Ram

[bullsfan80586]

I am going to add RAM to my machine so I can do a little video production. My program reccomends 1 GB RAM. I currently am running 512 MB of PC2100 @266MHz. I am considering adding ValueRAM made by Kingston. Can anyone tell me what the difference is between ValueRAM and their standard RAM? I'm not exactly a novice, but I still don't know about RAM.

[CanaBalistic]

There isnt much diffrence at all. It is best for dual channel memory configurations to use the same type and size of memory modules. The value ram might run a Mhz or 2 under what its rated at and it could cause problems when mixing with standard or "advanced" ram (OCZ, ect.).

If you dont have a dual channel configuration, feel free to drop in any kind of 2100 ram you can get.

[bullsfan80586]

How do I know if mine is dual channel?

[CanaBalistic]

Your motherboard manual will tell you.

Another thing that will let you know is looking at the memory slots. Dual channel allways has 4 slots. For the most part 2 will be a diffrent color. Mine are blue and black. On some high end mobo's the slots might be the same color. If you have 2 or 3 slots then you can be sure you dont have dual channel memory.

You must have an old computer (socket 478?), pc2100 isnt popular anymore and should be fairly cheap to pruchase

[AKA_RA]

dual channel is not always 4 slots, i have dual channel and only 3 slots, yes 4 is more common and yes 3 is a rather stupid idea IMO, because now i cant add another set of sticks, i have to replace what i have. but anyways, what i suggest is getting 2 sticks of ram that come packaged together and are labeld as dual channel ready, or whatever the packing says. that way youre sure to have compatable sticks. the big differance between things like value ram and more costly ram is the latency times. lower is always better. mine are currently running at cas 2, most value ram runs at cas 3, and believe me, theres a noticable differance if you ahve a high demand program running. but are 4 key timings whern it comes to ram, and honest i dont know what they all mean, or what their functions are, all i know is that lower is better when it comes to latency times.

[bullsfan80586]

Well, I know that I only have 2 slots, so that about rules out dual channel.

[monoflap]

Well, before you rule anything out consult the manual. On the whole value ram thing, value ram isn't always of the greatest quality. Infact, sometimes it can cause wierd skipping and stuff. On your video editing, I also do a bit of that and I would recommend stuffing as much RAM in your computer as it will hold. It looks like you have older ram so if you mosey on down to a computer show you should be able to get it real cheap. Then again, it might be safer to buy it at the store, it's up to you. You can never have too much RAM for video editing (I run 2 gigs and even that made a big difference when I upgraded from 1). Even if you don't max out your system, you will still notice a big difference in the reliablility and response of your editing program. (Lol I sound like a commercial don't I :) )

[d_stilgar]

There are mobos with dual channel in only two slots.

[CanaBalistic]

Wow, my information must be completely wrong. As far as i knew, dual channel only came in 4 socket.

Monoflap:
Now i cant remember where on TBCS i seen it but somone stated that windows can only allocate 1Gb max to any given program at any given time. If this is true, you wouldnt see any performance gains on any one program from 1536mb to mobo max. (windows uses 512 for itself).

I would think video editing software writers would try and overcome this as editing a full lenght movies could take tera bytes of memory?

[monoflap]

Well, I never heard of a limit on how much windows can use (never thought of that, thanks for pointing that out Cana-Balistic) but I have heard it has problems finding more than 2 gigs in the home edition. What I meant by a "difference" is that first of all the program I was using stopped booting me out (piece o' crap). Also, it sped (can't spell lol) up moving through clips and such. This could very well be because it could dedicate more memory to what I was actually doing than my background apps. Bottom line bullsfan, I would get at least a gig, its common ground nowadays.

[CanaBalistic]

I could be wrong on that whole allocation thing but it was mentioned.

I have 2 gig's-O-Memory :) The only diffrence i noticed over 1 gig was when i was playing games such as BF2.

[slaveofconvention]

I personally have 2 x 1gb DDR400 in my shuttle at home. I've seen, in task manager, 1.3gb allocated to Paintshop when I've been doing particularly heavy tasks, so I'm pretty sure that 1gb limit is an urban myth. As for how much you need, while the program says 1gb, personally for video editing you can't have too much - if you only have 2 slots, and 512 in one of them already, adding 512 WILL get you to 1gb but it'll leave you with no further free slots so any future upgrades will mean binning perfectly good memory. If you can stretch your budget, and your motherboard supports it, add a single stick of 1024mb.

Oh one other minor correction - someone said Windows uses 512 - the amount windows uses is veryvariable - I've had XP running on a 400 celery with 128mb - yeah it wasn't fast, but for net etc, it WAS usable (just). As I type this, on my laptop with 1gb Ram, I'm only using 367mb, and I have windows, Outlook, 2 IE windows, Activesynch, AVG AV, Windows Defender, and a few too many programs running in the taskbar, so there's no way windows alone is using 512...

General rule of thumb with Ram, get as much as you can afford - it'll never go wrong....

[nil8]

Windows xp sp2 with nothing else installed or running should chunk out about 115-130 mb of memory.
Win2k sp4 does about 60-70.
Don't forget windows almost always borrows just a tiny bit from virtual memory even if you have 4gb of ram in. It's one of the reasons that approximation is necessary.

The only problem with getting a single stick of memory is when it goes faulty.
I have always found uses for my old memory or sold it off to someone else who can use it. I've even found people looking for RDram occasionally.

If you tell us your mobo, we can get specs for you. I'm sure most of us can find out what you need to know.

You might also consider an upgrade. If your mobo can handle faster than pc2100, I would suggest upgrading. PC2700(400mhz) is cheap and abundant.

[CanaBalistic]

Windows can run on 32mb of ram. Not very good but it will run. It will try to use as much as it can get up to roughly 512mb. Currently with everything closed except this browser window, i have 1,497mb free which means 551mb is being used by windows. I do have some software drivers running which would account for a few mb's.

What i was mearly pointing at is that when planing to upgrade memory, 512mb should be considered system memory and anything above that should be thought of as program memory.

example:
If you buy a game that says it requires 1gb memory and only have 1gb of memory installed, your game is not getting a full 1Gb. 1.5Gb of ram will give your game the full 1Gb it needs and will have plenty (roughly 512)for windows to run in the background.

Sorry if i was unclear in my other post. It was a foot note, not a point.

[Cool1Net6]

So from reading this thread I get that my 512MB of memory in my systems is shallow and pedantic.

-Cool-

[CanaBalistic]

Its like puting a small helmet on a large retard. It still functions, but not as well as it could. :)

[Dazza_1981]

STOPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!


Dont touch that nasty value RAM im using it and to be honest its crap... pay me for the shipping and you can have mine 1gig kingston ram...............
video editting, games, programs in general all run sluggish !!!
im running a amd3700+ (2.8gig) 7600gt vid, 1 gig (kingston crap) and well the ram is holding me back big time, if your just using it to browse the web, fair enough then it is value for money other than that its worthless, pay the extra dosh and get preformance ram at the least