What size Page File?

  • Thread starter Thread starter nLinked
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nLinked

I have 2 GB of RAM on Vista and have 2 HDDs. Vista says it recommends 4591
GB for the Page File in the Properties sheet. So I set this size on a ~5 GB
partition at the beginning of the second HDD and set the Page File to 4591
GB on that drive. On the Windows drive, I set it as 200 MB.

Is this good? It sounds like too much as Vista is probably just multiplying
my RAM amount by 1.5 or something. Is it good to have it the way I have. Is
200 MB too much for the Windows drive? Is a 4 GB Page File going to slow
things down should my RAM ever fill up by increased HDD activity?
 
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nLinked said:
I have 2 GB of RAM on Vista and have 2 HDDs. Vista says it recommends 4591
GB for the Page File in the Properties sheet. So I set this size on a ~5 GB
partition at the beginning of the second HDD and set the Page File to 4591
GB on that drive. On the Windows drive, I set it as 200 MB.

Is this good? It sounds like too much as Vista is probably just multiplying
my RAM amount by 1.5 or something. Is it good to have it the way I have. Is
200 MB too much for the Windows drive? Is a 4 GB Page File going to slow
things down should my RAM ever fill up by increased HDD activity?
Click to expand...

Other way around, a larger page file wastes space but if your system
ever does start paging, having too-small page file will cause a
performance issue or application instability (Many apps aren't written
to handle out-of-memory situations properly since an out-of-memory
situation should virtually never occur)
 
nLinked said:
Sorry, my mistake, it's 3 GB of RAM!
Click to expand...


The PF can be pretty strange, most people get on fine just leaving it, but
some of us like to set it. Personally I set it to 2.5Gig and leave it, it
has never run out of memory, I just had to permanently give up some of my
HDD.

It was preferable for me as Vista sets a tiny PF for me and then keeps
adding new bits, but they fragment terribly for some reason.

I am no expert, but I would assume it is better to have more than you need
than to run out.
 
Just to see how your system speeds up,

Hi, nLinked,

Try setting your Windows drive 16 min & 16 max,
hit Set
Set your Page file on the second hard drive to System Managed,
hit Set.
5 GB is not too large for Vista in the paging file and I doubt if you will
ever see a slow down,
The min-max setting on the Windows drive is there, only for error reporting.
 
Personally, what I would recommend in this situation is to first, disable all
paging files, then do a defrag and make sure the fragments you have are very
low before putting the page files on. Then, add the page file to the drive
that is not the system drive as long as you have one that is not external.

For 3 gigs of ram, I'd set the minimum at 3 gigs, max at 5. You'll likely
never touch the max of the page file but you will stop seeing any benefit
from it past that.
 
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