What Memory

Hi All,
 
I'm in the process of upgrading my Daw and was wondering what is the best memory to use for Daw setup's
 
Is it better for me to get the triple channel rather than dual channel?
 
I'm going to be getting a i7 sandybridge.
 
Was thinking of either 8gb or 12gb all depends on the price though.
 
Thanks
 
Waza

Check the QVL for the motherboard you choose and select your RAM from that list

I spent the last week planning a new build based on Sandy Bridge, oriented toward 3D rather than DAW, but most of the same factors apply, I should think.

Here's a bit of what I've learned:

• dual-channel RAM is the only possibility for Sandy Bridge (P67 motherboards); triple-channel is for X58 motherboards
• just about any RAM designed for the stress of gaming/OC should give you good performance for a DAW without getting too expensive (I picked Patriot G2-series because it's designed for use with Intel Series 2 CPUs like the i7 2600K)
• Windows 7 Home Premium will only use 16gb RAM; for more RAM, use Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate (both support 192gb)
• if you're thinking of going SSD, wait a week or three until OCZ releases their Vertex 3 line; max. throughput will be ~500mb/s compared to ~250mb/s for the Vertex 2 line for about the same price (+-$30)
• the Intel i7 2600K has the best benchmarks for affordable CPUs
• the Asus P8P67-M motherboard is a good pick if you don't need multiple GPUs (which you likely don't unless you're also playing games on your DAW); it's a solid board with OC capabilities if you choose to go that way and the price is reasonable (~$125 Can. as of this writing); there are two PCIe x16 (v2.0) slots, so if you're going to use an add-in sound card instead of Firewire or USB, you've got the extra slot for it.
• the fastest (read: benchmarked) HDD I could find locally (Ottawa) is the Western Digital Caviar Black (SATA III, 64mb cache); the 640gb version is quite reasonably priced
• Blu-Ray read/write can be had for around $130 (CAN.) if you want/need large (25gb) removable storage; however, the price of discs is getting more reasonable, too ($5 per disc for BD-R)
• Antec TruePower New power supplies are getting excellent reviews (they're actually made by Seasonic, a highly-reputable company, from high-quality parts)
• if you expect to be doing a lot of fiddling inside the case, pick one that's tool-less or at least semi-tool-less
• the more odds and ends you cram into the case, the more fans you'll want; try to find one with at least four variable speed fans like the Antec DF-30; it's for gaming, but what the hey; the variable speed lets you keep noise to a minimum while cooling to a reasonable temperature
• it's impossible to find a motherboard with internal USB 3.0 ports (at least, I didn't find one at a reasonable price); if you get a case with front-mounted USB 3.0, you have to run the cable from the case-mounted port, through the entire computer, out the back (through whichever case hole is in the right spot) and plug into one of the motherboard's external USB 3.0 connectors; also, the cables are sometimes so short you'll have them lying across components on the motherboard and getting in the way
• figuring out power requirements can be very tricky; everyone has a different opinion on how much power is drawn by any given component and their conclusions vary dramatically; spend a healthy amount of research time on power supplies (Antec's web site supplies a pretty good power calculator link on every power supply product page)

Hope this helps.

-Ron T.

Constantly uses computer memory and test your computer's memory is very important because it helps detect problems that can affect the amount of RAM. If your computer does not test memory on a regular basis, you may encounter various problems, such as troubleshooting the boot process.