RAM increase question

[dynocat]

Excuse me if I put this in the wrong topic. I'm only half computer literate. :)

 

Here's my getsysteminfo report.

 

This is a 7 year old computer that had only 512 mb ram. I recently added a 1 gb module for a total of 1500mb now. Why then, does smart ram show me typically having between 750 and 1100 mb free. I'm wondering how this dinosaur worked at all before the upgrade.

[Melvin_Deal]

Hi dynocat!

 

The 750-1100 mb reports from Smartram you are getting indicates that your OS recognizes and is utilizing the new RAM. It must be a big improvement. Or is it not?

 

The utilization of your Ram would depend on a number of factors. If you had been operating on 512, then you would have been running in a minimalist environment. (I wonder about the capacity of the processor as well.)

 

Have you challenged your machine with new applications to see how it responds? And is there no difference in the "snappiness" of what you have been running?

 

-Mel:-|

[solbjerg]

Hi dynocat

While you had 512 MB RAM your swapfile - sidefile - pagefile had probably been allocated 1536 MB that was used as a virtual RAM cache and in this way the machine managed to cope with the amount of information it had to process.

Cheers

solbjerg

 

Excuse me if I put this in the wrong topic. I'm only half computer literate. :)

 

Here's my getsysteminfo report.

 

This is a 7 year old computer that had only 512 mb ram. I recently added a 1 gb module for a total of 1500mb now. Why then, does smart ram show me typically having between 750 and 1100 mb free. I'm wondering how this dinosaur worked at all before the upgrade.

[dynocat]

Oh, it definitely is faster than before and I can have a lot more programs open at once. I was just confused not knowing what the numbers meant.

 

Since I posted the link above, I changed the page file from 1536 to 2032. I see only a slight increase in the amount shown in smart ram. I have a lot of free space on the hard drive and am wondering how to know what to make my page file and virtual memory.

[solbjerg]

Hi dynocat

1024 MB + 512 MB = 1536 MB → pagefile 1536*1.5 = 2304 MB

Default size for the pagefile.

If you have made it smaller you need to restart the computer - this is usually not necessary if you increase the size but I find it good practice to do it anyway.

Cheers

solbjerg

 

Oh, it definitely is faster than before and I can have a lot more programs open at once. I was just confused not knowing what the numbers meant.

 

Since I posted the link above, I changed the page file from 1536 to 2032. I see only a slight increase in the amount shown in smart ram. I have a lot of free space on the hard drive and am wondering how to know what to make my page file and virtual memory.

[enoskype]

Hi dynocat,

 

It is advisable to use the Sysinternal's (Microsoft) Pagefile defrag program to have the increased amount of page file if it is fragmented.

 

Please read Think about Defragmentation!!! thread, you will find most of the information you need there in the posts.

 

Cheers.

[sunny staines]

dynocat

 

i would leave windows to manage pagefie size, no harm in setting the size youself. this pagefile defrag is handy, but i do not use it at every boot up just use occasionaly.