is 128 Megs of RAM enough or should I go to 256?

[Atropos13]

I have a P3 500E oc'd to 750 with 128 Megs of Crucial PC 133 memory. I am running Windows 98. If I put in another 128 Megs will I see a very big performance increase? I use my machine almost strictly for games.

and if so, do i need to get the same type of memory? when I got it was the highest quality non-ECC PC133 memory that Corsair offered (at least it was the most expensive at the site I bought it at). Could I buy the Corsair Value PC133 and add in with my other stick? Thanks.

 

[snow patrol]

I think you should upgrade to 256Megs. Sooner or later, 128Megs won't be enough, and RAM prices are very low at the moment... I also have a 500e with 128Megs, and I reckon I'm going to buy another 128Megs very soon.

 

[xtreme2k]

we will all need 256MB eventually
why not get another 128MB now when they are SOOOO cheap
i am seriously thinking 384 or even 512 for my win2000 system

 

[Akaz1976]

what kind of performance bump is there in moving from 128 mB to 256? (some sample 3DMark score?)

 

[office boy]

It's not that there is a measurable performance increase in games or benchmarks, but more of an overall system performance increase due to less HD swap space being used, and faster loading times...
The difference in starting up UT is amazing

 

[Vegito]

Going from 128MB to 256MB won't increase you FSB by 50% if thats what you're looking for... but it does allow bigger program to load in memory so it's less swap to your HDD... does you HD thrash a lot ? It depends on what you use..

Friend's system has 128mb but crap loads of stuff like IM, VirusScanner, etc ,etc. loaded.. afterwards, MemTurbo reports 4mb left and after cleaning it out, theres about 32-40MB of physical memory left and it really takes a long time to load programs with 4 MB.. so having 256 would let program load faster..

 

[Buddha Bart]

basically, you won't notice a differnece at all until you start having a lot of things open.

Answer this. When you're doing things on a daily basis, and you go to switch from one program to another on the bottom bar, does the computer take a fairly long (over half a second) pause to bring up that second program when you click on it? Does it bring up the outline of the program, but take a few seconds to actually draw out the window?

If so, go for the upgrade.

OTOH, you may want to upgrade even if you don't see these symptoms, becasue ram is damn cheap now.

bart

 

[Akaz1976]

thanx guys

seems like only last week people on this forum were moaning about high RAm costs. that expected release of DDR boards doing wonders for RAM prices may be? or ist that manufacturers are getting better yeilds/ ramping up production? anyways its good for us

 

[tsl99]

I just upgrade my system(dell R400) from 128M to 256M RAM, and I think it improve a lot. A obvious example is Photoshop, it take much shorter time to launch, process and exit. Also remember, windows 2000 advanced server already require at least 256M to install, thus I think it better upgrade to 256M if you can, especially RAM price is going down like crazy right now.

 

[Atropos13]

thanks for all the replies.

so does anyone have any answers on the difference between the Value Corsair PC133 memory vs. the non-value?

 

[wyvrn]

I ran advanced server on 128 MB fine, but then again it was just a soho type of box.

 

[xtreme2k]

i think
value = cas3 at 133
normal = cas2 at 133

 

[Pariah]

If you are using 98, there is no reason to have more than 128 except bragging rights. If you are using win2k, you should definitely upgrade to 256.

 

[ElFenix]

win2k i definitly noticed a drop in performance when i went from 192 to 128 ("borrowed" a stick for another computer that i built). when i went to 256 it was superkeen

 

[HaVoC]

Win2K = NEEDS 256MB
Win98 = DOESN'T NEED 256MB but RAM is so cheap now, why not buy some decent quality PC133? Can't ever have too much memory unless it is Rambus (scambus).

 

[evanichka]

Yup win9x you may not see so much of a performance gain, but in win2k, the more RAM you can get, the better your system will be. I used to run a P3 600e at 830mhz, WD 10.2G 7200 x 2 RAID66, and 128MB of ram on Win2kAS, and damn, the thing crawls! Just upgraded to 192MB and it is much smoother now, especially when starting up for the first time. Gonna get me 256MB very very soon.

 

[Mule]

I have a stick of 64MB and 128MB RAM running win98 and I see no difference between 64,128, or 192.

Makes no difference at all!

However when I run win2k it's a huge performance boost from 64 to 192.