[The Squirrel Mafia]

I'm in a bit of a quandary here. I'm building an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 machine. I have a Gigabyte B550 motherboard that it's going into. I also have a Gigabyte RadeonRX 580 GAMING 8G video card. I don't play videogames outside of using RetroArch for old-skool gaming like SNES, NES, TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine, Sega Genesis, PlayStation, & stuff like that on occasion. I mainly run a lot of engineering programs like Enercalc, Retain Pro, SP software (slab, columns, walls, etc.), AutoCAD, Excel sheets, & do a lot of batch processing with RawTherapee. My nephew will also use the PC to edit videos on occasion. I might eventually dabble in video editing as well. I think that AutoCAD, RawTherapee, & video editing will take the most out of the machine. It's mainly 2d type work for AutoCAD, but once in a while I have to look at 3d drawings too. As a reference point, AutoCAD has worked extremely well with my older AMD FX-8350 CPU & Radeon R7 200 card. It still works fine today, but the FX-8350 is kind of slow for other things. I can only imagine that AutoCAD will work better with this setup. I don't use Revit, but I might eventually have to learn Revit Structural. I'd probably have to build a different Intel/Nvidia Quadro machine for that, though.

I have the option of actually getting 128GB of RAM. I would get a couple of 2x32GB dual channel DDR4 3200 RAM kits. The other option is getting a couple 2x16GB DDR4 3200 RAM kits. It's about a $200 difference. I don't really plan on overclocking or anything like that. Basically, this machine will be used for at least 10 years if it doesn't break. Hahaha! I'm looking for reliability & longevity. I might eventually replace the Ryzen 5 3600 with a higher end Ryzen 7 or Ryzen 9 chip a few years from now when they are far cheaper than what they are today.

So yeah. Just trying to figure out if its worth getting 128GB of RAM for what I do or get 64GB of RAM instead.

[Parallax]

I'd say let your financial pain threshold be your guide.
I've had several computers over the last 20 years, both laptop and desktop.
With a couple of them I wished I had more RAM, but I have never, ever wished I'd had less.

[bobbotron]

I love ram and am a software developer who's job requires ram eating VMs/containers. I think 128GB is overkill, I'd go for 64GB and wait until you have a real need to upgrade.

[crazy4oldcars]

Civil/Structural CAD Designer here!
We run ACAD 15/19 and BrixCAD on 64 bit Dells, running 64 GB of RAM. Unless I have to open up other graphics programs at the same time (NavisWorks, LFM (point cloud) or Cloudworks) 64 GB is plenty. Of course, I always want more, lol.
The video cards are where our machines fall flat. NVidia Quadro P4000 just doesn't have enough ass to run everything I want to in a day's work.
I'm not familiar with the hardware you describe, but from the tone of your post, it should be more than adequate.
Bottom line, if it is within your price range, get the 128 GB. I've never sat in premium seats wishing I had bought in the nosebleeds.

Good luck

Kirk B.

[CarlJF]

Just buy 2x32GB. It should be more than enough to run anything right now and the near future. If need be, it will always be possible to add another 2x32GB. No need to fill the four slots right now.

[zapp]

How much RAM are you really using right now at max - just check, allow for a factor of 2-4 and start buying. Get 2x 32GB and double it later.

[jatrax]

128GB is overkill for a single user machine. We only spec 64GB for server class machines with a dozen users. I have 64GB in my personal workstation (Lightroom, Photoshop, some minor CAD work) and I've never, ever come close to memory being an issue.


I would be more concerned with the RAM performance than with the quantity. If performance is the same and it fits in your budget then sure, go with the 128GB it might future proof you some what. But if you have a budget spend it on faster RAM rather than more RAM. Especially if you are going to upgrade your processor at some point. All within the limits of the other hardware of course, there is no use having RAM faster than what your system can use.

[The Squirrel Mafia]

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.

[FozzFoster]

Very nice build!

I wish that my B350 board would be natively compatible with Ryzen 3rd gen. - actually full jealous haha (I have a R5 1600 in my rig).
In my opinion, 32GB will probably suit you more than enough now and well into the future. Instead, I would encourage you to get faster frequency or lower case latency RAM.
Find out what the maximum compatible frequency for your board and aim for that. Ryzen scales very well with faster frequency RAM.

