Too much RAM - any ideas?

[Dimitris Stasis]

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a refurbished workstation (2x Xeons) that came with 48GB of RAM. I used to say that no matter how much RAM you have it's never enough, but I realize now that I will probably never need more than 24GB, at least with my current type of work and software versions. Would there be any benefit in using e.g. half of the RAM for a RAM drive, or in any other way? My usual workflow involves Autocad, 3dsMax with V-Ray and photoshop.

 

Thank you in advance.

[Chris MacDonald]

lol what? A RAM drive?

 

RAM is cleared when the machine is turned off, so it's of absolutely no use for storage purposes. Just accept that you've got plenty of RAM, it's an enviable position to be in. I worked for years with not enough RAM, and it's only recently that it's become a non-issue.

Edited October 6, 2014 by Macker
weird typo

[heni30]

Put it in another machine or sell it and upgrade another part of your workstation. That's US$200 right there.

[Zdravko Barisic]

I would not sell it.

2xXeon with 48GB is awesome PC. I guess it is ECC ram, and you will hard buy another one if you ever need it.

Just leave it and forget it...

[Dimitris Tolios]

What are the rest of the specs?

If you think this machine as "overkill" in some areas, you might aswell sell it altogether and build one that will cater for your everyday needs in a better way...

 

 

2P Xeon almost guarantees that we are talking old, slow cores. Many of them, but relatively slow.

 

 

If you can get enough money selling this to get yourself a modern i7 Hex with 16-32GB of RAM, it is almost certain that you will get an overall boost in your productivity...I know, 2P is "l33t" and a good conversation piece, but yes, an old 2P doesn't worth that much in RL performance.

 

 

Ψάξου Μήτσο!

[Francisco Penaloza]

I would not sell it or ditch it, besides you just bought it !

I think is a good deal. Of course it won't be the fastest but, none computer ever is, there is always something new and better, I also have two x2 Xeons E5XXX 6 cores each and they work great for me, (also freelancing) they get the job done no sweat. If you have the extra RAM maybe you can put it in other similar machine or in the future if you are doing a complex Comp in After effects or any Compositing software, all that RAM will pay off.

[Dimitris Stasis]

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Ευχαριστώ Μήτσο για τις συμβουλές!

 

The workstation is a Fujitsu R570-2 with 2x Xeon E5640 and 3x 500GB disks. It had a quadro FX580 installed, but I replaced it with a GTX 750Ti. The machine is 3-4 years old, but at 500euros (plus VAT) I considered it a bargain, as I just can't afford a new decent i7 machine right now. I've seen an improvement of 2,5 times faster renderings times compared to my previous 6-year-old pc, plus it seems to be built like a tank. It cost me another 150 euros for the GTX of course...

 

I'm not thinking of selling it, as it suits my needs for the moment and I might use it as a rendering node in the future. I was just thinking that there might be some clever way to utilize the extra RAM that I'm unaware of, but I guess I'll just leave it as-is. My previous pc had 8GB RAM and, like Chris said, I've worked for many years by trying to figure out ways not to run out of memory, so now it's time to sit back and relax, watching the memory usage on task manager...

[RyderSK]

That's good price, after all 48GB ram alone (even DDR3) is like 400 euros right now thanks to the price rise in memory modules.

Just leave it, it really isn't that much when you start to utilize it :- ) {keeping multiple Max scenes open simultaneously, on top of big PSD files,etc..}.

 

Ram disk, I have no experience myself, always only read others using that.