RAM
i have a new pc which came with XP ms works, cdrw
its 128 ram and 40GB with a duron 1200…thats off the spec sheet
i have loaded on norton 2003 which says 128 ram
i have also loaded office pro 97 which i think is 64’ish
and i got a new epson cx3200 printer/scanner calling for 64 ram
things went wrong as regards speed and internet access
i am going to have the tech put in more ram
QQQ
should i go for +128 or more than this…
i will not be adding any more programs but want a good turn of speed and use norton at full protection level including the auto scan…etc
at present i have uninstalled the printer software completely and using XP drivers…so no scanner facility
i have disabled norton autoscan but kept the script blocking, email and messenger protection
a scan is scheduled once a week…full computer.
cheers
The answer would be as much as you think you can afford. You can’t really have too much memory.
Realistically, unless you’re playing a lot of 3d accelerated games(which a Duron 1200 wouldn’t excel at anyway), or loading up all the Office programs simultaneously while scanning and printing, 256 ought to do you just fine.
Personally I’d kick the Norton anti-virus back a notch or two. Running it at full protection level will give you a noticeable performance hit.
well thanks bump, that settles my mind a lot…
that pretty well helps me in my next step as well
i understand that ram goes in in pairs so i need only get another 128
btw
no games and i am keeping norton on a peep…it seems to be doing its job
it caught a couple of emails last night from ‘support@microsoft’
:rolleyes:
with attachments it killed outright this
The attachment was infected with the W32.HLLW.Mankx@mm virus.
cheers friend
Windows XP is happiest with at least 256 megs of RAM. Of course, RAM is cheap, so you can pick up 256 meg stick of RAM for less than $30 dollars, bumping you up to 384 megs total, which is plenty.
You need to check your manuals or go to www.crucial.com or tell us what make and model of computer you have. Then you will know how much RAM each slot can hold and how many slots you have and your max. amount of RAM. Of course I’m sure all slots can hold 128 just fine but you need to check first if you’re going to consider 256 in each.
As much as you can afford - up to a limit.
XP can’t accesmore than 4 GB of RAM, so that’s one limit.
The other is that there is a point at which a normal user won’t get much improvement for his money.
Take a look here.
And here.
There also chipset limits that may prevent you from using more than a certain amount - often 512MB, or 1GB for typical consumer mother boards. Check with your mother board handbook.
I’d recommend 256 MB as a workable XP system. With XP, it’s a case of ‘the more the merrier’. You state that you have a scanner: high resolution scans can take up massive amounts of memory.
Given that it’s a Duron 1200, I’m guessing that the PC is second-hand. Check the manual and see if it can take 256 MB and 512 MB DIMMs - many older motherboards can’t. Assuming you’ve got 2 slots, get yourself a pair of 256 MB or 512 MB DIMMs as applicable.
I’ve had the best results with 512MB. The pairs thing is for older SIMMS rather than the newer memory you are likely to have which are DIMMS (dual in-line memory modules).
I just bought a system very similar to the one you’re describing. At first I ran it with 256M of RAM and it seemed quite slow a lot of the time. I used the performance tab in XP (ctrl-alt-del, select “performance”) and saw that everything I tended to have running during normal operation (a web browser, 2 instant messaging clients, a few miscellaneous little things) was pushing the limit of the 256M of physical RAM I had installed and causing quite a bit of swap-file usage (slow!) I upgraded to 512M of RAM and everything now runs much more smoothly. For any non-trivial work, Windows XP is happiest with at least 512M of RAM, but 384 might suffice if you’re really strapped for cash (another 256M should only cost about $30-$40).
With RAM, as with most computer memory, more is always gooder.
XP has a feature to show you how much free ram you have after you load. When I had 128M there was only 25M free…not enough.
Not necessarily true, Bongmaster. Some new motherboards, such as the Asus A7N8X, support memory in such a way that there’s a performance gain to be had by using, for example, two identical 256M DIMM’s rather than a single 512M DIMM.
(God, I want an A7N8X… and some matched Corsair XMS DIMM’s to go with it!)
pestie: While that’s true, no DIMM-based system REQUIRES that the RAM be installed in pairs. Additionally, on the nForce2 chipset performance gains are nearly non-existant except in 3D Rendering (not gaming) applications.
I have one, using a couple sticks of Crucial. It’s a pretty good board, but a bit persnickity. My Tyan Trinity S1854 was actually a lot less of a pain.
mrcrow, what kind of computer is this? What does the manual say is the max amount of memory you can put in?
Righto!