Which and how much DDR2 RAM?

[BadChough]

I have, for my sins, a Biostar A780LB Mainboard running 2x1Gb Ram and AMD Athlon(tm) 64 x2 Dual Core Processor 5200+ 2.70MHz.
I am now doing more graphics/video work and thought it might speed things up a bit if I added to the RAM.
The Biostar manual tells me that the DDR2 DIMM Slot x2 supports DDR2 533/677/800 and DDR2 1066(by AM2+/AM3 CPU) up to 8Gb.
I believe this means it's Socket AM2+.
So, I don't understand all those numbers and codes, but I expect you do!
Can you advise me on a sensible RAM upgrade for this system. DDR2 800 or 1066? Is it worth getting the whole 8Gb?
Also, are there manufacturers that can be recommended, and others that should be avoided?
Thanks for any advice.

 

[goombawaho]

So, Crucial shows the following:
Memory Type: DDR2 PC2-5300, DDR2 PC2-8500, DDR2 PC2-6400, (non-ECC)
Maximum Memory: 8GB
Slots: 2

Link

You didn't say what operating system you're running, but I would say 8GB is useful for Windows 7/Windows 8 So, I'd get two sticks of 4GB each PC2-6400. I'd go with Corsair, Kingston or Crucial. The PC2-8500 is more expensive and for an older system, I wouldn't bother.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[rclarke250]

The only issue with going to 8GB kit, is it runs about $220.00 USD from Newegg for 2x 4GB DDR2 pc6400 Crucial kit.Link If you thought DDR3 went up in price, Holy Cow, I haven't priced DDR2 in a long while, but dang, that is a lot. At this point it might be more cost effective to get a new computer, because then you would benefit from a faster everything. If you are running XP, then you could get 4GB of ram, but you would not be able to use it all, because the 32 bit version which 99.5% of all windows xp versions are, it will not be able to use all of the 4GB of ram. Your board will top out at 8GB of ram.

 

[BadChough]

You're right rclark250, the cost is prohibitive.
I'm running Windows7 by the way, and I guess I might just go from 2x1Gb to 2x2Gb.
I'm guessing I would notice a difference in the speed, (and still have enough money for food!)
Thank you both for your comments.

 

[goombawaho]

I thought I saw a much better price than that at New Egg for 2x 4GB, so scope things out before giving up.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[kjv1611]

couple of points:
1. The OS is not what determines the RAM. You can use Windows XP if it's 64 bit with more RAM - but 64 bit Win XP was too buggy in my opinion. So, if you're running Windows 7, make sure it's Windows 7 64 bit before trying to go over 4GB. Going over 4GB would help with graphics, but the main hiccup you'll have right now will be the CPU - the RAM will be secondary. And by the way, with graphics, no such thing as too much ram.

2. As for the RAM costs, you MIGHT come out cheaper searching eBay or Amazon for used memory. DDR2 Ram did jump way up in price once DDR3 became the "standard". I saw the same problem with my Core 2 Duo machine. I would ever so love to upgarde to 8GB from the current 4 by just buying another 4GB kit, but it costs multiple times more than what I paid for the original kit. Too bad I didn't have extra cash at the time to just go straight to 8GB, skipping 4.

Overall advice, if you're doing work with graphics, if at all possible (it isn't always possible - I know), save up to where you can build/get a modern desktop running an Intel Core i... whatever, the bigger the better, the newer the better.. If you did get a laptop instead (which if you're staying in one place, and doing graphics editing, desktop will be better, still... I'd avoid first generation Core i7... First generation Intel Core i3/i5 is fine, but in laptops, the first generation i7s are well know for overheating problems. Later verisons - 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation i7 have been great from all I've seen, experienced, and read. My current main laptop runs an i7 - 3rd generation, and it even gets good battery life, besides good performance.

Another suggestion - if you later decide anyways to go with a laptop, I'd highly suggest getting one that supports 2 hard drive / ssd bays (not really mSSD + HDD standard bay, but 2 full size 2.5 HDD bays). That way, even if you start with one hard drive, but later want to upgrade, you can add to the system. So you could use a fast SSD for the system, and then a large HDD for files. Seagate, I think it is, now has a 2.5 form factor hard drive at 2TB. I would LOVE to have 2TB of storage space in my laptop for some files plus all my home documents, pictures, and videos (yes, I do have THAT MUCH space taken up there - was too video happy when our son was born ).

I realize I probably rambled a bit, but I figured - some of this could be things you are thinking about right now, if you're feeling the pain of antiquated hardware for heavy CPU intensive tasks.. I don't know a lot about graphics processing, personally - I have played with it, and my brother is in the 3D vid gaming industry, so I can speak from that combination... But I can also say:

For 3d Graphics Rendering, Audio editing, Video Rendering, some advanced Potoshop editing even, and even some large data mining tasks.. All those are very CPU intensive... CPU first, Memory second, storage drive next. As far as system load times, and application load times, the drive will often make the biggest difference. To me sounds like a quick upgrade to 4GB will give you the cheapest upgrade, and the best upgrade in your current system. I'd check, though, if you happen to find an 8GB kit used on eBay/Amazon... you may not, but worth a search.

Man, I typed too much there.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[BadChough]

Wow! Many thanks for taking the trouble and time to put your thoughts down for me, kjv1611 . I hope others benefit from it at times in the future, too.
I live in UK and a search of Ebay has turned up a new pair of "Kingston KVR800D2N62G (2 GB, DDR2 RAM, 800 MHz, DIMM 240-pin) RAM", which look to be pretty well identical to my existing sticks, but 2GB each instead of 1Gb each, and at a very reasonable price, so I've opted for them.
I'm running a desktop machine with a very nice Benq screen, and it's mostly Photoshop work that stretches resources. It's all getting a bit old, and I have the feeling that if I'm not going to invest in a new one, (not for a year or two I hope) I better to a re-format/clean re-install of everything. After a few years everything seems to get a bit sluggish, don't you find?
Anyway, thanks again, folks. I'll report back when I have installed the new RAM.

 

[goombawaho]

4GB is okay for Win 7 32bit/64bit and certainly better than 2GB. If you were running 32bit, as mentioned, there's no need for more than 4GB.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[BadChough]

thanks. Yes. It's 32bit.

 

[kjv1611]

A reinstall would help some, possibly alot. Depends upon how many times you find yourself installing and uninstalling applications, changing loads of various settings, maybe a lot of web browsing. So the benefit from the system redo will vary based on what is on the system now. Other things you can look at, to save on those precious resources, is look at what is running all the time, and decide, do you really need/want it running. For instance, if an application has some fancy/pretty little something that runs like a widget in the task bar or on the side or top of the screen, that's using resources. If anything is sitting there waiting for you to give it a command, so it has to be open to wait for that command.. well, that's using resources. Check your AV program and firewall if using 3rd party - many of those use a lot of resources.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[rclarke250]

To some degree it is the OS that determines the size of the ram you can use. How much ram can you use in windows 7 64 bit? or for that matter, any version of windows OS? Link click the link and see what Microsoft sets the limit at. There is also limits that are set by the hardware also, so If you have say windows 7 64 bit enterprise which has a limit of 192GB of ram, but most boards top out at 32GB to 128Gb depending on the chipset, or processor used, as the memory controller is integrated in the newer processors, but not in older ones. Now compare that to RHEL x86_64 version 6 tops out at 64TB of ram, so hardware is definitely more of a limitation with Linux as opposed to OS.

Ebay is a good place if you can get new old stock.

Discrete video cards can also impact graphics to a large degree depending on software used.