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| Thread ID: 47927 | 2004-08-09 09:25:00 | Do I need extra RAM ? | Misty (368) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 259886 | 2004-08-09 09:25:00 | I have a 900 mg AMD Athlon, with 32kb primary memory cache and 256 secondary memory cache. 20 Gig hard disk but as yet only use half. I run Windows ME. 128 MB RAM only. Internet connection - 256/128 ( not relevent though I think ?) Uses Email - not high use Some surfing Listen to Cool Blue No games Some photos - will increase Intend to use web cam etc to talk to kids overseas soon Do some audio stuff - tapes to CD etc No really big programs - just usual - Firefox, AZZ Cardfile, Irfanview, Ad-Aware, Adaptec Easy CD Creator, MS Office 1997, Encyclopedia Brittanica, AVG etc and similar others, though quite a few. Only run a few at a time though. Gut feel is need to double RAM - would that be best please ?? Things seem to run a bit slow. I am very good these days at defrag and other maintenance stuff. Misty :| |
Misty (368) | ||
| 259887 | 2004-08-09 09:35:00 | windows xp runs tip top with 512mb plus of ram, however for your purposes 256/384 mb of ram, i would say from those specs it is likely to be sd ram so that will be nice and cheap to upgrade | lagbort (5041) | ||
| 259888 | 2004-08-09 09:40:00 | I agree with lagbort - I'd say 256Mb in total should be plenty - you may first want to check how many RAM slots (if any) are available - if there are no free slots then this will influence your decision | andrew93 (249) | ||
| 259889 | 2004-08-09 09:47:00 | On second thoughts if things are running slower then something else is going wrong (minor conflict?) - you may want to run a registry checker utility as well as all of the other normal maintenance stuff | andrew93 (249) | ||
| 259890 | 2004-08-09 09:51:00 | Thanks lagbort and Andrew There are two RAM slots available. The other two have 64 Mg each in them Misty |
Misty (368) | ||
| 259891 | 2004-08-09 10:01:00 | "Gut feel is need to double RAM - would that be best please ??" upgrading to 256 megs would probably enhance multitasking but you say you have a 20 gig hardrive 50% full with no large programs installed. This could be part of the problem along with memory resident apps running in the background. Have you tried cleaning out temp files/ system restore files recently ? Running msconfig ? Plus I have never trusted Brittanica since an employee in a fit of enthusiasm installed it on 10 workstations and it caused no end of problems after installing netscape as default browser |
the highlander (245) | ||
| 259892 | 2004-08-09 10:05:00 | Adding another 128MB of RAM would provide a noticeable improvement in your computer's speed. You will be glad that you did it. | tommy (2826) | ||
| 259893 | 2004-08-09 10:31:00 | Thanks Tommy and The Highlander I don't seem to have many temp files any time I check -- but have never touched the system restore files, though I guess I should. Will look at that ! Brittanica, we bought in Singapore last year purely for the Atlas, though it has been good to look up some interesting things such as Charles Rennie Mcintosh etc. Does not seem to cause a problem especially for the few times we use it. System restore files will look at though. Mind you the speed is probably not that bad it is probably just me getting impatient. Peculiarly, though the most noticeable thing is waiting for an email in Outlook Express to open. Mind you I should cull a lot of the emails in the different folders - I am an inverterate hoarder. Please excuse me though as I must away to bed as have to be up at 5am tomorrow. Many thanks again for your advice. Misty :) |
Misty (368) | ||
| 259894 | 2004-08-09 10:58:00 | You're running Windows ME - So RAM is not as necessary as it would be had you been running XP. That being said, ME is tricky. Before you get this RAM, I suggest that you take a look at exactly what is running with your computer. Start --> Run --> msconfig Click the "startup" tab. You should see all the programs that run - if there are any you don't know about, or you know are unnecessary, uncheck them. That way you will have more of you current memory free. As far as adding more is concered - you should be fine with 256. This does sometimes prove a bit little - so I recommend another 256MB stick (384MB as lagbort said). It may also be worth your while to ditch the two 64s, and get another 256 - ending up with 512MB. That way you'll be set. |
Growly (6) | ||
| 259895 | 2004-08-09 12:24:00 | I recommend more as well, get as much as you can afford, especially when you will be working with photos. (You can never have enough) | Rob99 (151) | ||
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