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Since the price of ram has dropped so much lately, I've been contemplating buying some more ram.
Right now my computer looks like this:
1.2 GHZ T-Bird
256 pc133 ram
7200 RPM HD (ATA 100)
GeForce2 32meg Video
I'm running windows 2000 and use adobe products for most of my graphical needs.
I'm curious if buying another 256ram would make much difference? I'm going to the store today, so let me know soon.
Thanks.
windows 2000 and adobe photoshop usually run on lots of memory... so more wouldn't hurt i guess... however don't go out and splurge just yetOriginally posted by syntekz
I'm running windows 2000 and use adobe products for most of my graphical needs.
ask yourself this: does your pc seem slow on any of these programs u use? if it doesn't i guess 256 RAM would be enuff... you'd be better off saving for your next upgrade (which would probably involve another type of RAM)
if you decide to get it anyway just get the 256 one instead of any other sizes...
I'd say that it won't make much noticeable difference, but at the current price of ram it may be worth it.
I had 128 PC100 and upgraded a week ago to 512 PC133 and things run nice and smooth. Not too noticeable, but they don't get bogged with disk-swapping when I've got tons of things open.
The trouble is - most applications are designed to run within 64mb of ram or less so they use ram conservatively and swap things to disk anyway through their own design. I run video and sound programs on mine in addition to psp + coreldraw 9. It'll be a while before we'll be buying apps that say "requires 512 mb ram".
Not to mention that once your disk cache is 32mb or above, making it bigger isn't required and doesn't make much difference (unless your HD is mega-fragmented).
But at least things are running nice and smoothly when I've got tons of large apps running at once.
Last edited by mmj; Nov 4, 2001 at 10:21.
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yup i missed that out too... go for it if you use photoshop with quake III benchmarking in the background (substitute with memory-intensive program(s))Originally posted by mmj
But at least things are running nice and smoothly when I've got tons of large apps running at once.
I started with W2K with 128 MB, and when I sent a nice graphic to my Deskjet 970 Cxi, it started spooling the printfile for about half an hour
128 MB is the very raw minimum to run W2K, but don't start any applications please
256 MB is better, and when you do graphical stuff add more
I've got 1gb of ram, pc133
Cost me $80
Find real cheap prices at http://www.pricewatch.com
Right now 512mb of pc133 is listed at $23
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I went out and bought the ram, so doesn't matter what anyone says anymore.
Thanks for the replies though.
cool, syntekz. My thought is that you can never have enough RAM...max the dang thing out. I have 1.5 GB RAM!!!! Well, technically, 1.536 GB, but who's counting?
Sketch
actually, it is 1.5G.Originally posted by Sketch
I have 1.5 GB RAM!!!! Well, technically, 1.536 GB, but who's counting?
1GB = 1024MB
1536 / 1024 = 1.5
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512+512+512= 1536 MB a.ka. 1.536 GB
RAM Gigabytes are not the same as hard drive gigabytes. 1 GB in RAM = 1000 MB
1 GB on a harddrive = 1024 MB
hmm, i don't think so.
you buy a 1GB stick of RAM, not 1.024GB, right? however it IS 1024MB, right?
i have 384MB of RAM on this system, and in the system control panel it says 392,688KB. why doesn't it say 384,000KB? b/c 1MB = 1024KB.
explain that, and i'll buy your theory.
okay, I have never actually seen a 1 GB stick for sale, but if someone calls it a 1 GB they are rounding it off. It would not be marketed as such. it is 1024 MB, as you say. MY SYSTEM dialog box tells me I have 1,536 MB RAM but when I tell people, I tell them I have 1.5 GB...I round it off. I'm not sure what you're talking about with the 392 v 384....I see that in a hard drive but not in RAM. Screenshot it and put it up there for me to see....I guess you could say I'm calling your bluff!
Sketch
never seen 1GB, huh? http://www.crucial.com/store/listmod...168%2Dpin+DIMM (that's not "rounded," it's 1024M)
can't post a screen shot up here (don't have a host for it). if you REALLY want to see i could e-mail it to ya. but all you have to do is look at anybody's system control panel (well, since you said yours says it in MB, look at anyone's that has less than 1GB). yours says 1536MB, b/c that's how much you have, but that's 1.5GB!
just look at your system when it counts the memory at boot, it should be ~1,572,864KB (unless it says it in MB too, since there's so much -- mine is displayed in K though).
lol...whatever dude! Don't you know? You can't win with me. I'm always right. You'll just have to face that and admit that I'm right! lol. j/k
Everything in my system is counted in MB. I think we're basically saying the same thing. Anyways....
Sketch
we're just having a friendly discussion here, so i don't want you to think i'm being mean here.but, you could go to any comp forum (HardOCP, Anand's, Tom's, whatever) and they'd tell you the same thing i'm telling you.
got one more question so i can try to show you. are you running Win2k or XP (i.e. not 9x)?
I have XP, but it's not a big deal. I believe you. I just have never paid that much attention to that detail.
Sketch
no, don't give up man!
ok, i think the task manager in XP is the same as 2000. so, go there (CTRL + SHIFT + ESC) to the "Performance" tab, down at the bottom where it say "Physical Memory (K)" the total should be around 1,572,864 (a bit less than that).
1.5GB * 1024 = 1536MB
1536MB * 1024 = 1,572,864 KB
as far as i know, K, M, and G are all 1024 of whatever, except for CPU speeds, where 1GHz does equal 1000MHz.
you can't take an "I give up" can you? You justhave to keep smearing it in my face?
Sketch
i know the original poster already bought his RAM, but if he wants to see how much he's using, or for anyone else that wants to know if they should get more RAM, here's how you can see how much is being used in 2000/XP.
go to the Performance tab in Task Manager and see what the "Available" amount is under "Physical Memory (K)". that's the best indicator of how much physical RAM you have available (so, of course to see how much you're using, subtract that from your total). the "Mem Usage: " thing at the bottom of the Task Manager is *NOT* a measurement of how much physical RAM is being used.
anyway, check that "Available" amount when you're doing your usual heavy load things. if it's more than 10% of your total, you're fine and probably won't notice a difference with more RAM. however, if it goes below 10,000, then definitely GET MORE.
hope that helps someone.
Running netscape and ie, winamp, AIM, MSN messenger, and photoshop I was only using 389,000k. So I'm in good shape now, eh?
Right click on "My Computer"....then, on the "General" tab, take the number of MB of RAM and multiply it by 1.024...you got your number...
Sketch
you might be able to get an idea (not sure how it's counting, so i don't know if it's accurate) in the "Performance Monitor" (i think that's what it's called). it should be in the Accessories/System Tools in the start menu (if it's not you'll have to go to Add/Remove programs and install it). at first, it just displays a graph showing CPU usage. go into one of the menus and look for something to add a counter/graph/something and you want the one that's something like "Physical Memory Usage." then you can see a graph that shows how many MB is being used.Originally posted by Nicky
I know how much RAM I have, but is there anywhere that will breakdown its usage on my machine?
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