MX Linux Forum

I am looking into doing a custom build having Win 7 and MX Linux on separate HDD and SSD. I'm deciding on whether to go for 16GB RAM or 32GB. The Win 7 can only use 16GB. Can MX Linux 17.1 use more than 16GB?

Linux works fine with 32 gb ram.

Forget of any practical desktop user limit of RAM in 64bits linux. If you are installing 32bit, linux PAE can address upto 64GB. Win 7 Home Premium 64bit can support upto 16GB, all 32bit upto 4GB.

Why MX Linux 17.1? The current version is 19.3.

Chris

Maybe he is building something from antique or old stuff (16/32GB signals a phased out server) which he thinks would run better on MX17 or he'd run some special programs which supports Win7 only (EOL). Only he knows that I guess...or is he doing a time travel?

agnivo007 wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:38 am Maybe he is building something from antique or old stuff (16/32GB signals a phased out server) which he thinks would run better on MX17 or he'd run some special programs which supports Win7 only (EOL). Only he knows that I guess...or is he doing a time travel?

If that's the case, MX-18.3 would be a better choice.

I can see no reason for not using 19.3, and if on old hardware using an older kernel.

Chris

genericmeatsack wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 8:59 am Linux works fine with 32 gb ram.

Looks like the check mark is not a like button. Sorry. Thanks for letting me know that at least one OS can handle 32GB RAM!

agnivo007 wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:24 am Forget of any practical desktop user limit of RAM in 64bits linux. If you are installing 32bit, linux PAE can address upto 64GB. Win 7 Home Premium 64bit can support upto 16GB, all 32bit upto 4GB.

Good to know. I like the idea of having more RAM than I'll probably ever need, but having more than I could actually use is silly. When I found out at pcpartspicker that even 64-bit Win 7 Home was limited, I had hoped MX Linux would justify 32GB. Very good to know! Thanks.

Maximum RAM is limited by your hardware and firmware rather than by Linux, although I think there's a memory limit parameter in the kernels. Don't forget that Linux (though not MX which is a desktop distro) is used on a lot of servers and some of those have tons of RAM in them, 128GB, 256GB or more, depending on the need.

My current system has 32GB and my Quick System Info shows that it's all being detected, though it's probably way more RAM than I'll ever actually need to use. I was tempted to put 64GB in it because the motherboard and processor can address that much and I have two empty DDR4 DIMM slots but it would probably be a waste of money. As one of the devs said (I forget who), "Memory never used is memory wasted." My previous system was maxed out at its motherboard, chipset and processor's limit of 16GB and I don't remember seeing my RAM utilization ever get over around 50%. The only thing 64GB would buy me is the satisfaction of seeing that much RAM shown in my QSI.

agnivo007 wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:38 am Maybe he is building something from antique or old stuff (16/32GB signals a phased out server) which he thinks would run better on MX17 or he'd run some special programs which supports Win7 only (EOL). Only he knows that I guess...or is he doing a time travel?

CPU: i7-4790k

Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

Motherboard:
MSI Z97-Gaming 5
MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming
MSI Z97-GD65 Gaming
MSI Z97-G45
MSI Z97A Gaming 6

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X-series 32GB (4x8GB)

Storage:
WD Caviar Black 1TB 3.5 72rpm (Win 7)
Crucial 500GB MX500 SSD (MX Linux)

Graphics card: Geforce GTX Ti 2GB or GeForce GTX 560 Ti (whichever I run across first, same as the motherboards)

Power supply: Seasonic Focus 650 w80+ Gold

DVD burners: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/AS

Mobile racks: Syba SY-MRA55006

Case: CM Storm Trooper SGC-5000-KKN1

eSATA expansion card: still looking!

Mostly legacy, with a few new parts to speed up the build. I already answered the MX Linux 17.1 question way too many times on my previous posts. Look to them for the answer stated a hundred times, in a hundred different ways. Many of the parts chosen was to accomodate Win 7 (i.e. native support), so I don't have to fool with slipstreaming and other long-winded workarounds, to force the 'latest&greatest' crapola to work.

