School me on RAM

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

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I have been out of the hardware game for awhile.

I have an MCP61SM-AM motherboard. I want to max out the RAM with the best performing RAM it will accept.

I have been doing a lot of home studio recording and productions are getting larger and more complex and lag is becoming an issue.

I have default crap RAM that came w/ the machine

What is the most and highest performing RAM I can put on this motherboard?

Also what is the second best performing in case the first option is crazy expensive?

I am lost on the difference between PC1 PC2 PC3, DDR, etc.
I used to know the hardware side inside and out when I was in school.

It has all turned greek.

 
DDR is the memory technology. It comes in DDR (1), DDR2, DDR3, DDR4. All these are different so you must match it to what your motherboard wants. (PC1,2,3,...) correspond to these numbers.

Then of course you have the physical issue. The boards come in DIMM, SO-DIMM, and MicroDIMM which are all just different physical form factors.

Then once you get there, there's the memory speed. Again you need one that works at least as fast as what your board wants.

There's usually guidance of how to arrange the DIMMs in the system, but if you're going to fill it up with max capacity ones you don't have to sweat that too much.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I have been out of the hardware game for awhile.

I have an MCP61SM-AM motherboard. I want to max out the RAM with the best performing RAM it will accept.

I have been doing a lot of home studio recording and productions are getting larger and more complex and lag is becoming an issue.

I have default crap RAM that came w/ the machine

What is the most and highest performing RAM I can put on this motherboard?

Also what is the second best performing in case the first option is crazy expensive?

I am lost on the difference between PC1 PC2 PC3, DDR, etc.
I used to know the hardware side inside and out when I was in school.

It has all turned greek.
Click to expand...

SSD drives will have a big impact on total system speed also.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I have been out of the hardware game for awhile.

I have an MCP61SM-AM motherboard. I want to max out the RAM with the best performing RAM it will accept.

I have been doing a lot of home studio recording and productions are getting larger and more complex and lag is becoming an issue.

I have default crap RAM that came w/ the machine

What is the most and highest performing RAM I can put on this motherboard?

Also what is the second best performing in case the first option is crazy expensive?

I am lost on the difference between PC1 PC2 PC3, DDR, etc.
I used to know the hardware side inside and out when I was in school.

It has all turned greek.
Click to expand...

From a quick Google, it looks like an AM2 motherboard made by ECS?
Motherboard

If so, you're looking at DDR2 SDRAM, and a max speed of PC2 6400. Not sure what the maximum amount of RAM supported by the motherboard is, or the best configuration of chip size/# of chips is. But looks like there are quite a few options...
Newegg
 
rwellner98 said:
SSD drives will have a big impact on total system speed also.
Click to expand...

I'm looking into that.I have heard they can be limited by bus speeds ask you don't get the performance you might expect. I'm thinking about going with a ssd hybrid.

The only thing I really do with my computer it's record music and now watch that gyrocopter video. Recording is starting to get complicated
 
http://www.ascendtech.us/4gb-2-x-2gb-ddr2-667mhz-ecc-memory_i_memeccddr26674g.aspx

This should be the biggest you can put in that MB. It's 4 slots X 4GB per slot for 16GB RAM.

You might want to step down to this: http://www.ascendtech.us/2gb-ddr2-pc2-6400-single-memory-chip_i_memd2642gbsngle.aspx

Which is only 2GB per SIMM package, but is a bit faster clock speed. This would give you total of 8GB with 4 modules.

One thing that may be giving you trouble is that it has an onboard video chip which is limited to 256MB of shared memory from the mainboard. Top of the line gaming and media systems have a specific video slot for an aftermarket graphics card. You have a PCI Express card which will support a card like this: http://www.ascendtech.us/nvidia-geforce-gt530-2gb-hdmi-dvi-vga_i_vc2gbgt530hdmiv.aspx which will offload a lot of the video and audio activity from the main processor, and push it onto this board.

Here's a stand alone audio card that will help with recording. http://www.ascendtech.us/creative-sound-blaster-x-fi-xtreme-7-1_i_scp380kpciexaud.aspx You will need some fancy capture software to go with it. My son does a lot of this work and he uses: http://www.sibelius.com/home/index_flash.html which is a composition, arranging, editing and capturing package. I've heard good things about: http://www.appladdin.com/fruityloops/ but have no experience with it.
 
