is the ram worth it?

[nick2893]

I'm using a A8V Ath64 3000+ system with 512 MB of single channel memory. I recall at one point having 2GB RAM/dual channel, and I don't recall the system being much faster. Unfortunately, the 2GB broke down and I never bothered to RMA it. How do I use the computer? I'm finishing up a OpenGL/C++ development project, and I probably won't mess with that stuff much in the future. If you look at my taskbar, you'll find 5 AIM windows, 10 MSIE, 5 Firefox, 3 Excel, 4 Word, Outlook, Antivirus, 5 Notepad. And oh yeah, my girlfriend just disconnects instead of logging off, with about 10 MSIE and 20 Yahoo Messenger windows. My task manager often says Commit Charge 1053M/1435M or something similar. Being that I didn't notice much difference in the system with the 2GB of RAM and that my main concern is multitasking...would upgrading my memory be wise? Any suggestions? Almost forgot...I'm on a college student's budget and my preferred currency is blocks of Ramen Noodle soup

 

[Bob369]

*scratches his head*

how do you run all of that off of 512 mb of RAM? your page file must be huge

In your case since you probably do a lot of compiling and obviously have a lot of programs open, I would suggest at least 1 gb of dual channel memory

My PC:
Abit AX8 Socket 939 VIA K8T890
AMD Athlon 64 3200 Winchester
Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro 256 Mb PCIe
WD Raptor 37 Gb SATA
Corsair 2x512 PC3200 DDR Dual-Channel Platnium Edition

 

[Rugger]

The first thing I would do is shut down some of the programs - can't imagine needing all of those open at once.

BePe is right - 1Gb of RAM should work for you.

__________________________________________________
<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

 

[BrentUnitedMem]

You can't possibly need all those programs open at once.

Using OpenGL with C++ requires only a few extra header declarations in your executable file, I would not imagine you need anymore memory to do this, even in Visual Studios.

In anycase, when you are compiling and executing code, you want to close other unnecessary applications- not only for memory concerns, but because you want your system to dedicate its resources to compiling the code.

Normally, you can check with each application that is runing separately- it's a good idea to make sure none of them start with windows as you can always start them later.

You'll be perfectly fine with 2x512MB.

<b>EDIT</b>
Check out this <A HREF="http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/You_Must_Read_This_Before_Posting_A_Hijackthis_Log-t2852.html" target="_new">LINK</A> for information on how to maintain your PC if you feel your machine is sluggish and has software/management problems.

<font color=blue>******
<font color=green>"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and common sence." -The Buddha
<font color=blue>AIM BrentUnitedMem<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by BrentUnitedMem on 07/20/05 03:47 PM.</EM></FONT></P>