Need knowledgable input on swap file, 2 drives.

[balane]

Hello.

I've been using a 320gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 with Parallel Recording Technology as a main drive.

I just bought and installed a 150GB Raptor X 10,000rpm drive as my primary OS drive.

Should I have my virtual memory swap file run off of the Barracuda even though it is a slightly slower drive?

If so, should I partition that Barracuda and use my swap file on the first partition?

How big should that partition be?

What settings should I use for the swap file? Should I let Windows manage it or should I set a high and a low size myself?

My hardware is in my signature below, sans the new Raptor.

Thank you.

 

[alzan]

1) Yes you can put your swap file on the Barracuda, the fact that it's lower RPM shouldn't effect swap file read/writes.

2) If it were me, I'd partition the drive and put the swap file in the first partition.

3) A safe bet for the size would be 2x - 3x your physical RAM (8GB to 12 GB)

4) I've always set my own custom size on the swap file with the minimum/maximum set the same. You might consider leaving a small swap file on your OS disk; I forget the exact reason.

alzan

 

[balane]

Thank you. My reading has led me to the same conclusions. Does the below image look correct for my settings? I have the first partition on my extra drive set at 12GB and placed it there. (Even though the drive letter is E it is a partion before D on the drive itself.)

http://home.comcast.net/~bartalane/swapfile.jpg

I do not understand the small swap file being needed on the OS drive however. I will look for something to read on that but it's the first I've heard of it.

 

[alzan]

Sorry for the long wait for reply:

Yes those look like good settings for your swap file.

I believe the reasoning for the small swap file on the OS drive was that if something happened to the drive with the main swap file, Windows would still have a swap file with which to work. Either way you want to run it will most likely be fine.

alzan

 

[jswjimmy]

as i remember the 1.5 times the ram idea was the recommended back when people were running like 32 to 128mb of ram. the idea is to get the stuff off the swap and into ram. i think as small as 512 is enough unless your doing video editing or something that use a crap load of memory like that. i have my pf set to 1024 right now and ive never seen usage over ~600mb, and even then i was encoding a movie.

 

[Arcanedeath]

Put the Swap file on your Raptor it will be faster and it won't hurt to leave it on the same part. / drive as your OS it just means you'll need to defrag more often