Generic memory vs premium memory on graphics workstation

I'm not building a gaming machine, I'm building a machine for
Photoshop, Flash, video capture/editing and dvd authoring, and
probably more than a little 3d rendering.

I'm getting an Abit IC7-G which is capable of supporting 4Gb of RAM.
Now, I'd love to put in 4Gb of RAM! And with generic (AIB) sticks
costing only $130 or so, that's entirely possible. Of course I'd like
to build a machine entirely out of premium components, but premium RAM
is more than twice the cost of the AIB sticks.

So, given the types of applications I will be running, what would a
recommendation be: 4Gb of generic RAM, or 2Gb of premium RAM?

(hint: I'm leaning towards 4Gb of generic RAM, so I'm looking for a
really good argument to use half the premium RAM instead)

Thanks!

With 4 GB of cheap RAM you CAN look forward to timing errors. If the work
you'll be doing is worth the time you'll be putting into it, get GOOD RAM.

--
DaveW



"David Killian Woods" wrote in message
om...
I'm not building a gaming machine, I'm building a machine for
Photoshop, Flash, video capture/editing and dvd authoring, and
probably more than a little 3d rendering.

I'm getting an Abit IC7-G which is capable of supporting 4Gb of RAM.
Now, I'd love to put in 4Gb of RAM! And with generic (AIB) sticks
costing only $130 or so, that's entirely possible. Of course I'd like
to build a machine entirely out of premium components, but premium RAM
is more than twice the cost of the AIB sticks.

So, given the types of applications I will be running, what would a
recommendation be: 4Gb of generic RAM, or 2Gb of premium RAM?

(hint: I'm leaning towards 4Gb of generic RAM, so I'm looking for a
really good argument to use half the premium RAM instead)

Thanks!

RAM can affect system stability. Generally speaking what ever RAM you
get you want to make sure it has been tested with your motherboard.
You can find out if your ram has been tested at the Abit website
(www.abit-usa.com). I generally work with AMD systems so I'm not sure
if Pentium systems are as picky, but I have heard of some ram giving
problems with different motherboards

Hope this helps you some!

(David Killian Woods) wrote in message . com...
I'm not building a gaming machine, I'm building a machine for
Photoshop, Flash, video capture/editing and dvd authoring, and
probably more than a little 3d rendering.

I'm getting an Abit IC7-G which is capable of supporting 4Gb of RAM.
Now, I'd love to put in 4Gb of RAM! And with generic (AIB) sticks
costing only $130 or so, that's entirely possible. Of course I'd like
to build a machine entirely out of premium components, but premium RAM
is more than twice the cost of the AIB sticks.

So, given the types of applications I will be running, what would a
recommendation be: 4Gb of generic RAM, or 2Gb of premium RAM?

(hint: I'm leaning towards 4Gb of generic RAM, so I'm looking for a
really good argument to use half the premium RAM instead)

Thanks!

RAM can affect system stability. Generally speaking what ever RAM you
get you want to make sure it has been tested with your motherboard.
You can find out if your ram has been tested at the Abit website
(www.abit-usa.com). I generally work with AMD systems so I'm not sure
if Pentium systems are as picky, but I have heard of some ram giving
problems with different motherboards

Hope this helps you some!

(David Killian Woods) wrote in message . com...
I'm not building a gaming machine, I'm building a machine for
Photoshop, Flash, video capture/editing and dvd authoring, and
probably more than a little 3d rendering.

I'm getting an Abit IC7-G which is capable of supporting 4Gb of RAM.
Now, I'd love to put in 4Gb of RAM! And with generic (AIB) sticks
costing only $130 or so, that's entirely possible. Of course I'd like
to build a machine entirely out of premium components, but premium RAM
is more than twice the cost of the AIB sticks.

So, given the types of applications I will be running, what would a
recommendation be: 4Gb of generic RAM, or 2Gb of premium RAM?

(hint: I'm leaning towards 4Gb of generic RAM, so I'm looking for a
really good argument to use half the premium RAM instead)

Thanks!

(David Killian Woods) wrote in message . com...
I'm not building a gaming machine, I'm building a machine for
Photoshop, Flash, video capture/editing and dvd authoring, and
probably more than a little 3d rendering.

I'm getting an Abit IC7-G which is capable of supporting 4Gb of RAM.
Now, I'd love to put in 4Gb of RAM! And with generic (AIB) sticks
costing only $130 or so, that's entirely possible. Of course I'd like
to build a machine entirely out of premium components, but premium RAM
is more than twice the cost of the AIB sticks.

So, given the types of applications I will be running, what would a
recommendation be: 4Gb of generic RAM, or 2Gb of premium RAM?

(hint: I'm leaning towards 4Gb of generic RAM, so I'm looking for a
really good argument to use half the premium RAM instead)

Thanks!
I think it comes down to the question. What is the worth of the data
you are going to be loading into the RAM? Both sticks should work,
but predicting how well they are going to work is a little tougher for
generic memory.

You might be surprised to discover that 4GB of RAM might result with
slower performance than 1 GB of RAM, but it possibly depends upon the
particular software applications and the particular motherboard.

First reference:
Crucial's website for RAM
[go to http://www.crucial.com/library/abit_IC7G_test.asp ]
has two graphs showing that the "Multimedia Content Creation 2003"
benchmark hit a performance ceiling when 1GB of PC3200 (DDR 400) RAM
was installed on an ABIT IC7-G motherboard with Pentium 4 processor.

