Faster memory: does it make a difference for image processing?

[djzuk]

Even though your system may only use half of the memory available, it will be much more speedy than it would be to have only what your system actually uses.

I have not found that to be true, I have put 6 gigs and 1.5 gigsandthere wasabsolutely no differnce at all. I made a huge differnce when I put faster ram, as long as your system can handle it of course.


John.

Were you using a 64-bit operating system? With a 32-bit system, you can only effectively use 2GB of RAM.


Derrick

[Fast Glass]

Yes I am using 64-bit windows vista.


John

[jks_photo]

Hi,


If it's a new build then I suggest going the Intel i7 9xx series route along with the triple chennel memory kits a nice dual GPU video card and at least 6gb of triple channel DDR3 memory [ you can go 12gb but they're in the $1k area [] ] widows7 ultimate or any windows 7 64 bit variant. 64 bit OS is important since 32 bit wont give you access to any memory over 4gb including that of your video card.


I'm sure you will be happy with above setup. you can even use it for basic video editing procedures.

[Tony Printezis]

Hi all,


Thank you for the very helpful replies, I read them with interest and apologies for not actually replying to this thread earlier.


I should give a bit more background: I'm considering an i7 system as, basically, for raw processing power intel CPUs are winning over AMD right now. About half year ago I built a storage box and I used an older AMD CPU, because it was relatively cheap (quad core for <$100!!!), had low power consumption, and for a storage box I didn't feel I needed to spend more money on the CPU / motherboard. But, for raw power, I think right now intel is the way to go. So, Keith B, yes I think the combo I'm thinking should be able to take advantage of the faster RAM.


Regarding how much RAM to put in: as folks (Keith B, djzuk, btaylor) said I want to get as much as possible. Running Photoshop, Lightroom, Thunderbird, and Firefox on my 2G laptop is basically hopeless and I'm sick of having to wait for applications to page (and I don't need to look at the task manager to know that I'm using up all available memory and then some!). I'm planning to put Windows 7 and OpenSolaris on it, so staying under the 32-bit memory limit will not be an issue.


Then, it's the choice between Bloomfield and Lynnfield (I definitely want a quad-core CPU). Price-wise, they are similar. And Lynnfield looks attractive, due to its lower power consumption. However, the Lynnfield motherboards seem to only support dual channel memory, whereas the Bloomfield ones support triple channel memory. Apparently, the speed advantage of triple channel memory is not great, however Bloomfield would give me the opportunity to put 12G of RAM, whereas I'd only be able to put 8G on a Lynnfield box. So, despite the higher power consumption, I'm leaning towards a Bloomfield core to maximize the amount of RAM in the box. jks_photo: 12G are not currently that expensive. 6x 2G 1600 DDR3 Corsair Dominator are around $430. What would be prohibitively expensive would be to get 4x 4G SIMMs for a Lynnfield box (over $900).


Tony