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- Jan 23, 2008
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Started this is another place and the ADD of the room took over it seems, "oh look squirrell!", it went like this;
"My current PC had 16gb of ram and I don't think I ever saw it use more than 8gb (based on a widget).
Now I am looking at PC's and motherboards (i3, i5, and i7) talking about having slots for up to 32gb. Some up to 64gb. I know there was a time that systems just couldn;t make use of anything beyond a certain limit. Is that still the case?
Does it make sense to plan on having 32gb of ram?
The heaviest load my system sees is on the fly video transcoding via play-on. Which can bog it down if someone is streaming a DVD to a tv while anyone else is actually using the PC. Worste case scenario is the pc could be transcoding while a graphics application is running (SketchUp) or photo processing (Adobe Lightroom).
What is the bare minimum I should be looking at for processor (i3, i5, i7) and ram (16, 32, ??) be it build it or just buy it?
And, finally, are SSD drives really making that big an improvemnt as an OS drive or a cache drive? Just about the only time my pc is ever turned off is after an update, a power failure, or during an active electrical storm."
to which I got;
"Maybe"
and,
"Ssd are blinding fast. You don't want anything but an ssd for os, cache, or anything random access.
You want a current i5, ssd in the range of 256Gb with a storage drive of 2Tb, backup drives for that data, and at minimum 8Gb of Ram with a 64 bit os."
and,
"I run an i5 3570k with 16GB RAM and a 160GB SSD for the OS. It's plenty quick for me, and I'm usually running a bunch of stuff at the same time with 4 monitors. Visual Studio can be a hog during development and even with several other programs running at the same time, it performs great.
The SSD will be a more noticeable upgrade than going to 32gb RAM. I'd start with an SSD and 16GB RAM in a configuration that will allow you to move up to 32GB if you want to later, such as 2x8GB instead of 4x4GB. Just make sure the mobo has 4 slots."
and,
"Also, the SSDs have come down a bunch in price. I think I paid $150-175 for the 160GB in my desktop ~2 years ago, and just bought a 512GB drive for my Macbook for $210 a couple months ago. It's the only way to go now, IMO."
to which I responded / asked,
"I plan to re-use drives I already have, IF, the mobo has available SATA connections. I currently have (4) 750Gb WD Caviar and (2) Buffalo 3Tb drivestation Axis USB3.0 (which IIRC, use WD Greens).
I am pretty sure the current mobo had 6 sata connection and all 6 were full. I "think" the OEM (samsung) optical drive used one, but can't remember for the life of me what used the last one. Multi Card reader maybe(compact flash/sd/etc...)?
I also have a sony external optical drive that I adore (damned thing will read anything). Is it possible to strip these out of there cases and use as an internal?
The current system used one Internal HDD as the boot drive and program drive. Another drive was dedicated to personal files. The third was used for system image backups/ghosts. And the fourth was used solely for photos.
One of the 3Tb USB drives is used as the video bank and the other is used as a backup for the video bank. (both connected to a USB3.0 PCI/PCIe to USB3.0 card)
Is there a more efficient way to use this storage after I get a ssd for boot drive and/or cahe drive? (RAID?)
I have the install disc for Win7 Ultimate. Is Win8 any better than this once the GUI learning curve is passed?
Lastly, and then I am done, you said a min of 8gb for 64bit os. Does it make any sense to go with more? Will an i5 or i7 actually use it for what I do?"
and,
"Does it make any sense to have an ssd for the os and another as a cache drive? And are the PCI cards for SATA expansion effective or reliable if I need to expand available SATA connection for all this crap?"
So far, I think the squirrell is still winning.
Anyone else care to offer a response?
"My current PC had 16gb of ram and I don't think I ever saw it use more than 8gb (based on a widget).
Now I am looking at PC's and motherboards (i3, i5, and i7) talking about having slots for up to 32gb. Some up to 64gb. I know there was a time that systems just couldn;t make use of anything beyond a certain limit. Is that still the case?
Does it make sense to plan on having 32gb of ram?
The heaviest load my system sees is on the fly video transcoding via play-on. Which can bog it down if someone is streaming a DVD to a tv while anyone else is actually using the PC. Worste case scenario is the pc could be transcoding while a graphics application is running (SketchUp) or photo processing (Adobe Lightroom).
What is the bare minimum I should be looking at for processor (i3, i5, i7) and ram (16, 32, ??) be it build it or just buy it?
And, finally, are SSD drives really making that big an improvemnt as an OS drive or a cache drive? Just about the only time my pc is ever turned off is after an update, a power failure, or during an active electrical storm."
to which I got;
"Maybe"
and,
"Ssd are blinding fast. You don't want anything but an ssd for os, cache, or anything random access.
You want a current i5, ssd in the range of 256Gb with a storage drive of 2Tb, backup drives for that data, and at minimum 8Gb of Ram with a 64 bit os."
and,
"I run an i5 3570k with 16GB RAM and a 160GB SSD for the OS. It's plenty quick for me, and I'm usually running a bunch of stuff at the same time with 4 monitors. Visual Studio can be a hog during development and even with several other programs running at the same time, it performs great.
The SSD will be a more noticeable upgrade than going to 32gb RAM. I'd start with an SSD and 16GB RAM in a configuration that will allow you to move up to 32GB if you want to later, such as 2x8GB instead of 4x4GB. Just make sure the mobo has 4 slots."
and,
"Also, the SSDs have come down a bunch in price. I think I paid $150-175 for the 160GB in my desktop ~2 years ago, and just bought a 512GB drive for my Macbook for $210 a couple months ago. It's the only way to go now, IMO."
to which I responded / asked,
"I plan to re-use drives I already have, IF, the mobo has available SATA connections. I currently have (4) 750Gb WD Caviar and (2) Buffalo 3Tb drivestation Axis USB3.0 (which IIRC, use WD Greens).
I am pretty sure the current mobo had 6 sata connection and all 6 were full. I "think" the OEM (samsung) optical drive used one, but can't remember for the life of me what used the last one. Multi Card reader maybe(compact flash/sd/etc...)?
I also have a sony external optical drive that I adore (damned thing will read anything). Is it possible to strip these out of there cases and use as an internal?
The current system used one Internal HDD as the boot drive and program drive. Another drive was dedicated to personal files. The third was used for system image backups/ghosts. And the fourth was used solely for photos.
One of the 3Tb USB drives is used as the video bank and the other is used as a backup for the video bank. (both connected to a USB3.0 PCI/PCIe to USB3.0 card)
Is there a more efficient way to use this storage after I get a ssd for boot drive and/or cahe drive? (RAID?)
I have the install disc for Win7 Ultimate. Is Win8 any better than this once the GUI learning curve is passed?
Lastly, and then I am done, you said a min of 8gb for 64bit os. Does it make any sense to go with more? Will an i5 or i7 actually use it for what I do?"
and,
"Does it make any sense to have an ssd for the os and another as a cache drive? And are the PCI cards for SATA expansion effective or reliable if I need to expand available SATA connection for all this crap?"
So far, I think the squirrell is still winning.
Anyone else care to offer a response?