What to do with "too much" Ram

[Photobug]

On my new computer i went with 32GB or ram, because the photo forum guys said so. The machine is blazing fast and I have been doing some intense photo editing with it but have not touched the RAM I have.

Reading another thread here on what constitutes too much ram, kind of like too much fun, I realize there are things I can do with this overabundance of RAM. Here are the details of my computer

32 GB Ram
120 GB SSD for the O.S.
1TB HDD for data

I mostly use it to run
Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Photoshop
and a few smaller programs at the same time.
I have also started doing some gaming.

What is the best way to make use of this RAM, VMs, FancyCache or something else?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Ramdisk

 

[glugglug]

Good for commercial scanning if you turn it into a DVR.

On my old box with a single green drive for recordings, if recording 4-5 shows at once while commercial scanning them all and trying to watch 2 of them, the disk seeking between all the files during the scan will cause the playback to pause a lot. Had to limit comskip to scanning 2 files at a time.

1 hour of TV recording is about 6-7GB. The 32GB RAM will help a few recordings being scanned stay in cache.

 

[tweakboy]

I would use all that 32GB on my DAW.

But for regular users.. you have to run 30 instances of a stability app or whatever their called vmware...

 

[KingFatty]

How often do you reboot? I think it would be cool to load every major game/app you have, and just leave them running without needing to close any of them. Then hold down winkey+tab to watch them all flow.

 

[Berryracer]

Ramdisk

RAM disk is useless if you have an SSD to be honest. I've tried it and there was no difference at all

 

[Zap]

What is the best way to make use of this RAM

Gift it to someone else? :whiste:

 

[John Connor]

RAM disk is useless if you have an SSD to be honest. I've tried it and there was no difference at all

A RAM disk is a hell of a lot faster than a SSD. Especially if your using DDR3.

 

[Z15CAM]

A RAMDisk is a lot faster then a SSD if you run say a Video Encoding Program such as MeGUI in Ram and encode a Source File to Ram.

RAMDisk can save 90% of a SSD's Write Wear thereby extending it's life by writing all Windows Sluff Files such as Local Temp, Windows Temp, Temporary Internet Files for IE or FireFox Cache, WinEvent Files and Temp Files for all Apps such as WinRAR, WinZIP, 7-Zip, Audition, PSP9, Adobe CS6 Apps, NERO, AnyDVD, PowerISO ... etc. None of this crap writes to the SSD and is Automatically Cleared with every ReBoot when it's written to RAM.

Place the PageFile (Hibernation and System BackUp files - If you use them) on a HDD - Not to either the SSD or RAM. Also located My Documents and E-Mail Boxes to your HDD - Whatever it takes lessen writes to the SSD. Not saying you can't use your SSD but you designated writes on command to the SSD and the Day to Day Session Crap Writes will not unnecessarily wear out the SSD.

I run a small 4GB RAMDisk for this purpose using 16 GB of RAM which serves my purpose very well but with 32GB's I would consider a much Bigger RAMDisk Volume and Install something like your Main Photo and Video Encoding App's to the RAMDisk Image and do all your Editing in Ram then copy your HardCopies to a HDD Storage Drive.

Win7 x64 never really uses over 4GB's but with 32GB's try 16GB's for Win and 16GB's to load a RAMDisk Image. I don't believe RAMDisk can go larger then 16 GB's but it may.

I've a duplicate HDD Drive NTFS Partition mirroring my RAMDisk Image which can Load on ReBoot by using 2 Registry BackUps - One for HDD and one for RAMDisk.

RAMDisk is notably much faster but can be somewhat perilous if your not familiar with it, so always keep a DOS Accessible BackUp Image on a FAT32 partition such as GHOST.GHO file to protect your OS - Never depend on stupid Windows BackUp and perhaps a SYSPrep.GHO image so you can install your OS onto new Hardware which loads the Crap and Specific Apps onto a Mirrored Partitioned HDD before engaging the RAMDisk.

A RAMDisk System takes a lot of planning and not for the faint. You need to use DISKPART Commands and Pre-Align Partitions before Installing Win or Dumping your BackUp Images over them on an SSD.

I use a Partitioned Samsung 840 Pro 256 MB as my Boot Drive - 1 GB FAT32 BOOT Partition - used for Bootmgr, RegBackups and DOS, 60 GB NTFS for WIN7, Office and Essential Apps plus a 177 GB NTFS PLAYGROUND Partition. Barely 23 GB's of the SSD is used but lots of room left to use at my discretion. 2 x's WD5001AALS in RAID-0 for a STUDIO and 1 x's 1 TB WD Black HDD for System BackUp and Personal Files and of course a 4 to 12 GB RAMDisk when I choose using 16 GB's of Samsung MV-3V4G3D-US_DDR3 running at 1866 Mhz 9-9-9-24 1T @ 1.34v. AUSUS P8Z68V-Pro GEN3/i7 2700K between 1600-4600 MHz 1.34v, 36 to 67C/Corsair H100/ASUS DRW-24B1ST_DVDRW/Hauppauge 1250 WinTV/ Spare Intel NIC/XFX 850W Black Edition Modular/Fractal Midi R2/QNIX QX2710 and waiting until October to decide what to do regarding a GPU upgrade ;o) My PC hobby is Video Editing & Encoding but I'm willing to try some 1440p Gaming with that 27" Samsung PLS display at 120Hz. The eVGA GTX780 Classified looks very tempting but the Price - YUK! Here's hoping, come October, AMD release a 9970 512Bit 4 GB card that beats the 780 for a Lower Price.

