How much RAM is ~too much for XP PRO?

[pcostanz]

How much RAM is optimal? I used to think that 256mb was sufficient, but after having 512 in and yanking one of the chips back to 256 due to a bad chip, I've really noticed a lot of churning. I have 2 open slots, wondering if I should plan on 1GB+ or just 512. What's optimal?

 

[ZipTriX]

I have a gig and everything runs fine for me.

 

[dadx2mj]

I think that 512 is enough for most general uses. If you are doing a lot of video or audio editing and have a bunch of windows or apps open at one time more is better.

 

[da rock]

i've got 256 in now,but really would like to bump it up to 512,i
think 512 is about right for most gamers and small apps users.

 

[Lonman]

I've got 1.5gig. On my current setup, XP statically uses around 270mb. Even doing movie/photo editing i've rarely seen it get past the 350mb range. I'd say, unless you want to use a ramdisk (I have one setup to use 750mb), 512 is more then adequate.

 

[= Indy =]

Ive got 512mb of sdram on my machine, which is more than adequate for me. Besides my board is running an intel 815 chipset, so 512 is the max I can have anyway. 😀
And also, when I decide to upgrade in the future, I gotta upgrade all my memory too, to ddr or whatever!
(Unless I go for P4 with sdram option!! 😀 OLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL)

 

[pcostanz]

I would agree that 512 seems to be the most one would need. However, I've noticed that when I use Agent for downloading from newsgroups, I've seen swap usage climb to a GB! And, I've been teetering on 255 RAM used. I think I'll add another 256 if I need more, I have one more slot I could put a 256 or 512 stick in.

-Pete

 

[ZAnwar]

ram is never enough

I have 768 MB Ram and I will in the next one or two months make 1.5GB of Ram !!!!!

 

[pcostanz]

RAM, RAM , RAM ,RAM.. RAM , RAM , RAM, RAM - Wonderful RAM, that Wonderful RAM 🙂 Sorry, just a take back to Monty Python's SPAM. I would buy into more RAM, if I think it'll be used. What are you doing that will use 1.5GB?

-Pete

 

[Highwind7777]

512 is just the right amount for almost anyone...gig+ RAM is only used for servers and web hosting...even if u boot OS to ram, 512-768 will be sufficient...and pcostanz, to answer your quesiton, maybe these guys just like having tons and tons and tons of pr0n windows open...err....maybe they like to edit pr0n...I dunno....

 

[allan]

You can never have too much ram. Having said that, 256 will work fine, but as you noticed 512 meg works better. And if you increased to a gig you see another improvement, but not quite as signigicant as 256 to 512. Somewhere between those two numbers would be fine (though I'd prefer the higher).

You also want to make sure to take advantage of the paging file. There should only be one (on your fastest drive if you have more than one, or the largest partition if you only have one HD). And it should be set for 1.5x your installed ram - both maximum AND minimum to avoid fragmentation. In other words, with 256 meg ram you want min & max set for somewhere around 384 meg on one drive only.

 

[NCXCStud]

ive got 640 DDR and it runs like a charm...except for my sound problem, but that has nothign to do with the RAM

 

[dan0421]

Don't need all that RAM, plus it gets fragmented so keep the RAM to reasonable numbers. 512 is more than enough unless you have a specific application that demands more.

With 512 or more there's no need for a page file, set it to ZERO, and watch how fast XP runs!