JayM wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 7:59 pm Maximum RAM is limited by your hardware and firmware rather than by Linux, although I think there's a memory limit parameter in the kernels. Don't forget that Linux (though not MX which is a desktop distro) is used on a lot of servers and some of those have tons of RAM in them, 128GB, 256GB or more, depending on the need.

My current system has 32GB and my Quick System Info shows that it's all being detected, though it's probably way more RAM than I'll ever actually need to use. I was tempted to put 64GB in it because the motherboard and processor can address that much and I have two empty DDR4 DIMM slots but it would probably be a waste of money. As one of the devs said (I forget who), "Memory never used is memory wasted." My previous system was maxed out at its motherboard, chipset and processor's limit of 16GB and I don't remember seeing my RAM utilization ever get over around 50%. The only thing 64GB would buy me is the satisfaction of seeing that much RAM shown in my QSI.

Exactly so. All my choices of motherboards are either limited to 16 or 32GB, and I wanted as much as possible, but not more than could actually be used. Since Win 7 wimps out at 16GB, I was looking for MX Linux to go the distance to reach 32GB....and was not disappointed. Aside from MX Linux (due for install), I also use Linux Mint, Kodachi Linux, and TAILS in LiveCD mode a lot which seems to be RAM hogs. The Linux Mint regularly freezes for minutes at a time on my current rig (XP Pro, Optiplex 960, 8GB RAM), so I think RAM-overkill is on the menu for a custom build. Better too much than too little.

True. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. That also applies to tools and extra bottles of hot sauce.

16 GB is more than you'll ever need. Put your money to work elsewhere.

The only use for lots of RAM in a desktop or laptop that I can think of is if you want to run two or more virtual machines at the same time with, say, 8GB allocated to each one. I don't have any idea how much RAM is needed by modern games but I know that video encoding in Handbrake uses up CPU resources rather than memory. I suspect games are similar, taxing the CPU and GPU but not the RAM so much.

I just thought of another: many Java applications are still resource-hogs, using both RAM and CPU cycles. There may be other memory-intensive apps people may want to run, but I can't think of any off the top of my head. Compiling and packaging apps for MX would be one but not very many people do that. Maybe a developer who needs to compile and test her code frequently while having multiple IDEs running? Someone who does a lot of number-crunching in spreadsheets?

I decided to get 32GB rather than either 16 or 64 because I sometimes do want to have more than one VM running concurrently, often enough to want more than 16GB but not enough to justify 64GB.

Nevertheless, chrispop99 is correct. Mx 18.3 is mx17 with all updates rolled up for that Debian stretch version .

If you download mx17 and install, you'll have lots of updates to download after that.

I haven't "researched" about your others posts citing reasons for your choice but...

Win 7 x64 Pro/Enterprise/Ultimate supports upto 192GB of RAM

I dunno what gain you'd achieve running an EOL OS with no further security/feature updates like Win7, except running some proprietary/old/niche software that only supports that platform; given what you listed is perfectly capable of running newer versions.

Not only that, various system libraries, support packages and platforms required by various software (say a browser update for eg.) would require minimum supported version which might never be updated in old MX 17.1 or Win7 ; it can happen and you'd be stuck and looking for workarounds soon. Moreover MX 17/18 would lose long term support in 2022, and you might need a new install of MX19/21 then, it's the way it works... It's entirely upto you to decide.

But seeing your build list, I can reliably confirm that MX 19.3 AHS or MX KDE would be a stable/updated/modern OS base for you at present and the future.

Security will only be a problem if he uses that Windows on the internet.
Restrict it to offline use with the software that does not work with the newer Windows and there should be no risk.

Use MX for all online tasks.

End result? Safer than he would be using the latest Windows.

devva231 wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 8:57 am I am looking into doing a custom build having Win 7 and MX Linux on separate HDD and SSD. I'm deciding on whether to go for 16GB RAM or 32GB. The Win 7 can only use 16GB. Can MX Linux 17.1 use more than 16GB?

32-bit operating systems have a general limit of 4GB (some may be less, up to 2GB or 3GB). Some 32-bit OSes (Windows Server) can give you up to 16GB or 64GB with PAE enabled.

64-bit operating systems - depends. I believe 64-bit AMD CPUs (hence Linux) at the moment limit the address space to 256TB which should be enough to open six tabs in Google Chrome.