Too much RAM, any ideas? :-)

WaveLab
#1

Hi all,
when I designed my workstation, I installed 32 GB of RAM just because it fit the budget and I thought, you know, “You never know!”… :wink:
Now I notice that my typical project never uses anywhere north of 10GB, and I’m wondering: Any ideas on how to use the extra memory? RAMdisk? Virtual machines? Something else I can’t think of?
The machine is running fine, no crashes or abnormal behavior.

Thanks for your thoughts!
Benji

#2

I’m not 100% sure this will work, but if I PM you an address, and you ship 16GB to that address, I can try… TRY to see if I might be able to use if for you. Again no guarantees.

#3

You sir are using far too few virtual instruments… For shame, for shame. :slight_smile:

#4

Set up a virtual drive, I do that and it really speeds things up, you just have an intial time spent loading thing into ram and then from then on wards access speeds are huge.

#5

There is no such thing! :laughing:

#6

:mrgreen: Sure… :wink:

#7

Last time I put up a nice orchestral backing, I got hit by the singer for “kitschy”-ness… oh well… :stuck_out_tongue:
Rock chicks… :unamused:

#8

Good point, so what virtual drive software are you using and what do you put on there?

Thanks,
B.

#9

yes you bought too much
virtual drives (ram drives) are near pointless and all data is gone when you reboot/turn off/crash.
buying an SSD is a far better option.

#10

Nope… you can NEVER have too much RAM :smiling_imp: :slight_smile:

But a virtual or ram drive is the absolute definition of volatile storage and unreliability :slight_smile:

#11

so having 16 gig sitting there being wasted is a wise investment…
I tell guys all the time calling to buy a system that 32 is way too much for what they are doing…
I have clients I tell don’t waste your money past 8 gig you wont need it.
conversely some composers need 64Gig…

so yes 32 was a waste for him, unless he suddenly and drastically changes his work flow

#12

INDEED! Only time a RAM-drive would be useful, is if you know in advance what files on your hard drive you will need every now and then during the session, but need them as quickly as possible. But to find out these files, you need to be a hard-core computer scientist specialized on system performance and be able to write a program/script to preload these files into RAM-drive. BTW: I’m a hard-core computer scientist specialized on system performance … and I don’'t bother to set up a RAM disk on my DAW … using SSD instead, just like Scott says.

#13

Hey Scott, thanks for all your input over the years, great source of inspiration!
Alas, there’s already 2 SSDs chugging away in my system… :mrgreen:

B.

#14

Nah, considering how cheap ram is now, better to have it and not use it. You never know when the need might arise.

#15

Have to disagree. Most of us have fixed (or semi-fixed) budget for a DAW computer. Would you spend your extra money to
a. extra nonused RAM
or
b. SSD system disk
or
c. faster processor
or
d. better quality silent PSU
or … ?

Hint: in case of b,c & d, if you want to upgrade, you have to replace existing hardware (expensive) … in case of a, you can just add more hardware (cheap).

#16

I can understand a fixed income, but for most of us who have been building DAW’s for years, 16gig of ram for around $140.00 is pretty damn cheap. Guess I’m just old enough to remember when ram was a REALLY expensive factor. Now, it’s one of the cheap components when doing a system build. :slight_smile:

#17

switch off disk reading in your romplers and load the entire project in your ram.
but don’t forget to turn it back on before you run again to the shop to buy extra memory. :slight_smile:

#18

Roel,
I already set max memory usage in Ivory 2 and Superior Drummer, the drum sampler has full bleed on and around 2 GB in memory. Ivory runs with no voice restrictions, all available layers and half-pedaling on pulling around 300 voices in some passages. Machine doesn’t break a sweat at 24/48 and 128 buffers…
I could start a 16 GB RAMDisk, and use that for an audio recording location, but where I live, we have frequent power outages and I don’t have a backup battery (yet)…

Thanks for your thoughts though, I guess I just have to use more VI’s !!! :wink:

Cheers,
Benji

#19

Yeah, dodgy power issues certainly aren’t conducive to running a ram disk, or a stable studio for that matter. Get an UPS or backup generator on that shtuff ASAP… :wink:
Well… in the end… having too much RAM really isn’t a bad problem to have. Think of it as a one percenter type problem :slight_smile:

#20

I loooove having luxury problems… :mrgreen:

Case closed. thx all!!

B.