Really, I think the inevitable release of DDR5 RAM will need a whole new chipset/socket soon anyway.
Might be worth getting something nice but more affordable now and save the rest for the next big tech jump.



SG_Foster's Completed Build - Ryzen 5 1600 (14nm) 3.2 GHz 6-Core, Radeon RX 580 8 GB GAMING X, Meshify C ATX Mid Tower - PCPartPicker

SG_Foster's Completed Build - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core, GeForce GT 1030 2 GB Phoenix Fan OC, Versa H17 MicroATX Mini Tower - PCPartPicker

[bertwert]

And here I sit, quite content with my 16GB. And idling with a few forum pages open I'm sitting at under 700Mb usage

[FozzFoster]

quite content with my 16GB

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

[Serkevan]

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

[jatrax]

I'm loading from the secondary HDD and not the SSD

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.

[gatorguy]

I'm in a bit of a quandary here. I'm building an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 machine. I have a Gigabyte B550 motherboard that it's going into. I also have a Gigabyte RadeonRX 580 GAMING 8G video card. I don't play videogames outside of using RetroArch for old-skool gaming like SNES, NES, TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine, Sega Genesis, PlayStation, & stuff like that on occasion. I mainly run a lot of engineering programs like Enercalc, Retain Pro, SP software (slab, columns, walls, etc.), AutoCAD, Excel sheets, & do a lot of batch processing with RawTherapee. My nephew will also use the PC to edit videos on occasion. I might eventually dabble in video editing as well. I think that AutoCAD, RawTherapee, & video editing will take the most out of the machine. It's mainly 2d type work for AutoCAD, but once in a while I have to look at 3d drawings too. As a reference point, AutoCAD has worked extremely well with my older AMD FX-8350 CPU & Radeon R7 200 card. It still works fine today, but the FX-8350 is kind of slow for other things. I can only imagine that AutoCAD will work better with this setup. I don't use Revit, but I might eventually have to learn Revit Structural. I'd probably have to build a different Intel/Nvidia Quadro machine for that, though.

I have the option of actually getting 128GB of RAM. I would get a couple of 2x32GB dual channel DDR4 3200 RAM kits. The other option is getting a couple 2x16GB DDR4 3200 RAM kits. It's about a $200 difference. I don't really plan on overclocking or anything like that. Basically, this machine will be used for at least 10 years if it doesn't break. Hahaha! I'm looking for reliability & longevity. I might eventually replace the Ryzen 5 3600 with a higher end Ryzen 7 or Ryzen 9 chip a few years from now when they are far cheaper than what they are today.

So yeah. Just trying to figure out if its worth getting 128GB of RAM for what I do or get 64GB of RAM instead.

Consumer engineering applications don't need that amount of RAM, nor do prosumer grade video and photo editing programs. IMO 128GB would be needless spending. I think you'd be better off with 32GB, or if you really think you are going to get into serious video creation maybe 64GB... maybe. My own system uses 32GB on a Ryzen 7 with dual NVMe drives and running two or three photo editing programs concurrently still won't stress it.

My personal advice is spend the $'s saved on a faster processor and/or SSD's which actually will be far more effective at speeding up your system.
System requirements for AutoCAD 2019 including Specialized Toolsets | AutoCAD 2019 | Autodesk Knowledge Network

[The Squirrel Mafia]

^ I'll eventually get a Ryzen 7 or 9 processor, but that's not going to be for at least 3 years from now. If there is some kind of BIOS update for the 4th gen Ryzen, then maybe I'll get one of those instead. But yeah. I'll be ordering the RAM tomorrow.

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.

Sabrent 512GB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 Internal SSD High Performance Solid State Drive (SB-ROCKET-512) - Newegg.com

^ That's my main Windows 10 bootup & program installation drive. The other drive is a 4TB 7200 RPM drive for all my stuff & an external USB 3.0 4TB backup drive. I'll probably have to get a new 8 TB drive for all my garbage. I have way too many photos (RAW & jpeg), videos, & mp3 files. Hahaha!

I also have a an older spare 512GB 2.5" SSD drive that I plan on using as a Linux partition. I think I'll install Ubuntu 20.04LTS on it.