RAM question

[boomer34]

So I just bought a Dell Precision T3500 desktop. It comes with 12GB of ECC ram (6x2GB).

From my reading, I know ECC RAM is superior, but I was thinking about replacing the current 12GB with 24GB (6x4GB).

The new RAM will not be ECC...I am looking at a G.Skill Ripjaws line that is on sale at Newegg right now for $54.99 for 12GB (3x4GB), DDR3 1600, PC3 12800.

I guess my question is how much difference will I notice with the 24GB compared to the 12GB ECC RAM?

 

[rolli59]

It totally depends on what you do with the computer! If you are doing memory heavy tasks that use more than 12GB then it will be worth it, if not you will not notice any difference!

 

[treefrog07]

The motherboard chipset is an Intel X58. Are you sure you have ECC RAM? Non-ECC RAM (G.Skill) does not play well together with ECC RAM. You may want to contact DELL to confirm that you have ECC RAM first.

Your question: More RAM will generally improve performance, but you would not likely be able to see the difference by doubling what you have if you are using the machine for general office-type work or gaming. You will see a performance increase if your use is primarily video-editing. I would leave it as it is, if it was me.

 

[boomer34]

I guess here is a follow-up question...

My laptop has 4GB of RAM...and I have just added a few stock trading programs, that have brought the RAM usage up to about 3.75GB when I am running everything...and I have noticed a big "slow down" in my laptop in small tasks, like opening an internet page, clicking between programs...

So even though I am not using the entire 4GB of RAM in my laptop, I have seen a performance decrease...

So what is the "threshold" for when you should increase RAM, even though you are not using your current amount 100% to not notice any performance slow-downs?

I hope that makes sense...

Thanks!

 

[rolli59]

The motherboard chipset is an Intel X58. Are you sure you have ECC RAM? Non-ECC RAM (G.Skill) does not play well together with ECC RAM. You may want to contact DELL to confirm that you have ECC RAM first.

Your question: More RAM will generally improve performance, but you would not likely be able to see the difference by doubling what you have if you are using the machine for general office-type work or gaming. You will see a performance if you are increase if your use is primarily video-editing. I would leave it as it is, if it was me.

It supports both and he is replacing all of it! http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/precision-t3500/pd

 

[rolli59]

I guess here is a follow-up question...

My laptop has 4GB of RAM...and I have just added a few stock trading programs, that have brought the RAM usage up to about 3.75GB when I am running everything...and I have noticed a big "slow down" in my laptop in small tasks, like opening an internet page, clicking between programs...

So even though I am not using the entire 4GB of RAM in my laptop, I have seen a performance decrease...

So what is the "threshold" for when you should increase RAM, even though you are not using your current amount 100% to not notice any performance slow-downs?

I hope that makes sense...

Thanks!

It is hard to say but if you start noticing heavy HDD activity running programs then it indicates that it ran out of ram and had to go in to the swap/page file on the disk to supplement for ram.

 

[simon12]

EEC RAM is slower due to the error correction and is normally only used in servers

 

[boomer34]

Best answer selected by boomer34.