16GB of DDR4 and an Optane Drive OR 32GB of DDR4

I know this may come off as a bit of a general question but I am currently thinking if I want to refresh my build. I currently run 16GB of DDR3 and over the past year have been averaging 12-14GB of usage at times. The current system I use has been “in service” so to speak since 2013. I am debating if getting 16GB of DDR4 with an optane drive would suffice for now, or if I should just go for 32GB. Obviously with RAM prices being inflated it would cost more, but I am debating it. Any input?

Everyone has their own preference. I settled on 128 GB of DDR4 and SSD in RAID 0. Seems to work fine.

Might be a bit excessive for my needs, 32 GB is likely enough to last me for years.

Last I red Intel was still having challenges with Optane. I thought 128 GB of RAM was overkill at first (for my uses) but it’s starting to look like this really wasn’t a bad choice after all. It’s all working out great for big file transfers, data recovery, etc. I’d say more RAM would be the safer choice. Besides, as far as trends go we already know Optane is about to take a back seat.

Did you find that RAM on sale somewhere or just decided it was worth it? What are your specs aside from the RAM just out of curiosity?

Specs are too numerous to put in a single screen shot. I’m running multpile o/s in multiple RAID configurations . She’s an old workhorse for sure. I’m using an ASUS X99 E-WS USB 3.1 with Corsair Platinum Dominator Ram (not the top end stuff but good enough for my purposes) and an Intel 6850K CPU. She handles about two doz drives effortlessly and I have multiple hot swap bays for servicing other drives.

*oh right… Yes, I got my RAM on sale. A great deal actually. I think it cost me just over a grand Canadian on a Boxing Day special.

1 Like

Personally I like to handle as much problems in hardware as possible. With optane you are relying on software for your system to work properly. You are also investing money into a piece of tech that won’t work on anything else but windows.

If you need more ram, buy more ram.

4 Likes

YOIKS!!! :open_mouth: I just checked my original invoice. That RAM I bought now currently runs at approx 2K U.S. Man I’m glad I bought it when I did. My advice, get good RAM while you can. Quality RAM has always been a commodity that tends to sell at a premium.

1 Like

Im set in my ways and prefer extra RAM. NVMe slots are not as numerous like SATA ports and there better for more pure fast storage space to me than a cache.

Wendell did make a good use case for it in a video a while back and I think Phoronix did is as well. It was more server and large data sets.

I would recommend getting RAM when you need RAM.

IMO Optane is storage like a fast SSD is.

1 Like

I’d go for 32 GB and an SSD instead of optane (much cheaper price for capacity).

(indeed, this is what i just did for my new build)

What is the rest of the system spec?

edit:
also, if your machine has been in service since 2013(?), do you even have an m.2 slot (i’m guessing it’s a haswell box?). If you don’t optane is pretty pointless… it the SATA bus won’t keep up.

Also, Haswell is DDR3??

My guess is that the OP is currently thinking about the next system, not about an upgrade. Hence DDR4.

2 Likes

Fair enough i guess.

Like i said, need rest of system spec. I read it as an upgrade to an existing machine… I wouldn’t bother with optane at all unless he perhaps has a bunch of SSD storage and wants to accelerate that. But yeah… need more info.

Also ideally perhaps intended use case…

I use optane on Linux.

How?

5 character rule can SUCK MY DICK!

Connected it. Powered on.

Its just a storage device.

1 Like

So you are not running it as a way of extending the RAM?

No silly. The optane dimms haven’t hit the market yet.

Unless you count l2arc…

1 Like

Then what’s your point?

Wait, you think about M.2 drives? Yeah, those are drives. But also those won’t do anything for RAM.

Optane works fine with Linux.