cs4 ram recommendation

B
Posted By
bob733
Oct 21, 2008
Views
992
Replies
27
Status
Closed
I currently have PhotoShop CS4, Windows XP Pro SP3, 2 gig ram, 10k Raptor hard drive (for the program), but using a 7500 rpm internal drive for the scratch drive.

I can tell the system is getting sluggish so was contemplating putting it 3 gig (or possibly 4 gig).

I went to crucial and let the web scan my system to see what I could do to upgrade ram. Because the resutlts were conflicting, I started a chat session with Crucial. It was somewhat enlightening. Here is why:

Windows xp pro 32 bit with 4 gig, the system only sees 3 to 3.5 gig Windows xp pro 32 bit with 3 gig, the systems sees all 3 gig I have pc2-5300 sticks, and upgrading to pc2-6400 is only 2% speed boost.

Now,here is my question. If I upgrade from 2 gig to 3 gig, will my now laboring system start acting like it is sneaking some steroids again?

Appreciate the help.

Bob

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BC
Bart_Cross
Oct 21, 2008
Possibly, but there are other variables involved that could impact the speed, like HD config/speed/type.
B
bob733
Oct 21, 2008
I have a Raptor 10k rpm (for PS CS4 program) hard drive and then another 7500 rpm Internal (for the scratch)
BC
Bart_Cross
Oct 21, 2008
Well, I would put the additional two sticks in matching the original ones. You should never mix RAM types. Then you can use the 3GB switch in your boot.ini. RAM is cheap and it certainly will not hurt. While the app will not see all the RAM, the OS will and use what is left over for itself. Also set the memory usage to 55%, if PS needs more the OS will provide more.
B
bob733
Oct 22, 2008
when i get (and install) the ram tomorrow, i will probably need to know aboutj the 3 gig ram switch in Boot ini… in fact, I wll go to msconfig now and see what I can see.
RP
Russell_Proulx
Oct 22, 2008
If I upgrade from 2 gig to 3 gig, will my now laboring system start acting like it is sneaking some steroids again?

IMO, no you won’t see much improvement, even with the 3/gb switch enabled. That external HD has me wondering if it’s slowing down the system as a USB2 and Firewire interface are much slower than an internal drive would be. With SATA drives being so cheap why are you using an external drive as part of your system disks? For backups they make more sense.

Having one largish internal SATA2 drive (>300g) for your Windows system and another for Photoshop will help pep up the system more than the extra RAM. The larger drives transfer data faster as there’s more data density at the outer rim than with smaller drives.

Make sure you don’t have a gazillion apps running in the background. You should look at every one of those apps running via the icons in your taskbar and ask if they really need to be running.

Are you using overly aggressive AV software? Do you have Skype, IM, Mailwasher, Spychecker, iTunes (and God knows what else) all running in the background?

Maybe it’s just time for a nice clean reinstall of everything. Especially if you’ve installed and uninstalled a lot of stuff over the past year. Some folks like to do a full HD backup using ‘Aconis True Image’ or Symantec ‘Ghost’ as soon as the system is installed and everything is running smoothly. Then they only have to restore the system back to that state when things seem to get ‘tired’ and that can be done in less than 1/2 hour with most systems. It’s a lot easier than reinstalling everything from scratch! It’ll also save your butt when you hard disk fails… and it WILL… sooner or later.

Anyway… them’s my 2 cents. While I have found there to be a big performance increase going from 1-2GB, I have been less impressed with going from 2-4GB.

Russell
RC
Ronald_Chambers
Oct 23, 2008
I have 4 gb memory and 1 TB of SATA II disk installed. One 500gb for scratch and other need I have.

What boot.ini switches do I need to set to get the fullest from the memory? PAE? 3GB?

Thanks,
RON C
B
bob733
Oct 24, 2008
Well, I am finding out that my Dell XPS 600 system can not accomodate more than 2GB. I have confirmed that with Dell.

