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Geek Culture / 6GBs of RAM expandable to 16?!

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 4th Sep 2009 18:35
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Alright, so I was looking at computers on bestbuy.com, and I found this Dell Inspiron desktop. Here are the specs:


I had no idea that was possible! I had heard several months ago that they couldn't put more than 4GBs of RAM into a computer...whoever I heard that from was obviously mistaken.

Does anyone have a computer with that uber-huge capacity of RAM?

-Yodaman Jer

If it doesn't work, CTRL+ALT+DEL is the only way.
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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 4th Sep 2009 18:37 Edited at: 4th Sep 2009 18:37
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It's called 64-bit. Not that anyone except video editors need that kind of memory. Otherwise, it's an obscene waste.

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 4th Sep 2009 18:46
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That's honestly what I was thinking it would be perfect for: video editing. And maybe 3D modeling/rendering of digital sets!

I'll keep dreaming...

-Yodaman Jer

If it doesn't work, CTRL+ALT+DEL is the only way.
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Xenocythe
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Posted: 4th Sep 2009 18:57
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From my limited knowledge of building computers, it probably just means that there are enough DDR2 SDRAM slots in the motherboard to fill up 16gb of ram.

I'm pretty interested in video editing myself. You could add me on MSN, we'll throw ideas/techniques around if you want.

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 4th Sep 2009 19:11
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I'm not on MSN, but I do have the application installed on my computer. I'll set up an account next week (this day and weekend are really busy and I'll be gone from home) and add you.

And you're probably right about the amount of DDR2 SDRAM slots. I read a review on the computer I linked to and it said it would only register 8GBs of RAM, despite the site claiming that it could register 16GBs. Heh.

-Yodaman Jer

If it doesn't work, CTRL+ALT+DEL is the only way.
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Seppuku Arts
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Joined: 18th Aug 2004
Location: Cambridgeshire, England
Posted: 4th Sep 2009 19:15
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3D modelling definitely, it's one way to boost render times for sure.

But 16GB isn't the largest either.

Some computers built for 3D art and other art media can have 32gb RAM, I know the latest Mac Pros can have up to 32gb, though I don't know of any PC manufacturers who do that high yet.

[url="http://raptr.com/SeppukuA?src=em_forum"][/url]
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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 4th Sep 2009 19:20
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Man, if my target computer wasn't a laptop, I'd get this computer right now!

Unfortunately there is no room in my house anywhere for another desktop, which is why I'm purchasing a laptop instead.

I would so totally use this computer for advanced 3D set construction for a film I want to make next summer. I could do that on my laptop I'll be getting...but it will be slowish.

Ah well. I'll deal with what I can afford.

-Yodaman Jer

If it doesn't work, CTRL+ALT+DEL is the only way.
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Beast E Gargoyle
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Posted: 4th Sep 2009 20:42 Edited at: 5th Sep 2009 17:41
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Sorry, I may be getting alittle off topic. How much memory on average would a game company say developing for the PS2 need per computer? I was thinking 4gb of ram would be good, but I could be wrong.

I was contemplating for a back up plan that when I graduate from Game Design University this May and I didn't land a steady job. I wanted to start a small game development company for the PC or PS2. How hard would it be to get a rather small company (5 people) off and working well? I was figuring that I could get around $900 per month for coverage of employees, but that might only buy me around 3 workers.

The Last Great Swordsmen a 3D hack N slash http://lastswordsmen.freezoka.com
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Phaelax
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Posted: 4th Sep 2009 22:59
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I wouldn't be surprised if developers ran less than 4GB. It's been my opinion that companies don't often hand out computers to employees that are sufficient at completing the tasks they're told to do.
Example from my boss last year, "here's a 3GB laptop with bloated Vista, use eclipse to develop with websphere through a virtual image in VMware."

Can you say slooooow?

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Omega gamer 89
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posted: 5th Sep 2009 00:36 Edited at: 5th Sep 2009 00:39
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Quote: "I'm pretty interested in video editing myself. You could add me on MSN, we'll throw ideas/techniques around if you want."


I'm going to graduate from Pittsburgh Technical Institute in October with a degree in video and 3d editing. If you want to chat, let me know.
Its always good to have someone to bounce ideas off of. Plus I'm going to be making a short (about 20 minutes to a half an hour) mini-movie for my internship, and I could definitely use some story critique.

I have a devious mind.
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JoelJ
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Posted: 5th Sep 2009 05:58
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Quote: "From my limited knowledge of building computers, it probably just means that there are enough DDR2 SDRAM slots in the motherboard to fill up 16gb of ram."

No, it means that the motherboard itself can support up to 16gb of ram as long as the OS can support it.
I was reading an article the other day about building a super cheep linux workstation, and they mentioned that a certain Mobo manufacturer just released a firmware update that supports up to 16gb ram.

Your mother has been erased by a mod because it's larger than 600x120
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Grog Grueslayer
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Posted: 5th Sep 2009 07:26
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The motherboard for the next computer I'm building for myself has a max of 8gigs. It was pretty cheap too.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=P6N-SLI-PLAT-BULK&cat=MBB

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Aaron Miller
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Playing: osu!
Posted: 6th Sep 2009 01:02
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To help clarify. 32-bit computers, by limitations of the processor (largest address space accessible is 0xFFFFFFFF which is 4GB in bytes) you are only able to access 4GB of memory. However, 32-bit applications running on the processor under Windows and Linux are only able to use 2GB of their own memory. The operating system (which includes the kernel and drivers which load into the kernel's address space) use the other half. Even if you only have 32MB of physical memory, through virtual memory (a feature of the processor that modern, and even not-so-modern OS' support) you can access the whole 4GB by mapping different addresses. Through page faults that the kernel will handle, it will sometimes read and write memory to the harddisk to the pagefile (Windows) or swap partition (Linux.)

When you use a 64-bit processor (Intel or AMD) you can access a 36-bit address space (weird, I know.) This gives you access to 2^36 bytes of memory, which is about 16~18 TB. This allows you to access a much higher degree of memory. This is the software limitation. As far as hardware goes, good luck getting enough slots to actual support that amount of memory.

NOTE: - I'm pretty sure it's 36-bit, it's definitely not 64-bit though. Reading through the Intel manuals will confirm this. I will not provide citations, if you want any look on Wikipedia or read through the Intel/AMD manuals which are freely available in PDF form through their websites. If ANY information is incorrect, please correct it and provide citation. Thank you.


Cheers,
-naota

Your signature has been erased by a mod because it's too large--- 800k !?
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