Minimum RAM for Win7 w WinXP VM

[cbrunny]

My laptop at work runs Windows 7. It's an i3-3110M with 4GB RAM. The most resource intensive program I run is IBM SPSS, which really is only intensive in short bursts with the kind of stats I'm crunching.

I also run Cognos Impromptu 7.5, which ITS refuses to install on Windows 7. Apparently IBM doesn't support a configuration of this software on a 64-bit version of Windows 7 on an Intel platform. It is supported on an AMD platform, however.

So instead of running Cognos on Win7, I have to open a VM of WinXP. But I use Cognos and SPSS interchangeably, meaning they both need to be open at the same time. Plus my e-mail client, plus Excel, and anything else that I might be working on. So basically I have programs open and active in Win7 at the same time as I have programs open in WinXP.

I am very aware that my machine is under-resourced in the Memory department. It does not have an SSD, which makes the virtual memory intensely slow, crippling the performance of my computer.

So my question: What is the minimum amount of RAM you would recommend for this type of configuration? I'm going to push ITS to buy me a RAM upgrade, but want to know how much to ask for.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Hmmm...you could get a pretty good idea by installing something like All CPU Meter and having it display RAM/PageFile usage, or just having the Task Manager open to the "Resource Monitor" while you're doing all this stuff to check on memory usage.

My suspicion is that 8 GB would probably be OK, but I'd investigate more closely before committing to a purchase.

 

[Cerb]

Yup. Just watching Task Manager will give you enough info. Ideally, you want whatever the right number in the commit line is, to be about as much as your RAM (that's the peak value, since it was last reset), or less, and generally want to have 30-50% of your RAM available for cache.

The VM takes up a fixed amount of RAM (or a fixed maximum), so whatever you need on the main desktop + VM = total RAM needs.

 

[ch33zw1z]

What model laptop? there are limits on how much you can install. If you're going to upgrade, just max it out. I would shoot for 8GB...

but again, what model laptop? 🙂

 

[wholesalestunna]

Hmmm...you could get a pretty good idea by installing something like All CPU Meter and having it display RAM/PageFile usage, or just having the Task Manager open to the "Resource Monitor" while you're doing all this stuff to check on memory usage.

My suspicion is that 8 GB would probably be OK, but I'd investigate more closely before committing to a purchase.

I like using All CPU meter too... Good gadget

 

[cbrunny]

The right value on the Commit reads 7937, which sounds about right. I wasnt aware that this value was a "peak" value - good to know! But seeing that, I'm wondering if I should ask for more than 8 just to be safe. Hmm...

The laptop has two SODIMM slots, I believe. That's what CPU-Z shows anyway. The laptop is nothing fancy. It's some Dell thing I would never buy for myself for my own usage at home much less for my work. I'd check the model number, but honestly it isn't worth the effort for this one (docking station). I've seen 8gb SODIMMs, so maybe I'll ask for 12 GB just to be safe. Pretty sure I'm not going to be able to actually get that though.

Just installed the ALL CPU meter now so I'll check that out today. Thanks for the tip there.

 

[ch33zw1z]

The right value on the Commit reads 7937, which sounds about right. I wasnt aware that this value was a "peak" value - good to know! But seeing that, I'm wondering if I should ask for more than 8 just to be safe. Hmm...

The laptop has two SODIMM slots, I believe. That's what CPU-Z shows anyway. The laptop is nothing fancy. It's some Dell thing I would never buy for myself for my own usage at home much less for my work. I'd check the model number, but honestly it isn't worth the effort for this one (docking station). I've seen 8gb SODIMMs, so maybe I'll ask for 12 GB just to be safe. Pretty sure I'm not going to be able to actually get that though.

Just installed the ALL CPU meter now so I'll check that out today. Thanks for the tip there.

You won't find 2x6GB dimms. and you really want to install a matched pair. not one 4 gig and one 8 gig.

the laptop may max out at 4 gig, or 8 gig, or 16 gig....

what is the Dell service tag?

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[Essence_of_War]

Yeah I love AllCPUMeter :awe:

If you needed to check specific hardware specs, you could try Speccy. It's a quick, and compact way to figure out exactly what you're dealing with as far as current RAM slots populated.

It sounds like if you currently have 1x 4 GB, then adding 1x 8GB should be fine, but if possible, I'd take the 4 GB stick out and move to 2x 8GB. If you have 2x 2 GB, I would def try to take this opportunity to go up to 16 GB.