the motherboard with 32GB. Then someone (a formerly-active member of MLK known as Kristian) informed me that more RAM does not necessarily = more power because the computer has got to manage all that RAM. He said that 32GB would be much slower than 8GB when I am not using the full capacity.

Anyone here want to chip in? I am not sure which is more accurate.

[DGFone]

Yeah, for a gaming computer, you do not need 32 GB of RAM. You really need (at most) 8. You can do with 4 for games, though.

It really depends on the games you play though. What most people consider "games" i.e. Call Of Duty, Battlefield, etc... need a powerful GPU (graphics card) more than anything else. But the two most important hardware components you will need will be the GPU and CPU. The best gaming CPU is the Intel 2500k, and as for GPU, it depends on your budget (and power supply).

As for RAM specifically, it can be simply summarized wit the simple fact that games don't use it. RAM is used in games primarily for object placement - in games that have random object spawn. This is why flight simulators, which randomly spawn buildings, roads, trees, etc. use the most RAM out of all games - and then only up to about 4 GB. And with today's GPUs, a lot of that placement is getting moved to GPU power instead of RAM.

Applications that do need a lot of RAM are not games. If you do a lot of HD video editing, then you want as much RAM as you can get.

But for games, 2 GB is the minimum playable (you will find 2 GB of RAM limiting), but enough for all common games. I assume that you will be running Windows 7 on your computer, so you will only really have 1.5 GB of RAM then (Windows uses up .5GB of memory just to run itself). 4GB is enough for pretty much everything I've seen, and 8 will certainly be more than enough.

I personally have 8GB of RAM, but I play X-Plane 9, and soon X-Plane 10, so I will use that memory. But all other games, go with 8 GB, even 4 GB.

[SnowyCheetah]

Yeah, the video editing part is a good point. I do want to make AMV's, and a lot of the video I will be using is HD. As for the rest of the computer here are the specs of what will be the finished product:

i7 Quad-Core 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 2600 Sandy Bridge
8GB RAM
MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP ready video card
60GB SSD (as the boot drive)
1TB HDD
1000W power supply (80 plus gold certified)
Super Multi Blu-Ray burner

[DGFone]

^ Lol, I hope you have the money for that.

Joking aside, let me save a few bucks for you while not losing much in terms of performance.
CPU: You really only need an i5 2500k. The i7 is a bit excessive. You are not running a server.
GPU: I would wait with it be of the new 28 nm cards that will come out this quarter. For the same power usage (although more in $ up-front), expect a much better card. If you have $150 for a GPU (and by the specs, I assume you do), I would recommend the ATI 7850 (not out yet) or even wait for the NVIDIA 600 series to come out.
SSD: You will only gain a few seconds per boot. You really don't need it.
1000w PSU: Figure out what your computer really needs, add roughly 50 watts to it, and get that much in terms of PSU power. If you get a too powerful PSU (and this one looks too powerful), it will have to lose all that extra energy through heat- i.e. melting hardware.

[Regulus]

I'd go with 8 or 12GB. Any more than that is unnecessary, and will put unnecessary stress on your memory controller, but any less, and you *might* be limited before your computer is at the end of it's lifespan. But in that case, you can always easily add more.

Also, a 1KW PSU is totally unnecessary. You don't need more than 500 watts for that build, as long as it's not a budget 500w PSU.

I'd drop the 2600k and go for the 2500k. Since they're both unlocked, there's no reason to spend the extra money, unless you just don't want to try overclocking.

And, might I ask what brand of SSD you plan on getting? I recommend staying away from OCZ, their drives have notoriously bad reliability. You could also greatly benefit from a much larger SSD. I've read that with the sandy bridge SATA controllers, you can use a SSD as a cache for a mechanical drive. I'd recommend getting a 120GB drive, and splitting it into two partitions, 60GB for programs, and 60GB of cache.

Crap, DGF beat me to it.

[SnowyCheetah]

While I appreciate the extra tech advice, I'd like to keep this thread focused on the RAM. Any further discussions about my build-in-progress are welcome via PM or other means of private contact, though

[DGFone]

When you are on a budget, you really learn the difference between "need" and "want". Need is what is the minimal hardware you need to run the software you run. Want is the amount of money you have to try and get an extra 5 FPS.

I don't have a lot of money for the "want", so I figure out what I "need" and go with it. Because I need a GPU upgrade in order to run X-Plane 10, I know the xtact card I will be getting. No more, no less.

And yes, for gaming, you only need 4 GB of RAM (even for 'future proofing'). 8 GB if you want to do some HD editing, 16 GB if you have the cash. But no more than that.

[SnowyCheetah]

Since I am trying to stay on a budget to an extent, I think I will stick with the 8GB.

[Regulus]

Memory is dirt cheap, though. This time last year, 4 gigs was $100. It's so cheap now, at less than $5/GB, there's no reason not to have at least 8GB.

[SnowyCheetah]

I found some good RAM at about $40 for 8GB. I don't really feel the need to spend any more than that. $80 to fill up all four slots and make it 16GB doesn't seem necessary.