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Just FYI, while it is always best to get RAM specs from the mfr., crucial.com has an excellent database along with the ability to scan your system.
 
docmirror said:
http://www.ascendtech.us/4gb-2-x-2gb-ddr2-667mhz-ecc-memory_i_memeccddr26674g.aspx

This should be the biggest you can put in that MB. It's 4 slots X 4GB per slot for 16GB RAM.

You might want to step down to this: http://www.ascendtech.us/2gb-ddr2-pc2-6400-single-memory-chip_i_memd2642gbsngle.aspx

Which is only 2GB per SIMM package, but is a bit faster clock speed. This would give you total of 8GB with 4 modules.
Click to expand...

I get a 4 GB limit (1 GB per slot) when I look up that board.

Rich
 
RJM62 said:
I get a 4 GB limit (1 GB per slot) when I look up that board.

Rich
Click to expand...

Yup, that looks right. Gonna save some money right there.

At this point, with all the crap he needs, might as well start over with a new MB set up for graphics, audio and gaming.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I'm looking into that.I have heard they can be limited by bus speeds ask you don't get the performance you might expect. I'm thinking about going with a ssd hybrid.

The only thing I really do with my computer it's record music and now watch that gyrocopter video. Recording is starting to get complicated
Click to expand...

This is particularly true for things like video and audio where you're pulling and pushing large streams of data. SSDs have really short seek times (no head repositioning) and so excel at random access. But fast hard drives (7200 RPM, or even go 10KRPM or 15KRPM SCSI) have faster throughput.

Hybrid might work OK, but I'd check on some of the video/audio forums for a real review.

John
 
Things had been going smooth but for music nerds, I am switching from the Toneport UX2 w/ PodFarm to Guitar Rig5. Line 6 stuff is so damned muddy. The latency in GR5 is huge relative to the Pod Farm / Tone Port stuff but it just sounds so much better.
 
docmirror said:
Yup, that looks right. Gonna save some money right there.

At this point, with all the crap he needs, might as well start over with a new MB set up for graphics, audio and gaming.
Click to expand...

Really. For that kind of work on a regular basis, I'd plan my build around an i5 or i7 on a good mobo and between 8 and 16 GB system RAM on board.

Rich
 
Yeah, I'd say start over with a new MB. This time, look for the biggest L2 cache you can find. Most everything that needs quick access likes to push stuff up in L2 cache. Think of memory like a bunch of planes. L1 cache is the registers on the chip. These are very close and very fast memory locations. L2 is a lookaside buffer that contains a lot of pages of data, and some code as well. If it's data intensive, grab a board that has gobs of L2 cache. That will make a world of difference.

By the time you go to RAM, you are burning CPU cycles in wait states. By the time you go to the SSD, you are burning a ton of clock cycles waiting for pages to load. L2 is what the big guys want.
 
Best bet is to go to Crucial's website, download the little application. It the runs on your computer, gives a detailed analysis ofnthe motherboard, the type of RAM to install and how much. Saves lots of grief trying to figure out all this stuff. I've been using it for years on client systems. Stable, safe, and you can delete it when finished. It also recommends RAM configurations.
 
murphey said:
Best bet is to go to Crucial's website, download the little application. It the runs on your computer, gives a detailed analysis ofnthe motherboard, the type of RAM to install and how much. Saves lots of grief trying to figure out all this stuff. I've been using it for years on client systems. Stable, safe, and you can delete it when finished. It also recommends RAM configurations.
Click to expand...

Awesome.
Thank you
 
docmirror said:
Tasty. Lots of gobbledegook that needs to be vetted by an independent test with common apps but it does have quite a bit of cache on board. I always like AMD products. I used to work for them in one of their development wafer fabs way, way back. Good solid stuff back then, and prolly still the same.
Click to expand...

I can't say that I've bought anything with their silicon in it, but then I work for the #1 semiconductor manufacturer in the world and it wouldn't do to have the competition's product in my toys, now would it? :D
 
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