What would be affordable 32gb memory capacity desktop models?

[Girom]

Also if you have 32gb in your computer but use only 8gb in day to day activities does it still cost more electricity because all 32gb are running?

 

[Layback Bear]

First off it very hard to use up 8 gigs of ram unless you do things like CAD, video editing ect. Having extra ram that isn't being use doesn't use any more electricity that can be measured in any ordinary fashion. (Electric bill) Their is probable someone in a lab environment that has measured it to the power of 10. I have 12 gigs of ram and seldom use more than 3 gigs. 32 gigs of ram is a extreme amount.
Their are some that need that amount with what they use their computer for.

If you completely fill in your spec and tell us what you use your computer for we could give better advice.

 

[dperecky]

Unless you're possibly gaming or running SAP or some business program.. 8GB is probably enough.

As an example, I opened Photoshop 64Bit, XP Mode- compiled a small program on Visual Studio 6.0 and opened up MSDN 6.0 together. They used a total of 2.8G of RAM.

What kind of apps are you planning on running? It would help to know- so we can advise you better.

 

[dperecky]

Also if you have 32gb in your computer but use only 8gb in day to day activities does it still cost more electricity because all 32gb are running?

I don't believe so... the power consumption you use is based on the power supply in your computer. And that is pretty much a constant draw on your electricity. Unless of course you somehow have some type of intelligent power supply. The ones I've seen for a PC are all dumb, however.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Also if you have 32gb in your computer but use only 8gb in day to day activities does it still cost more electricity because all 32gb are running?

I don't believe so... the power consumption you use is based on the power supply in your computer. And that is pretty much a constant draw on your electricity. Unless of course you somehow have some type of intelligent power supply. The ones I've seen for a PC are all dumb, however.

Can you back up that PSUs have a "...pretty much a constant draw on your electricity..."? That certainly isn't my understanding.

 

[dperecky]

Can you back up that PSUs have a "...pretty much a constant draw on your electricity..."? That certainly isn't my understanding.

If you look at a power cable for a laptop, there is a little box on the cord. That box is essentially the power supply for the laptop. You will read on it a rated voltage and amperage that it delivers. That rated voltage and amperage are values that don't change too easily... You might get more coming out of it if you load up the laptop with a lot of USB type devices that need voltage... but then you're running your pc with an extraordinary draw on your power supply, which will make it run hotter than usual.... not good. If you keep it up, you will have to replace your power supply... as it cannot continue to deliver outside what it's rated and manufactured to deliver. The same principle goes for built-in power supplies in a desktop.

Really they're not that smart. Some company should make some that are smarter. That would be a nice change.

 

[Dwarf]

Unlike a conventional transformer that you find in many adapters for the likes of battery chargers and those that allow you to run devices from an external mains supply rather than their built-in batteries (and which will consume the same amount of power regardless of load), modern PSUs found in computers are rather more intelligent. They will just draw enough power from the mains (plus a small overhead for the PSU itself) in order to supply the current load placed on it. This is dynamic, and will vary depending on what the computer is doing (e.g. there will be a slight increase in power consumption when the optical drive is working compared to when it is idle).

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

If you look at a power cable for a laptop, there is a little box on the cord. That box is essentially the power supply for the laptop. You will read on it a rated voltage and amperage that it delivers. That rated voltage and amperage are values that don't change too easily... You might get more coming out of it if you load up the laptop with a lot of USB type devices that need voltage... but then you're running your pc with an extraordinary draw on your power supply, which will make it run hotter than usual.... not good. If you keep it up, you will have to replace your power supply... as it cannot continue to deliver outside what it's rated and manufactured to deliver. The same principle goes for built-in power supplies in a desktop.

Really they're not that smart. Some company should make some that are smarter. That would be a nice change.

Baloney Sausage! That proves nothing. The rating on a laptop power adapter is the maximum it is rated for (same for a desktop PSU). The idle current draw is going to be much less than when the laptop is charging the battery and is running. The PSU on both laptops and desktops will deliver only as much as is needed by the computer and any attached peripherals. The actual PSU current draw will be proportional to the demand.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Unlike a conventional transformer that you find in many adapters for the likes of battery chargers and those that allow you to run devices from an external mains supply rather than their built-in batteries (and which will consume the same amount of power regardless of load...

Not quite true. While battery chargers, etc. do have a standby current draw, they also do not run at the same amount no matter the draw. The amount of current they draw will increase as the amount of load on them is increased (such as adding batteries). They are very inefficient when the load is low and the efficiency improves as load is added (up to a point, generally near their rated capacity). Battery eliminators will consume less power when idle (disconnected from the device they power). If a partial load is put on them (such as a device put on an eliminator that is rated for twice as much as the device draw), the eliminator will not run at full capacity.

