[jatrax]

That's my main Windows 10 bootup & program installation drive.

When I built my last rig I had an extra SSD from a previous build. I put it in the new build and use it for the Photoshop cache. Not sure it makes much difference but that was a suggested performance boost for Photoshop. Those things are so small you can just stick them in the case most anywhere.

[pschlute]

These days I would assume an SSD for the main drive but perhaps we should not assume. Using an SSD instead of an HDD will make more difference than just about anything else you can tweak. Especially the amount of memory over 16GB.

/\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ This !

[awscreo]

128gb feels like a lot. Although for 4k video editing, you'll need it. Not sure about engineering apps you mentioned, but for 3D (blender, C4D etc) and video editing an nvidia car would probably be a better investment (for those CUDA cores).

[bertwert]

I only use 16GB (2 x 8GB)!
Never honestly clipped usage either.

I have two dimm slots open for future expansion though..

---------- Post added 07-08-20 at 10:31 AM ----------

I built my computer on the up-slope of the bitcoin frenzy (built cause I needed a computer, not to mine coin).
I paid $230 CAD for 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15........ smh the same set goes for like $100 CAD nowadays... oof

Yeah... I paid $50 CAD for an 8 GB to go with my 8 GB in the new laptop, as well as having dual channel. I believe it can accommodate up to 64 (2 x 32) if I really wanted to. But I rarely go over 4-5 GB, even when stitching and editing pano's.

(Linux is pretty damned lightweight too - my idling usage is under 300MB)

[bertwert]

My laptop has 12 GB of DDR4 and runs Solidworks and Sketchup without a hitch unless I go crazy with the complexity. Lightroom does choke up slightly if I have 1000+ photos on the catalogue (so 50 GB or so of photos? K-1 files are chunky ), but that's because I'm loading from the secondary HDD and not the SSD (that and Lightroom basically commits suicide on multithread operation which is the strong point of my i7...).
I see you've made up your mind but yeah, I wouldn't worry, 64 is plenty

It's be nice if Darktable would make better use of multithreading... but what I've noticed is that enabling OpenCl (so using the graphics) has improved performance, and that's with integrated graphics even!

[bertwert]

That's a point not mentioned in the OP. These days I would assume an SSD for the main drive but perhaps we should not assume. Using an SSD instead of an HDD will make more difference than just about anything else you can tweak. Especially the amount of memory over 16GB.

Recently I went from an HDD as the only drive to an NVME as the boot drive, and SSD as a home partition. It's light speed quick. Boot times (excluding the BIOS firmware, as that doesn't depend on that) are about 5 seconds max!

[btnapa]

Basically, this machine will be used for at least 10 years if it doesn't break

If your time horizon is the next 10 years, then get 128GB. The way we are going, next thing you know minimum recommended RAM is 32GB in a few years. A far as upgrading the CPU, in 10 years you may want to let go of the current machine and get an entirely new rig. I have an all decked out 2012 i7/6-core machine that I built myself (4G card, 32GB RAM, RAID 10!) . To upgrade the components today would cost me more than building a new machine from ground up and I have a rig that is 8 years old with all the components out of warranty AND support. For my money, if the difference is $200, I would get 128GB. Just my two cents.

[PDL]

The question comes down to whether the software you are using will actually use the mulit-core/RAM or is it throttling it self. My advice was always buy the biggest meanest machine you can afford - then stop worrying about it.

My 2010 24GB desktop is still working fine and Capture One Pro runs fine when doing exports to Affinity Photo and back while playing music, opening email and looking at the news.

[MossyRocks]

I always have had the belief of fill it and call it a day. I'm running with 128GB now and the machien that it replaced was 7 years old and when I built it I filled it to the max of 32GB. When I build a machine it always seems like plenty of RAM but towards the end of the machines life as my primary box I hit that limit a lot. The machine with 32GB ram now serves as my NAS with 24TB of storage. I try to by better parts expecting them to last.

If you wait a year or 2 it may be cheaper to jump up to 128GB but don't wait too long as it may become difficult as old ram gets hard to find and expensive.

[ramseybuckeye]

I would probably go with the 128 if you can afford it, numerous reasons mentioned in the thread. I never wish I had less memory. In the GSkill's reviews several are using it on AMD, including Ryzen 7 machines. as long as they are on the memory support list for the motherboard you are golden.

[CarlJF]

Thanks everyone!

OK! It looks like I'll just go with 64GB. I figure that will be enough for the next 10 years. I'm thinking of getting 2 of the following ones.

GeIL AMD Edition EVO POTENZA 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Dual Channel Kit Model GPR432GB3200C16ADC - Newegg.com
^ Seems to be more specific to AMD, or so they say. Sounds like marketing speech? Hmmmm.....

G.SKILL Aegis 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Intel XMP 2.0 Memory Kit Model F4-3200C16D-32GIS - Newegg.com
^ About $30 cheaper.

The $30 difference means little to me if the Geil RAM is truly designed for Ryzen CPUs.

It's more important to take memory appearing on the motherboard compatibility list than "designed for Ryzen" module. If they're both on this list, just take the cheaper one. If not, take the one listed. If none, look for one on the list.

[gatorguy]

You Tube

You Tube

An excellent video with real world tests.

[btnapa]

YouTube

An excellent video with real world tests.

Thank you for sharing. Excellent video.

[ProfessorBuzz]

More DIMMS often means More performance, as they can be interleaved for faster memory access. eg 4 sticks is usually faster than 2, all things being equal.

[FozzFoster]

eg 4 sticks is usually faster than 2

This is not correct.

I believe there is no appreciable difference given the same amount of RAM (2x8 vs 4X4 GB) at regular frequencies.

And still then, at the higher frequencies, fewer DIMMS perform faster than more DIMMS as they are physically closer to the CPU socket with shorter trace lengths between them. More DIMMS = longer trace lengths.
In fact, the higher end chipsets geared specifically towards overclocking will usually only come with half the DIMM slots as their non-overclocking geared competitors.

Check this video out starting at 9:16
YouTube