24/32Gb Ram

[wishblade]

Hi all

It seems one of our new projects requires some heavy RAM capabilities to process - the processing can be done on less, but there's quite an impact on time, especially when the result set to process is quite large.

To be more precise, standard desktop hardware is sufficient, expect for memory, for which we need a minimum of 24GB (preferably 32GB). We have a machine that we can use to upgrade to get the relevant spec, but unfortunately it only has 2 memory slots. So, there's 2 potential questions:

Option 1) where can I get 2x 16GB memory modules? They seem to be scarce . The m/board supports the large capacity memory apparently, although with 2 slots, I tend to wonder...

Option 2) we can always do some upgrading on the existing box. Most of the parts are re-useable, and we would just need a new mb and RAM. I see RAM shouldn't be a problem to get (4x *GB modules seem to be readily available), but what would be recommended in terms of a board that has 4 memory slots and can support the large memory capacity?

I've done some searching for suppliers for both options, but before committing to anything, I thought I would ask for any particular recommendations from the community...

 

[stocksie]

Be careful of boards with only 2 memory slots as often can only support 16GB RAM
Check chipset & MB specs before committing ....

 

[agentrfr]

You are looking to drop about 3.5k-4k on a mobo and RAM chips. You can buy DDR3 in 8GB sticks, but they are quite rare.
Rebeltech stocks a few if I'm not mistaken.

EDIT: 24 gigs--> http://www.rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=369
32 gigs http://www.rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=6350
Look at the motherboard's maximum RAM it can take before you buy.

 

[HavocXphere]

Can't you just do the processing on an Amazon instance? It'll be a hell of a lot cheaper. Would depend on the exact nature of the task though.

 

[Africaner]

@ the op. Your first sentence is a bit confusing. What is this 'process' you are talking about? What program and OS are you running? If the system is not configured correctly, the extra RAM won't be used meaningfully at best or not at all at worst!

 

[ld13]

What program and OS are you running? If the system is not configured correctly, the extra RAM won't be used meaningfully at best or not at all at worst!

The OP probably already knows this if you look back at his previous posts.

 

[wishblade]

Thanks for the comments so far...

The project, which is part of our long term business model, involves generating point clouds and some heavy image processing. On a small job that was done recently, we ended up with between 4 and 6 GB of data to process. Might not be that much, but as soon as the project size increases, so does the processing and output. Since we are looking at regular, frequent jobs, we don't want the processing to become a bottleneck.

Which is also why we are not using a remote server solution - it would mean uploading that much data and then downloading some large files afterwards. Thanks anyway for the suggestion HavocXphere.

Time is also somewhat of an issue, with clients wanting their data 24 to 48 hours after collection, and we still need to refine and perform calculations with the results once we have it. So waiting for uploads/processing/downloads to complete is somewhat a time waster. And anyway, the company that provides the processing software already provides a cloud processing service. But they are overseas where 20 meg lines to their homes is standard, and so connectivity is not a problem for them. For us, it is somewhat.

I guess its going to be an mb/ram upgrade then... thanks!! (and for reference, the money isn't so much an issue as sourcing reliable hardware).

 

[morkhans]

Take a look at the intel workstation boards.

 

[srothman]

You might be well off investing in a proper server platform rather than running these sorts of operations on a desktop, especially if you anticipate larger volumes of processing as your project matures.

 

[CataclysmZA]

Hi all

It seems one of our new projects requires some heavy RAM capabilities to process - the processing can be done on less, but there's quite an impact on time, especially when the result set to process is quite large.

To be more precise, standard desktop hardware is sufficient, expect for memory, for which we need a minimum of 24GB (preferably 32GB). We have a machine that we can use to upgrade to get the relevant spec, but unfortunately it only has 2 memory slots. So, there's 2 potential questions:

Option 1) where can I get 2x 16GB memory modules? They seem to be scarce . The m/board supports the large capacity memory apparently, although with 2 slots, I tend to wonder...

Option 2) we can always do some upgrading on the existing box. Most of the parts are re-useable, and we would just need a new mb and RAM. I see RAM shouldn't be a problem to get (4x *GB modules seem to be readily available), but what would be recommended in terms of a board that has 4 memory slots and can support the large memory capacity?

I've done some searching for suppliers for both options, but before committing to anything, I thought I would ask for any particular recommendations from the community...

Before committing to thinking about comitting, most board that only have two RAM slots can only take up to 16GB of RAM. You'll need two 8GB sticks to max it out. 16GB modules are only available as experimental parts from Samsung and are FB DIMMs with ECC, and will only work in server boards.

Get yourself a Core i7-3770K on the LGA1155 platform, use Gigabyte's Z77X-UD3H and get yourself four of these modules.

Alternatively, invest in a Intel Xeon or AMD Opteron server.

 

[Dimpie (JIGSAW)]

Probably overkill, but yeah .....

ASUS Socket2011 Z9PED8_WS

 

[ponder]

Another option is to look at Tyan boards.

 

[spiderz]

eSquire has 8gb Ram chips ...