 

[LMiller7]

The output voltage of a power supply is determined by it's design. The output current is determined entirely by the load. This does not require any intelligence in the power supply, just basic ohms law. The formula is I=V/R.
I=current
V=voltage
R=resistance (the load)

With no load the current drain will be zero. Due to some small overhead the the input current to the power supply will be non-zero but quite small. Modern supplies are quite good at keeping this low. The current rating is just that, a maximum rating.

I did electronics service for a living for some 30 years so I know something (actually quite a lot) about these things.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

The output voltage of a power supply is determined by it's design. The output current is determined entirely by the load. This does not require any intelligence in the power supply, just basic ohms law. The formula is I=V/R.
I=current
V=voltage
R=resistance (the load)

With no load the current drain will be zero. Due to some small overhead the the input current to the power supply will be non-zero but quite small. Modern supplies are quite good at keeping this low. The current rating is just that, a maximum rating.

I did electronics service for a living for some 30 years so I know something about these things.

I worked 32 years for an electric/irrigation utility. While most of that time was in warehousing (my colorblindness kept me out of any apprenticeship programs), I didn't waste my time not learning anything.

 

[Layback Bear]

I believe the OP's question was related to; will having 32 gigs of ram most not be used increase the power usage of a computer. Meaning will the electric bill be larger because of having 32 gigs of ram installed. My answer is still no.
It's also my understanding that a proper working power supply will only give a appliance, (computer) the power that is requested by the appliance.
When you have a 500W power supply it indicates that (if) 500W is requested it has the ability to answer the request but only if requested by the appliance. If your appliance request 200W from a 500W power supply the power supply will only give the appliance the 200W requested. Your power supply will only get the power it demands from the wall socket no more.
This is my 2x2=4 supply and demand on a power supply.
If one wants more information their are volumes of books that would fill a large room with all kinds of information and charts, graphs, and formulas on the subject.

The computer specs and what the computer is going to be used for would be nice to know.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I believe the OP's question was related to; will having 32 gigs of ram most not be used increase the power usage of a computer. Meaning will the electrict bill be larger because of having 32 gigs of ram installed. My answer is still no.

I pretty much agree. If (a huge if) all 32GB of RAM is being used 24/7 (again, extremely unlikely), there would be a small increase on the power bill. But, if one can afford 32GB of RAM, they can easily afford the increase on the power bill (turning off a light or two will offset even that). Just having that much RAM installed but using only a small percentage of it (say 25%) will use only a hair more power than just having 25% RAM installed.

To use 32GB of RAM even intermittently, you would need to be working the snot out of your PC simultaneously running multiple RAM intensive operations, such as video editing, folding, bit coin mining, and/or ripping BDs. Even running VMs won't necessarily tap out that much RAM, depending how busy the VM was.

 

[whs]

If I had 32GBs of RAM, I would use 28GBs of that for a RAMdisk and install the OS on that. The remaining 4GBs is ample for running it.

 

[Layback Bear]

Lady that is why I requested the system specs and the use of this computer.
If one did all the things you listed over a long period of time the price of computing would go up by a little. Like you stated just turning off some lights in rooms your not using could balance that out.

That is a great idea whs.

 

[LMiller7]

If RAM is installed it will consume power. RAM that is unused according to the memory graph will either be on the standby list (containing data that hasn't been accessed recently) or free (containing zeros). The point is it contains data. How this data is used or not used is irrelevant to power consumption. How much that will be depends on it's type.

 

[Layback Bear]

Very true LMiller7 but will the unused ram in what ever state it's in raise the electric bill? I think not enough to worry about. Without lab equipment you probable couldn't measure the difference.

 

[LMiller7]

There really is no such thing as unused memory. It all contains some kind of data. The OS makes a distinction based on the nature of the data and what applications or portion of the OS is interested in it's contents. But from a hardware and power consumption viewpoint all memory is used and those distinctions are meaningless.

 

[whs]

There really is no such thing as unused memory. It all contains some kind of data. The OS makes a distinction based on the nature of the data and what applications or portion of the OS is interested in it's contents. But from a hardware and power consumption viewpoint all memory is used and those distinctions are meaningless.

That is not a correct statement. There are 5 categories of RAM usage (see pic) and most of the RAM is usually free which is completely unused RAM (especially on systems with a lot of RAM). The second largest chunk is often 'standby' which is cached programs or data. But cached RAM is also available RAM and will be used when needed.

 

[LMiller7]

I am very well aware of Hardware Reserved, InUse, Modified, Standby and Free memory and what they mean.

I wasn't speaking of unused memory as understood by the OS at all. What I meant by "There really is no such thing as unused memory" is that it contains something, even if that something is just zeros.