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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

New PC for video editing + 3D stereo work

Hey Shutter,
How are you addressing more than 4GB (well 3.2GB)?
D

Im running vista 64 bit (don't mess with xp 64, it is a pain). 32 bit operating systems like xp 32 bit and vista 32 bit can use only 4 GB, which often shows up as less than 4GB because your system is using some of that space for other uses.

with a 32 bit OS:
2^32 = 4,294,967,296

4,294,967,296 / (1,024 x 1,024) = 4,096

So, we are limited to 4,096 MB of memory addressing space in the operating system. Most of that will be used for RAM but, a portion of it will be used for bios, video card, audio card etc. Thats why it shows up as less than 4GB in your system.

With a 64 bit OS:

2^64 = 18,446,744,073,709,551,616

18,446,744,073,709,551,616 / (1,024 x 1,024) / 8 = 2 exabytes

In case you're wondering, the progression is giga, tera, peta, exa.

Just because you have a 64 Bit OS doesn't mean that you will be able to use 2 exabytes of memory, first of all there are no motherboards that support it yet, and right now 64 bit OSes are not setup to handle that much (that will change, and be a painless progression, much better than going 32 to 64 bit). When buying a Motherboard, pay close attention to how much ram it supports. 8GB Is fairly common right now, in good quality boards. Also, you need a CPU that supports 64 bit, almost all cpus can now days.

Here is a list of currently supported amounts of ram, in an operating system.

Limit in 64-bit Windows:
Windows Vista Ultimate 128 GB (what I wish I were running, for the media center functionality)
Windows Vista Enterprise 128 GB
Windows Vista Business 128 GB (what Im running, got it for free through my University, Im just finishing my Information systems degree. We get all kinds of software for free.)
Windows Vista Home Premium 16 GB
Windows Vista Home Basic 8 GB

Windows XP 64 128 GB (stay away)
Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2), Datacenter Edition 2TB
Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2), Enterprise Edition 2TB


Yes, its true that some 32 bit oses are able to use more than 4GB ram(mostly server Operating systems), that is because the operating systems have been specially programmed to recognize more ram, I don't fully understand why, but I assume that it has to do with the hardware architecture of servers that makes this possible (multiple memory controllers).
 
....Id recommend going with 8 gigs of ram. DDR2 is really cheap right now, and adobe master collection runs great on my vista 64 bit rig.

My question is how are you (not the OS, but thanks for the info) addressing 8GB of ram?
What apps do you have that address 8GB?

Do Adobe master collection apps address 8GB of ram? Like run up an app, check memory usage in task manager...what does it say?

Cheers....Dave,
 
Dave-

In CS3, in individual programs, I'm not using 8GB RAM. Supposedly there are some hacks, or buried settings that will let you use more ram. i haven't messed with those things. However, Its not uncommon for me to have AE Photoshop, Premiere, Bridge, and some times, illustrator open at once. With how integrated they are, i end up using a lot of Adobe programs at once. That kind of multi tasking makes 8 gigs really nice to have. Also, vista automatically detects how much ram you have in your system, and uses more for the operating system if you have a lot, reducing the the amount of time waiting for the operating system to read page files from the hard drive. This makes everything run faster. CS4 which is coming out soon, should be 64bit on windows (but probably not mac) and be able to use more ram.

hope that helps.
 
Shutter – Thank you for your incredibly informative answers, they were very helpful and I really appreciate it.

I’ve been doing a lot of research lately and trying to decide what parts to get exactly. I decided to go with the 8-core setup but instead of the E5410 I’ll be grabbing the Xeon E5420 2.5GHz Quad-Core (x2). It had just dropped down in price so I thought why not grab that instead.

But now I’m having a lot of trouble deciding which motherboard to get. I took mdharrington’s advice and decided to spend a bit more on a better motherboard and also overclock my cpu’s a bit. But after I did quite a bit of research I noticed there are barely any lga771 server boards that allow you to overclock the cpu from the bios (like you mentioned md) and their incredibly costly. The only board I see myself grabbing is the Asus Z7S which will cost me about $525 ($590-after tax). It has the 5400 chipset and has an oc-enabled BIOS.

But, there is another way of overclocking a few lga771 boards that are a little cheaper by slightly modding your cpu chip by the BSEL mod or simply by a software called Systool in windows. The best boards I found to do it this way were:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon1333/5000X/X7DAL-E+.cfm - $355
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon1333/5000X/X7DAE+.cfm - $410
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon1333/5400/X7DWA-N.cfm - $455

I’m not planning on using the BSEL mod method because i’d rather not screw around with my cpu physically due to my lack of experience with overclocking. Systool is just as easy as overclocking in the BIOS except for a couple of limitations. For one, you can’t save the ‘timing’ options so you’ll have to always re-enter your timings every single time you startup which doesn’t sound like a lot of fun. And two, I’m a little worried about over heating the CPU and RAM, not only that but also the stability of the entire PC by pushing the CPU to its limit. At the moment I prefer stability over 10-15% boost in CPU power, unless that boost really makes a big difference.

So, I’m a little stuck here and not really sure what to do. Will it be worth spending a lot more cash on a more newer motherboard and more expensive ram for overclocking?

Just for the sake of comparison, this was the original motherboard I was looking at getting, http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon1333/5100/X7DCA-L.cfm - $280

-V
 
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