Such a thing as too much RAM?

[tfbww]

So, I'm pricing out systems (no, I'm not building because I'm a wuss . What's the incremental performance benefit of 384MBs of RAM over 286? I'm thinking of a 1.2 Tbird w/ 133 FSB and DDR RAM (probably WinME). Certainly there is a benefit, but is it significant? Or should I just go w/ 286 and buy a 128 stick later on if I need it? This will used for mostly gaming (and bring work home).

Thanks

 

[Guest]

As far as I'm concerned, 256 PC2100 DDR-SDRAM is more than enough for any home user. Go with recognized brands though (Crucial, Mushkin, Corsair, for example).




Better go Green than Blue!

 

[Guest]

256mb for winme is fine. You many want to consider 384 if you are running 2k.

pill128

Take your pill, and get some sleep.

 

[Arrow]

Unless you're using programs that are very memory intensive, you wouldn't notice much of a difference.

Rob
Please visit <b><A HREF="http://www.ncix.com/shop/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048" target="_new">http://www.ncix.com/shop/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048</A></b>

 

[Crashman]

128 is adequate, 256 is plenty, 384 is overkill, 512 is insane! You can never have too much ram, up to the capacity of the motherboard!

Suicide is painless...........

 

[tfbww]

Well, that's a consensus. Although I think, Crashman, you got a little ahead of yourself Thanks, that's $150 saved for my lazy ass.

 

[Crashman]

Hey, I wish I could have 4GB! And a good program to cache an entire application to it!

Suicide is painless...........

 

[tfbww]

Which brings up a good point. Does anyone use a "FreeRAM" type program? Seen 'em around but never bothered using one. Curious if they are useful or not.

 

[Crashman]

I do, but haven't really seen any difference.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[Guest]

Whoa, Crashman! You just got to the OLD HAND level...
I'm not worthy...!

Better go Green than Blue!

 

[74merc]

CPUcool has a free memory feature, I use it on my Win9x/ME macines, it helps a helluvalot.
For one, Win9x doesn't free memory worth a crap after its been running for a week or so, use this to free the ram, then its good to go for another week.
beyond that, occasionally it will free up more ram for games, but there is no big performance increase in general, especially not in NT/2k...

 

[Atman]

Just for kicks, you can follow this link.

<A HREF="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/14967.html" target="_new">http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/14967.html</A>

I'm sure there are other, more informative articles out there, but this is the first one that came to mind.
Have A Good One
Atman

 

[necroscope]

all anybody really needs is 640k!

 

[camieabz]

I run with 416MB Ram, but I couldn't detect a major difference from having 192MB. As the others say, I think 256MB is a good number to operate with.