Ram Requirement

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I have a HP notebook,& with just the system ON the taskmanger shows that
about 185MB of Ram is used .The machine has 256MB of Ram.

What is generally the good size of Free available ram for fast operation of
PC with Windows XP pro?
 
Ideally, you want to have as little free RAM as possible. Since RAM is the
fastest memory in your computer, you want to use it as much as you can. We
have a saying: "Free RAM is wasted RAM".

A better question is: How much RAM should I have for Windows XP to run
quickly? The answer there depends on what type of applications you use most,
but in general, 512MB will get you good performance.

Modem Ani
 
In
Jagjeet said:
I have a HP notebook,& with just the system ON the taskmanger
shows
that about 185MB of Ram is used .The machine has 256MB of Ram.

What is generally the good size of Free available ram for fast
operation of PC with Windows XP pro?
Click to expand...


Zero.

Wanting to minimize the amount of memory Windows uses is a
counterproductive desire. Windows is designed to use all, or
nearly all, of your memory, all the time, and that's good not
bad. Free memory is wasted memory. You paid for it all and
shouldn't want to see any of it wasted.



Windows works hard to find a use for all the memory you have all
the time. For example if your apps don't need some of it, it will
use that part for caching, then give it back when your apps later
need it. In this way Windows keeps all your memory working for
you all the time.
 
Jagjeet said:
I have a HP notebook,& with just the system ON the taskmanger shows that
about 185MB of Ram is used .The machine has 256MB of Ram.

What is generally the good size of Free available ram for fast operation of
PC with Windows XP pro?
Click to expand...


"Free" RAM is wasted RAM. It's supposed to be in use, not sitting idle.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
Jagjeet said:
I have a HP notebook,& with just the system ON the taskmanger shows that
about 185MB of Ram is used .The machine has 256MB of Ram.

What is generally the good size of Free available ram for fast operation of
PC with Windows XP pro?
Click to expand...

That is an entirely misleading measure. XP will be trying to find
*some* use at all times, and that should really be 'RAM for which there
is currently no conceivable use'.

Consult www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm, and use the linked tool to find
how much page file is actually being used. 256 is a reasonable basic
amount; many though find that higher demands by programs (and a
tendency to 'load and leave' justifies more
 
Jagjeet said:
I have a HP notebook,& with just the system ON the taskmanger shows that
about 185MB of Ram is used .The machine has 256MB of Ram.

What is generally the good size of Free available ram for fast operation of
PC with Windows XP pro?
Click to expand...

I agree with the other comments about RAM usage - free RAM should be
at or near zero.

But with only 256 mb of RAM there is also a strong possibility that
you do need a RAM upgrade, or at least that adding more RAM might
provide a noticeable improvement in overall performance.

There is a free utility that you can download and run which will
provide some usful information for assessing a possible RAM upgrade.
It was written by MVP Bill James and you can get if from
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm or from
http://billsway.com/notes_public/WinXP_Tweaks/

If that utility shows actual page file usage of 50 mb or more on a
regular basis then that is indicative of fairly significant paging
file activity. Adding more RAM will reduce or even eliminate entirely
this activity thereby improving performance.

This apples regardless of how much or how little RAM is currently
installed in the computer, at least up to the 4 gb RAM maximum for
Windows XP.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
Thanks for your suggestion.
i have upgraded my ram to 512,333Mhz.Still i do not see much radical
improvement,as my system is 1.6centrino with 2MB cache,any suggestions on
optimizing the Ram usage.

Jagjeet Paul
 
Hi Jagjeet,

If you were only using 185MB of ram to begin with, then you won't see much
improvement by increasing to 512MB. The point behind additional ram is to
prevent paging or use of the hard drive for virtual memory, which is much
slower than physical ram. If you were paging a lot to begin with, then
additional ram is a good thing. As was mentioned by the original responder,
the "free ram" idea is a misconception,. You want the system to be using the
ram as much as possible. Windows will attempt to find as much use for it as
it can, having free ram basically means you are not using what you paid for.
Think of it this way: Of what use is a chair if no one is allowed to sit in
it, but rather it just occupies space in your home? Looks good, but it's not
very functional.

To keep the system up to speed, you want performance settings set to be
optimized for programs, not background processes. You also want to limit
programs in the startup load to only those that are essential (many software
companies still insist on creating a startup entry for their program, and
most times it is wholly unnecessary), such as firewall and AV programs. Also
do regular checks for spy and ad programs, and uninstall anything that you
don't use. A heavy user should defrag periodically, but a casual user will
not notice any major increases in performance if they don't.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
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