Here's an AS SSD Benchmark comparing Samsung MV-3V4G3D-US_DDR3 RAMDisk Drive Vs a Samsung 840 Pro 256 SSD :

And a MaxxMEM2 Bench with a 12 GB RAMDisk image loaded :

 

[Virgorising]

Holy Mutha of IT everything!!!!

Every part of the above is sooooo beyond me, I think I will just blow my brains out.

VERRRRRY IMPRESSIVE STUFF.:biggrin:

 

[Jabrono]

No such thing as too much RAM with Photoshop.

 

[Photobug]

No such thing as too much RAM with Photoshop.

Yes i was told by the people at Photo.net to get 32 GB. I really don't use Photoshop that much though just Lightroom for the majority of my processing and have yet to see the total being used.

I would like to explore the use of RAMdisk but if I need to recreate Z15s setup to achieve this securely It may take me a few weeks to figure it all out.

 

[John Connor]

SoftPerfect RAM Disk on a 64 bit OS has no RAM limit neither does ImDisk. I use SoftPerfect RAM Disk for the temp files on a SSD. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RAM_drive_software#RRamdisk

 

[Z15CAM]

if I need to recreate Z15s setup

Whatever Virtual RAM Drive App you use the TRICK is when you over-write the Registry to Reboot (ERUNT is great for this) the Mirrored HDD NTFS Partition Swaps Drive Letters with the Virtual Ram Drive. Since the HDD Partition is no longer functional when Booting into RAMDrive, I place the PageFile on it. The Mirrored Partition is on my Raid-0 Array. Win7 Disk Management will complain about changing System Disks, disregard as it will do it on ReBoot. Always keep an ERUNT Registry BackUp to load either the HDD Mirror or RAMDisk Drive on ReBoot.

A RAMDisk Utility Builds the Virtual Image file, loads the RAM Driver and Image File on Boot and uses approx 15MB`s in the OS Partition on your SSD.

Good luck, I`m sure you will figure it out - It`s an interesting study and well worth the effort when you accomplish it.

Really suggest you use DOS GHOST Images on a FAT32 HDD to save your work - It`s Super Fast and Reliable. I use GHO Images copied to Bootable FAT32 USB Flash Drive as 2nd BackUp. GHOST SERVER v8 Corp_Bld 8.0.0.984 is by far the best BackUp Application I`ve come across. It writes Fat 32 and NTFS Partitons on the Fly through DOS and not concerned about the Format or Partition Volume. Just remember to use DISKPART to align the Partitions you make on the SSD by 1024 MB to establish alignment - So be familiar with DISKPART Commands loaded by an EFI WIN7 Bootable Installation DVD to RAM with either a DVD or USB Flash Thumb. The GUI GHOST Server Utility is NOT necessary - Just Copy the DOS GHOST.EXE from the Installation Folder to any FAT 32 Partition Directory as this DOS APP is WHAT's IT's ALL ABOUT, Win7's DISKPART commands is not much different from a WinME Bootable FDisk Partition Manager. I often use a MeBoot Boot Disc to access DOS. You don`t have to load the GUI Server Utility but that 1.38 MB DOS App GHOST.EXE`` is WHAT's IT's ALL ABOUT. At CMD Prompt Browse to the directory and Type: ghost.exe -split=701 - which splits the Image file into 700MB volumes and can be burnt to 703MB CD`s if necessary were optic CD and DVD is rather redundant now considering cheap Flash Drives but the 700 MB Volume allows me to note how big my system is ;o) A 26 GB OS equates to approx an 11 GB volume of Compressed GHOST Images and easily fits on a cheap 16 GB Thumb with room to store SetUps or a EFI Win Installation DVD - Check Out these Flash Thumb Utilities: HpFlash v2.0.6 [86] - USB DOS BOOT and USB & DVD - Win7 SetUp Tool. For RAMDisk I use Dataram RAMDisk V4.0.0 [86] but as Connor points out there are other Virtual RAM Utilities.

NOTE: Learn how to save a SYS-PREP Image of your OS to a bootable FAT32 Thumb - It will Install your 32 or 64 Bit OS onto any Hardware pending 64 Bit is only for 64 Bit Hardware.

DOS RULES as DOS Runs in RAM (Extended Memory).

This is one way I use RAM and can not tell you about going further without getting into a pile of S**T. The use of RAM is up to your imagination.

Yes - Anand, I boarder "SafeMode". How you doing after all these years ;o)