My alterantives?
1. Buy a new machine (thanks Michael)
2. Install a 64 bit os (Vista) and then I can have 8GB

So, I am now trying to find out how hard it is to install a dual boot system (keep my 32 bit Windows XP and add a 64 bit Vista).

Any ideas as tohow hard this is?

Bob
BL
Bob Levine
Oct 24, 2008
You can build a killer machine yourself for less than $1500. I personally see no need to dual boot. If you want the support for some special application that won’t run in Vista 64 then just keep the old machine.

Bob
JJ
John Joslin
Oct 24, 2008
If Dell say your system "cannot accommodate" more than 2GB, how is it going to accommodate 8GB with Vista?
BL
Bob Levine
Oct 24, 2008
Depends on the O/S. With a 64 bit O/S the machine maxes out at 8 gigs. With a 32 O/S it maxes out at 2 gigs.

Bob
DM
dave_milbut
Oct 24, 2008
With a 64 bit O/S the machine maxes out at 8 gigs. With a 32 O/S it maxes out at 2 gigs.

???

the "machine" will max out at what the "machine" can handle. up to what’s supported on the motherboard. just because the os can’t handle it (and xp pro 32bit can "see" 3 gig when configured to) says nothing about the machine itself. i think that’s what john was asking…
JJ
John Joslin
Oct 24, 2008
Prezackly! 🙂
BL
Bob Levine
Oct 24, 2008
Sorry, I was referring to what it will support. Go ahead and put eight gigs in there but 32 bit O/S will only see 2 gigs of it. But the machine is capable of eight and I’d certainly do the Vista 64 thing along with that.

Here’s a nice deal on RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227 280

Eight gigs for about $130 after $20 rebate.

Bob
JH
Jeff_Holmes
Oct 24, 2008
I agree – build a new box. Simplest thing ever, even for a dweeb like me. The hardest thing is matching components (e.g. does this ram work with this motherboard?)

I bought these parts from NewEgg

1. Asus Maximus II Formula motherboard $269.99
2. Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 processor $324.99
3. 8 GB OCZ Reaper 1066 ram $255.98
4. Vista Ultimate $300 or so

That’s about $1150, but you don’t have to buy that much power. You could easily cut that in half or less if you went with XP x64.

I used my old HP case and the drives I already had and just replaced the innards.

This is the best basic configuration for Photoshop CS4:

4GB ram
64-bit O/S

Ram is cheap, like $150-$200 and almost every desktop in existence will support 4GB ram. As long as there are 4 slots for memory. Personally I’d by (2) 4GB modules, so that if you go to 8GB at some point, you just need to buy 2 more instead of replacing (4) 1GB modules.
JH
Jeff_Holmes
Oct 24, 2008
Now if I can only figure out how to build a laptop…
DE
David_E_Crawford
Oct 24, 2008
If you like AMD:
The ASUS M3A79-T MotherBoard, $189.00, can handle 16GB of DDR2-1066 Ram. I have not seen any 16GB 1066 kits…. yet. However, slam 2 kits of 4GB on the board and you will be happy.
RP
Russell_Proulx
Oct 25, 2008
Be careful about just throwing 8G RAM in a system that claims to be able to use it. You’ll need a board with at least an X38 chipset (or newer) or you might have a lot of problems getting a board to work properly with 8G RAM with Photoshop CS4. I learned the hard way that an Intel 975 chipset board (D975XBX2) could NEVER work properly w/ 8G RAM because it lacked the memory remapping option in it’s bios to properly remap the 8G RAM for use in Vista64. (see: <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us> for more on Memory Remapping). After trying 2 motherboards and 3 brands of RAM I gave up and sold it to someone to use with XP.

I ended up with an Asus P5E-WS Pro motherboard w/ 8G Crucial 677MHz RAM and a Q9300 processor. These three together cost about $700 and the OS cost me another $100. So you can do it for not much more than $800. I don’t think faster RAM nor a faster system FSB would make a huge difference and DD3 RAM is still too expensive for what little benefit it offers. With a case, power supply, hard disks, etc.. your still looking at $1,200-$1,500 depending on the quality of parts you use. Still a LOT cheaper then a MacPro @ over $4000 (w/8g RAM).

