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RAM myths

A

archcommus

Diamond Member
This is really nothing technical so I think it should be okay for OT.

For those of you that say less than 512 MB of memory is too little for XP, totally wrong.

Right now I'm on a system with XP SP2, an Athlon XP 2100+ CPU, a 10 GB HDD, and 256 MB of PC-2100 DDR memory. I'm currently running:

two remote desktop sessions
Winamp
AIM
two IE7 windows
VPN connection
Outlook 2003
WinFast Wizard
Kaspersky 6
Ultramon

And it's running perfectly smooth and fine, takes maybe 3 seconds to open a new significant window.

FYI...
 
how much ram are you using? if it is > 256, then you have too little ram. The idea is to not have the OS access your HD at all for anything other than loading or writing new data.
 
Originally posted by: FoBoT
now start ripping a CD and burn a DVD while doing a full virus scan
Click to expand...
Haha yeah that would bog it down. But I am impressed with how much I can run smoothly.

Originally posted by: Cattlegod
how much ram are you using? if it is > 256, then you have too little ram. The idea is to not have the OS access your HD at all for anything other than loading or writing new data.
Click to expand...
No, the OS accesses the pagefile all the time, even if you have more than enough RAM. Just how Windows works.

 
Originally posted by: drum
is 256 too little? no. is it stupid, especially now days? yes.
Click to expand...
It's not stupid if you all do is surf the net, email, AIM, music, and some RDC connections.

This isn't my computer, I'm just saying.
 
I just replied to a thread in OS about how Vista runs great for me on 512mb. Similar to you I have a bunch of crap open at once and no problems.
 
Originally posted by: mugs
I have 4 GB

And it's still not enough 😛
Click to expand...
What kind of dissatisfactions are you experiencing with 4 GB? I have 1 gig in my main system and when I upgrade it'll probably only be to 2 GB.

 
256? lovely. i was at a customers home today and they were running XP on a 1.3ghz celeron with 128mb of ram

i think it took a full 4 minutes to open the network connections panel

oh, i was there installing a wireless internet system....they wont even be able to tell they have high-speed service as lousy as that thing works :/
 
Originally posted by: EGGO
Originally posted by: mugs
I have 4 GB

And it's still not enough 😛
Click to expand...

2 GB is proving too little for my needs too.
Click to expand...
What are your needs that exceed 2 GB of memory? Just curious.

Originally posted by: us3rnotfound
Have you tweaked the OS in any way?
Click to expand...
Nope, besides any normal stuff I'd do to any system.

Originally posted by: compuwiz1
Do something video intensive for an hour or so, then tell me it doesn't slow down.
Click to expand...
That's not the point, the point is you can do a lot and run a normal system just fine on 256.
 
Originally posted by: archcommus
Originally posted by: mugs
I have 4 GB

And it's still not enough 😛
Click to expand...
What kind of dissatisfactions are you experiencing with 4 GB? I have 1 gig in my main system and when I upgrade it'll probably only be to 2 GB.
Click to expand...

I was mostly being facetious, although it's not as responsive as I think it should be with a 2.67 GHz dual core and 4 GB of RAM. I mostly upgraded to 4 GB because sometimes I need to run several virtual machines at a time.

I do on the other hand have a 5 year old Dell laptop with 256 MB of RAM running Windows XP, and it does its job very well.
 
Originally posted by: archcommus
This is really nothing technical so I think it should be okay for OT.

For those of you that say less than 512 MB of memory is too little for XP, totally wrong.

Right now I'm on a system with XP SP2, an Athlon XP 2100+ CPU, a 10 GB HDD, and 256 MB of PC-2100 DDR memory. I'm currently running:

two remote desktop sessions
Winamp
AIM
two IE7 windows
VPN connection
Outlook 2003
WinFast Wizard
Kaspersky 6
Ultramon

And it's running perfectly smooth and fine, takes maybe 3 seconds to open a new significant window.

FYI...
Click to expand...
Your perception may be that the system is running perfectly smooth... but bump the memory up to 512mb, and you'll realize that the system can run even smoother and certainly more responsive.

Yes you can run XP with 256mb ram. Yes, you can run XP with 128mb ram.

Please, open up the task manager and tell us what the current page file usage and available physical memory is.
 
Say what you will, I love my 2GB. Windows and my various background apps are using about 727MB. It's quite handy to have that much free RAM when working on large images, audio files, or video. When processing and rendering an edited TV show, Virtualdub will gladly take up to 600MB.
 
Originally posted by: cubby1223
Originally posted by: archcommus
This is really nothing technical so I think it should be okay for OT.

For those of you that say less than 512 MB of memory is too little for XP, totally wrong.

Right now I'm on a system with XP SP2, an Athlon XP 2100+ CPU, a 10 GB HDD, and 256 MB of PC-2100 DDR memory. I'm currently running:

two remote desktop sessions
Winamp
AIM
two IE7 windows
VPN connection
Outlook 2003
WinFast Wizard
Kaspersky 6
Ultramon

And it's running perfectly smooth and fine, takes maybe 3 seconds to open a new significant window.

FYI...
Click to expand...
Your perception may be that the system is running perfectly smooth... but bump the memory up to 512mb, and you'll realize that the system can run even smoother and certainly more responsive.

Yes you can run XP with 256mb ram. Yes, you can run XP with 128mb ram.

Please, open up the task manager and tell us what the current page file usage and available physical memory is.
Click to expand...
Yes I understand that, my main system has a gig so I know what a responsive and smooth system feels like. And I'm saying THIS isn't too bad for 256, but yes it would be too slow for my own system. Again this isn't my system.

Page file use is 350 MB, physical available around 56 MB. You definitely see the paging when opening new things but the overall experience is fine.
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7
Say what you will, I love my 2GB. Windows and my various background apps are using about 727MB. It's quite handy to have that much free RAM when working on large images, audio files, or video. When processing and rendering an edited TV show, Virtualdub will gladly take up to 600MB.
Click to expand...

RAM just depends so much on the person using it. If you are used to having a small amount (like me, never had more than 512mb), then you close programs when you're done with them. Sure I'll keep 5-8 windows open at a time, but a person with 4gb might keep 20 open at a time. A person with 4gb might burn a CD, copy files from the network, keep their Doom 3 game on pause, and watch a movie all at the same time. Personally if I do something that takes a lot of resources I'm usually just surfing the internet behind it, as I use my laptop for information more than anything else. Part of it probably comes subconciously from knowing I can't do it without slowing myself down, and another part is just what I use computers for.

I remember having this same attitude back when I had only 128mb of ram. I only ran into trouble, where I actually ran into "Memory is full" errors, while running Photoshop back then. This is what I mean by usage habits changing along with system performance. Back then I'd just be used to only having 1-2 things open an a time.
 
Even just in daily usage, I found the jump from 512MB to 1GB to be very noticeable. I guess I'm on the computer quite a bit and so the benefit from that would depend person to person, but it's nice to be able to run many programs without issue. I also go into Photoshop on a daily basis and so that's where I see a definite increase in speed.
 
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