2GB of RAM did not perform significantly faster than 1GB during the
Crucial/ABIT testing.

Second reference:
Firing Squad website
[go to http://www.firingsquad.com/print_art...i cle_id=1362
] [Note: The long URL might require cut-and-paste to fit on one line
without any blank spaces.]
has October 2003 article by Alan and Alexis Dang ("Building the
Ultimate High-End Gaming Workstation: Stage 2") that shows several
graphs (on its pages 16-18) revealing that 2GB of Corsair
CMX512-3200LL XMS Pro DDR400 RAM performed significantly slower than
1GB on an Intel D875PBZ "Bonanza" motherboard (Canterwood chipset)
with a 2.8C Pentium 4 processor (Hyper-Threading enabled).
Benchmarking software included "Capture One D-SLR Pro," Photoshop7
opening a 6 megapixels RAW image, "Fred Miranda CustomSharpen Pro2,"
and others.

The Dang article concluded, "With today's ultra-high performance
memory controllers, adding extra memory modules can actually cause a
decrease in performance. On all non-registered systems, the use of 2
DIMM slotts should be considered the optimal configuration," and also
concluded that registered DDR memory is recommended if more than 1GB
of RAM is installed.

DRAM is available in three flavors:
1- unbuffered non-ECC,
2- unbuffered ECC,
3- registered ECC.

Of course, some motherboards do not support registered memory. ABIT
responded to my e-mail question by stating that its IC7-Max3
motherboard supports ECC and non-ECC RAM, but might not even POST with
registered RAM.

Hope this information helps.

_________________________
_________________________

(David Killian Woods) wrote in message . com...
I'm not building a gaming machine, I'm building a machine for
Photoshop, Flash, video capture/editing and dvd authoring, and
probably more than a little 3d rendering.

I'm getting an Abit IC7-G which is capable of supporting 4Gb of RAM.
Now, I'd love to put in 4Gb of RAM! And with generic (AIB) sticks
costing only $130 or so, that's entirely possible. Of course I'd like
to build a machine entirely out of premium components, but premium RAM
is more than twice the cost of the AIB sticks.

So, given the types of applications I will be running, what would a
recommendation be: 4Gb of generic RAM, or 2Gb of premium RAM?

(hint: I'm leaning towards 4Gb of generic RAM, so I'm looking for a
really good argument to use half the premium RAM instead)

Thanks!

WOW! That is terrific information, and exactly what I was looking for!
I especially appreciate that you included links to the articles.

I'm definately convinced to move to premium memory, now I just need to
decide which kind. I'm starting another thread on
alt.comp.hardware.overclocking called "Corsair 3200LL vs Komusa 4200" on
the topic....

-david

camera critter wrote:
You might be surprised to discover that 4GB of RAM might result with
slower performance than 1 GB of RAM, but it possibly depends upon the
particular software applications and the particular motherboard.

First reference:
Crucial's website for RAM
[go to http://www.crucial.com/library/abit_IC7G_test.asp ]
has two graphs showing that the "Multimedia Content Creation 2003"
benchmark hit a performance ceiling when 1GB of PC3200 (DDR 400) RAM
was installed on an ABIT IC7-G motherboard with Pentium 4 processor.

2GB of RAM did not perform significantly faster than 1GB during the
Crucial/ABIT testing.

Second reference:
Firing Squad website
[go to http://www.firingsquad.com/print_art...i cle_id=1362
] [Note: The long URL might require cut-and-paste to fit on one line
without any blank spaces.]
has October 2003 article by Alan and Alexis Dang ("Building the
Ultimate High-End Gaming Workstation: Stage 2") that shows several
graphs (on its pages 16-18) revealing that 2GB of Corsair
CMX512-3200LL XMS Pro DDR400 RAM performed significantly slower than
1GB on an Intel D875PBZ "Bonanza" motherboard (Canterwood chipset)
with a 2.8C Pentium 4 processor (Hyper-Threading enabled).
Benchmarking software included "Capture One D-SLR Pro," Photoshop7
opening a 6 megapixels RAW image, "Fred Miranda CustomSharpen Pro2,"
and others.

The Dang article concluded, "With today's ultra-high performance
memory controllers, adding extra memory modules can actually cause a
decrease in performance. On all non-registered systems, the use of 2
DIMM slotts should be considered the optimal configuration," and also
concluded that registered DDR memory is recommended if more than 1GB
of RAM is installed.

DRAM is available in three flavors:
1- unbuffered non-ECC,
2- unbuffered ECC,
3- registered ECC.

Of course, some motherboards do not support registered memory. ABIT
responded to my e-mail question by stating that its IC7-Max3
motherboard supports ECC and non-ECC RAM, but might not even POST with
registered RAM.

Hope this information helps.

_________________________
_________________________

(David Killian Woods) wrote in message . com...

I'm not building a gaming machine, I'm building a machine for
Photoshop, Flash, video capture/editing and dvd authoring, and
probably more than a little 3d rendering.

I'm getting an Abit IC7-G which is capable of supporting 4Gb of RAM.
Now, I'd love to put in 4Gb of RAM! And with generic (AIB) sticks
costing only $130 or so, that's entirely possible. Of course I'd like
to build a machine entirely out of premium components, but premium RAM
is more than twice the cost of the AIB sticks.

So, given the types of applications I will be running, what would a
recommendation be: 4Gb of generic RAM, or 2Gb of premium RAM?

(hint: I'm leaning towards 4Gb of generic RAM, so I'm looking for a
really good argument to use half the premium RAM instead)

Thanks!


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