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Support for 128GB of RAM memory

U

universaliz

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 23, 2014
14
0
I am looking for a computer that can support a lot of RAM memory. I would need at least 64GB but probably 128GB or more. From what I understand the maximum RAM for the MBP is 16GB and 128GB for the Mac Pro. Anyway, I am not considering buying a Mac Pro, so I am looking for a PC and not a Mac.

What would be a good PC that can support at least 128GB of RAM?

Are there any laptops that can support a lot of RAM?
 
Isn't RAM memory similar to those ATM machines? ;)

Jokes aside OP, you won't find what you need with Apple. That amount of memory necessary for your workflow would also warrant dual Xeons, big dGPUs — in a laptop, they'll be 8 inches thick with a 30 minute battery life. You'd be unlikely to find a laptop with 128GB RAM that isn't portable on wheels.

In desktop form you'll get a lot of nice business servers/workstations from HP and DELL. I'd suggest going the desktop route.
 
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This should be in alternatives sub forum.

Agree with above your better off getting a desktop with such ram requirements.
If you need this much ram guess you need a decent GPU too.

IF you do find a "laptop" with such spec it aint gonna be very portable!
So buy a desktop, it will last much longer than a laptop anyway.
 
keysofanxiety said:
Isn't RAM memory similar to those ATM machines? ;)

Jokes aside OP, you won't find what you need with Apple. That amount of memory necessary for your workflow would also warrant dual Xeons, big dGPUs — in a laptop, they'll be 8 inches thick with a 30 minute battery life. You'd be unlikely to find a laptop with 128GB RAM that isn't portable on wheels.

In desktop form you'll get a lot of nice business servers/workstations from HP and DELL. I'd suggest going the desktop route.
Click to expand...
You can make some things run faster by throwing more RAM at it.

Some 64GiB RAM laptops weigh 2.5 Kg, are about one inch thick, and the battery lasts a few hours.
 
Start here, pick a motherboard and "add" it, and then keep adding parts until you're satisfied.

FWIW, X99-based PC motherboards will be your most cost-effective solution to build a system that can have 128GB, otherwise you'd have to look at workstation or server-class boards, which typically have a higher cost of entry.

You won't find a PC laptop that supports 128GB. Max in that form factor will be 64GB.
 
leman said:
I recommend you one of these: http://www.sgi.com/products/servers/uv/uv_3000_30.html

We have one and we are very satisfied.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion but I think it would be an overkill. :)

elf69 said:
This should be in alternatives sub forum.
Click to expand...

You are right, I didn't know in which sub form to post this.

elf69 said:
This should be in alternatives sub forum.

Agree with above your better off getting a desktop with such ram requirements.
If you need this much ram guess you need a decent GPU too.

IF you do find a "laptop" with such spec it aint gonna be very portable!
So buy a desktop, it will last much longer than a laptop anyway.
Click to expand...

Desktop would be the obvious choice but I will be getting a laptop anyway so I was also curious how far laptops can be upgraded in terms of RAM.

cube said:
You can get 4 DDR4 slot laptops that support 64GiB RAM.
Click to expand...

Good point, this is probably what I am looking for at the moment. A laptop with 4 DDR3 slots, each providing 16GB.

cube said:
You can make some things run faster by throwing more RAM at it.

Some 64GiB RAM laptops weigh 2.5 Kg, are about one inch thick, and the battery lasts a few hours.
Click to expand...

RAM is my only concern. Short battery time is no problem as it would be plugged in most of the time, 2-3 hours of battery time would be great.[/QUOTE]
[doublepost=1483009958][/doublepost]Let's say I go with a laptop that supports 64GB of RAM memory.

One alternative would be the Lenovo ThinkPad P50:
http://www3.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/P50/p/22TP2WPWP50

With a standard configuration and 64GB of RAM it costs $3.5k. It then comes with Intel Core i7-6700HQ Processor (3.5GHz). Would this be enough or would I need the Intel Xeon processor (+$570)?
When ordering from Lenovo it's not possible to upgrade the graphics card so I guess the default one (NVIDIA Quadro M2000M 4GB) would be fine.
 
In all seriousness, if you are looking for a laptop like that, you don't have that many options. Also, I don't believe that there is any laptop with 8 RAM slots on the market currently, so 64GB is as much as you are gong to get. You should look into Dell precision 7710 series or alternative large mobile workstation offerings from other brands.
 
Unless you are doing heavy transactional workloads, you need ECC support, or are running in a corporate environment where vPro is needed, the Xeon is, quite honestly, not worth the $570 increase in price when comparing multi thread and single thread workload performance diff alone.

Call Lenovo on the phone to make the purchase, if you decide to get one. You can usually get a better deal from a sales person on the phone than you can off the website.
 
In some places you can upgrade it yourself like this:

Lenovo P50 (Xeon, 4K): $3000
4TB SSD: $1300
64 GiB RAM: $400
[doublepost=1483022979][/doublepost]You can still add a second 4TB SSD and a 2TB 960 Pro while also having LTE.

The base 4K Xeon config is around $2K at the US website now.

ECC RAM will cost about twice as much.

The current price of the RAM upgrade at Lenovo is not bad.
 
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