[PLUG] Memory configuration question

King Beowulf kingbeowulf at gmail.com
Fri Apr 19 21:51:22 UTC 2013


On 04/19/2013 12:11 PM, John Meissen wrote:
>>
>> On Apr 19, 2013, at 11:02 AM, Rick <rdoyle16+plug at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Having mis-matched speeds shouldn't be a problem - AFAIK, it will just mean
>>> that all 6 DIMMs will run at 1066. The 1333 memory should run fine at 1066
>>> - it's just a matter of being CAPABLE of 1333 speeds.
>>
>> And doing so will put you one step closer to 6 x 4GB dimms, or 24 GB of RAM. 
>>
>> And... If you can afford $180 for RAM, there's another option. 
> 
> :-/ Just because there's a greater-than-zero chance I might need more than 6GB 
> doesn't mean I'm ever going to want 24GB on this system. If it was a simple 
> dual-channel RAM configuration I'd be plenty happy with 8GB. If I could find a 
> 3x1GB package I'd probably be content to move up to 9GB total.
> 
> I guess the real question is whether there's any architectural advantage to 
> spreading the RAM out through all of the slots, rather than concentrating it in 
> one bank of 3. I don't grok how access interleaving happens in "modern" systems.
> 
> john-
> 
>
I agree with Rick.  Just pop in 3x4GB sticks into the empty slots.  You
won't notice the speed mismatch. BUT...

More importantly, performance will be governed by how your kernel was
compiled for memory utilization (memory paging).  If using a 32-bit
kernel compiled as a desktop, you most likely were not ever using any
memory above 4GB.  However, you may want to investigate the following
before buying RAM:

1. The bigger bang for you buck is to first convert everything to
64-bit.  That way, you will use all your available memory.

2. Consider a modern GPU, such as Nvidia, to off load video processing.
 Modern GPUs encode/decode one hell of a lot faster than any CPU.

3. If you are using UBUNTU, well...let just say pure Debian, Mint, and a
few other Debian distros are much faster.

4. Consider larger, faster Hard drives, maybe even SSD.  No matter how
much RAM you have, you will still be HD speed limited. Optimize your
HD/partition scheme: I use a second SATA drive for storing/processing.

5. Use hdparm/sdparm to optimize your hard drive.

6. File system: ext2/3/4 vs XFS vs BtrFS.  Remember, HD partitions do
not need to be all the same file system.

I am surprised by you statement the 64-bit video processing was not
available when you bought the core-i7 920.  That CPU was released end of
2008.  I was running full 64-bit before 2005 on an Athlon64 single core
- All audio and video processing was in 64bit.

Have fun,
Ed



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