to be honest the only time as mentioned it would matter is more with dedicated server, i have before noted that those who use their server for games, central database or media servers tend to ask but its not common.

the ammount is almost always the question, that said there are scripts such as the one we use called status2k that are very popular and can show the mem, cpu and swap usage in real time as well as the server info (cpu, bus speed, ram, os etc)

which usually answers most questions off the bat

We don't publish the ram speed, mainly because we never get asked... However I always like to be prepared so have a full spec sheet in whmcs which myself and staff can access if the question gets asked

Much like everyone here, the speed of the memory is hardly ever asked when we're configuring servers, but when we deliver the welcome email on signups, all that information is provided to the user as to what is in the system etc. Like with Rob, we have all the information posted in WHMCS so staff can quickly answer questsion should they come up.

It's like the question of the transfer connection on a server. MOST of our machines are setup with 100MB/s connection, but a few of our older Celerons still run on 10MB/s conenction, and some of our NEWER ones run at 1000MB/s - it's extreemly rare that anyone ever asks about that part, but it can be vital in performance of a busy site.

We do a fair bit of content delivery, audio and video streaming so actually get asked about uplink connections a lot ... which is funny as you would think RAM and BUS would crop up as well... Oh well

We DO state the port speed on our site as so many people were asking about it...

true but when i buy or rent a server i do ask
and yes it is vey important not only the ram
its important to know the MB model and the RAM that is on it
all comes together
HDD / MB / RAM / CPU

I tend not to agree with many of the posts here. RAM speed on a desktop can make a big difference but it's typically used rather differently on a server. Programs on a server tend to be smaller but more instances of them. On a desktop they are few of them but they're bigger. On a server RAM's biggest function on a server by far is caching. So quantity matters much more than speed. I'm not trying tosay that you won't get a few more #s on UnixBench or other benchmarking, but in real world use the amount of RAM is going to have a bigger effect (by how much is in cache) than the speed. A real world example is a recent upgrade I did on a 7 yr old mid-range HP-UX box - close to 1/4 mil when bought. Loads were running 4 to 5 with frequent "naps". So I quadrupled the RAM in the system. Loads now run 0.1 to 0.2 with 200 or so active users (interactive real-time transaction processing system with heavy database work). sar -b (system activity reporter) now shows the system is running 97%+ disk read cache hits. And the "naps" are gone. The RAM used ... Reg. ECC PC-133!

And while a company may use desktops, I wouldn't recommend it. Server components including RAM is designed differently (and is actually slower) than the same bus speed desktop RAM in the case of registered memory which holds the data for 1 write cycle in registers. Plus server memory should be Error Checking and Correcting or ECC... How bad would it be to take down the whole server in a kernel panic because of a single bit error? I won't use anything but Registered ECC memory in our systems. It's just not worth it.

More important to me for most servers is the disk subsystem. All our new servers are being configured with hardware-based RAID10 controllers with "RE" or RAID Edition drives. Again server components designed for a different use - WD's RE drives are rated for twice the MTBF than their regular drives.

You've got the point. Most people would concern only about the capacity and price, but I think RAM speed and timing is also important. However, I think size is a bit more important than speed. Enough size can increase your program cache or buffer size which make the program run much faster.

First of all server has different functionality. Someone is oriented for statical web sites with some information. But if you have a server which is closely oriented to host databases such as Posgresql and etc. I would like to say that sometimes RAM speed become a critical parameter. Think and act!

The speed of the system memory is very important because it is a contributing factor to overall performance.

Well first of all RAM speed by itself is largely irrelevant. The memory will operate at a frequency determined by the processor's BUS speed or HT link, etc.

E.g. you buy DDR2 RAM that operates at 800MHz (PC6400, DDR2-800), if you have an Intel processor with a 1066MHz FSB, then the memory will we locked at 533MHz.

In some circumstances you can change memory dividers etc to run your memory at faster speed or even increase the bus speed, but seriously I don't think anyone would touch these sorts of settings in a server environment. Hence you really only need RAM that is "fast enough" for your processor :-)

My 2 cents.

Well, of course RAM speed by itself is largely irrelevant. You always have to have to spec ALL of your server's components to optimize its overall performance.

This is very true. I cannot stress how important RAM is but you need the other hardware to make the actual system good. I mean you wouldnt wack 8gb RAM into a Celeron server would you? Simples

- Many Thanks,

General speaking,the single speed of RAM is not the most important.You should have a reasonable integration of these components such as cpu,RAM and hard disk.I think this is a key.

Ram speed matters because it will determine how fast the processor can read and write to memory. But I think hard drive read write speeds would be of far greater significance, since they are slower.

Getting the faster RAM will make the transfer of information between devices storing information in RAM much faster.
If you want a faster computer, you should get :
1. Get a faster processor.
2. Get a faster RAM.
3. Get a faster hard disk.