Russell
DM
dave_milbut
Oct 25, 2008
I learned the hard way that an Intel 975X chipset board (D975XBX2) could NEVER work properly w/ 8G RAM because it lacked the ‘memory remapping’ option in it’s BIOS to properly remap the 8G RAM for use by Vista64.

that’s my board! good to know! thanks!
BC
Bart_Cross
Oct 25, 2008
Yeah, I agree about that board, I finally got my money back after Intel replaced it with three duds.
DM
dave_milbut
Oct 25, 2008
mine’s running great after 2 years. but then i only have 2 gb ram. id, didn’t you have 4 gb running ok on that? i might go for that as a stopgap before a real upgrade…
BC
Bart_Cross
Oct 25, 2008
No, I was trying to run 8Gb of Mushkin on it, but that wasn’t the problem, it overheated and shut down. These were caused transient thermal fluctuations and I was never able to get to the bottom of it. They continued to blame the RAM, but it is working just fine on my Asus P5K Premium at 4-3-3-10.

I actually bought the board partly because of your previous recommendation of your Intel Perl board. I thought I couldn’t go wrong, but apparently there was a problem with one version of the XBX board and Intel refused to give me a newer revision.
DM
dave_milbut
Oct 25, 2008
that sucks.
BC
Bart_Cross
Oct 25, 2008
Yeah, but it doesn’t now!
RP
Russell_Proulx
Oct 26, 2008
that’s my board! good to know! thanks!

With 8GB RAM the Intel board was rock solid stable with Windows XP (and I assume it would with Vista32 too) as they never really use more then 2-3GB of the 8GB installed.

It was when I installed Vista64 that the problems began and the system kept crashing and rebooting when I tried to do all sorts of simply things (not even trying CS4 yet..). Intel RMA’d the board with the most recent revision, I switched from Kingston RAM to the only 8GB solution that Intel had on their ‘approved 8GB RAM’ list (that’s why I bought the Crucial 667MHz RAM) and still no go. In the end Intel could not tell me of any RAM that would work and it became obvious that their BIOs was missing the ‘memory remapping’ option that exists in the x38 and later chipset boards. Any Intel product using those more recent chipsets only works with $DDR3$ RAM so that’s what brought me back to ASUS even though my last 3 systems were all Intel and I’ve been *very* happy with them.

Russell
DM
dave_milbut
Oct 26, 2008
nice. so it seems they’re either good or bad. if i get good ram that i can use on my next board… 🙂

no rush though.
BC
Bart_Cross
Oct 26, 2008
The other thing I didn’t like was that Intel said they would only guarantee the board would work under the ‘stock’ settings, if you change anything in the BIOS, they didn’t support it.
JH
Jeff_Holmes
Oct 27, 2008
Bob,

I’d go to 4GB on 2 sticks. Pc2-6400 (800?) will be good enough for a couple of years if you don’t insanely upgrade your hardware every week like me (I’m not married) Motherboards are cheap and they’re generally backward compatible with older ram.

Find an 8GB board at newegg that has a good rep and bookmark it for the future. Make sure the new memory you buy is compatible. 4GB is cheap and even though you won’t see massive performance gain right now, the day when you want $100 8GB board, you only have to buy two more sticks of the same ram you’d get now.

4GB is fast becoming the norm today. Within 2 years the majority of retail PC’s will hold 8GB. By then you’ll want a 64 bit O/S and the market will be ready for you.

I bought a particular HP laptop this year in part because it will take 8GB ram. Unfortunately 2 4GB sticks for a notebook is $1,000. I’ll have to wait. One place had them at $3200, which is twice the cost of the notebook! I sent them an email…

On the other hand I got an Asus Maximus II Formula motherboard (which will hold 16GB) for $250 and 8GB of high perf OCZ Reaper 1066 ram for about (I think) $350. So it was a cheap upgrade, especially considering Adboe Flash is $700.

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