# 1 PC with 128GB Ram or 2 PCs with 64GB each?



## Skyroads (Aug 27, 2018)

Hi everyone

During building my template on two computers I have realised that my slave (6 years old) has too little RAM (32GB) and unfortunately it is not possible to upgrade that MB to 64GB.
I use VE Pro 6 and my main PC has a i7 6800k CPU, Asus X99-A II, 64GB DDR 4 RAM (Quad Channel)

Now there are 2 questions I ask myself:

1. Should I build a whole new Slave-PC with 64GB of RAM?

or

2. What will happen, if I "simply" upgrade my main PC to 128GB RAM and build my template on that one system?

Are there any advantages/disadvantages with a single system? What speaks for a slave?

Thanks in advance guys!


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Aug 27, 2018)

Using 2 computers would technically give you better performance. Having said that, a single powerful system should be more than powerful enough for most people's needs. I'd try to go down to a single system (no slave).


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## ChristopherDoucet (Aug 27, 2018)

As someone who has 7 slaves, i would rather have 3 with double the RAM.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Aug 27, 2018)

I think only YOU can answer those questions. Are you currently maxing out your Ram on the slave? I have asked myself those questions as well, and decided to go the other direction by downsizing my templates so that I can work on my MacBook pro with 16GB Ram. I recently tested out my approach, and successfully competed a big project without a hiccup. I was very selective with my patches, and loaded up only those patches that would actually get used. By now, I have a pretty good idea of what I have in my arsenal. Honestly, I love working this way, it was just nice to keep it all on the one machine.

If it were me, I'd upgrade your master PC to 128GB (if possible) if you are needing more than 64GB. You could still host everything in VEPro, that way you could still keep your templates loaded between projects.

And ultimately, if it's all working just fine at this point, don't do anything


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## Skyroads (Aug 27, 2018)

Gerhard Westphalen said:


> Using 2 computers would technically give you better performance. Having said that, a single powerful system should be more than powerful enough for most people's needs. I'd try to go down to a single system (no slave).



What specifically would give me better performance with two machines? Or better said, what makes the difference?


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## Skyroads (Aug 27, 2018)

Wolfie2112 said:


> Are you currently maxing out your Ram on the slave?


this is exactly the problem

The two machines are working great together but I want to expand my template. Technically it's no problem upgrading my main PC to 128GB Ram. (MB and CPU wise)


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## Spip (Aug 27, 2018)

I have exactly the same main PC but with 128G. 
I think it's not a so good idea after some time with it. At the beginning, I loaded around 100/110G in RAM full time but the CPU is going easily above 50% with buffer at 128 as soon as you fill some tracks. If you don't need this kind of small latency, it's a good idea but otherwise, chances are that your CPU will end the party before your RAM... 
It all depends on your libraries and your synths or plugins loaded in your template.


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Aug 27, 2018)

Skyroads said:


> What specifically would give me better performance with two machines? Or better said, what makes the difference?


I believe it has to do with the realtime performance. One computer can only do so much (regardless of the CPU) so having 2 gives you more power. Whether or not you need that extra power depends on what you're doing. I recently built a PC slave with 128GB for one of the top film composers and he's using just that single slave. Replaced 3 mac pros (1 being a trashcan). So far it's been able to handle all of his needs. If you go onto my website and listen to my Test Drive mockup that was all on my main computer which is 64 and a 5820k. I honestly don't think most people will be working on anything more "intense" than that.


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## gsilbers (Aug 27, 2018)

tech wise its good to have 128gb so there is enough ram headroom (if that is a phrase)
. if loading 125gb of ram then that would be too much. i have fully loaded template is about 75gb and enough to spare for 128gb. 
It depends on your projects. would you be playing back full on 20 different string articulations, 20 hyrbid instruments and 20 brass all at once? do you need it to just have stuff loaded but have about 5 articulation running at any once time or so? 
You can also do the kontakt update sample pool thing and you woudnt need that much and can render or freeze any commited tracks?


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