question about RAM

[pokmin100]

okay, i'm not too familiar on this subject, so i was hoping someone here might know more then i do. (Very likely, as i know nothing) i recently purchased a 1 gig stick of ram for my comp, but it had a 256 already (old comp, bout 6 years old now.) and i installed it easily. however, a friend told me i should just install the 1 gig, and leave the 256 out (i have 2 slots, sadly.) i wanted to know if this is true. he said it had something to do with the way computers handle ram.

another question, is that i was told it is posible to devote some of your natural hard drive to a form of RAM, or Faux Ram (From what i know, it's no where near as effective, but it can help) is this true? if so, is it safe to do it, and are there limits to what i should do?

sorry for asking all these questions, but i'm completely clueless.

 

[carnageX]

Just go ahead and install both sets; you'll have more RAM that way.

As for the second question...yes, that's called Paging File. In XP, do this:

Start > right click on My Computer > Properties > Advanced tab > Under the performance section, go to Settings > Advanced tab > under Virtual Memory section go to Change > check the Custom Size button > enter in 1024 for both the Initial and Maximum sizes. Hit Ok on all windows. You may have to reboot for the settings to take affect.

 

[[t..o..m]]

First of all if you are running windows xp then your computer will already be running 'virtual RAM' by default. And it does help you computer but only if you have a small amount of physical RAM to begin with. But if you have larger amounts of ram in your computer, 'virtual RAM' has limited appeal.

Second on whether you should run both sticks of RAM or just the one? Well that all depends on what speed they are both running at. It is true that running different RAM sticks at different Mhz will cause the faster RAM to run at the slower speeds.

Even though this is true I would still install the 256MB of RAM as it would provide an increase compared to just the 1GB

 

[Redmo0n]

Quick question (sorry to hijack)

Just looked at my settings and it was 2gig of VM but since i put in a new hard drive for gaming i set 1 gig on that as well, so now its 3gig.

C: Installs + Windows
D: Videos + Music + Installs (files not location)
E: Games

Do you think 1 gig each or maybe 1 gig C, 512 D, 1 gig E? Something else?

Have 2 gig of ram, running vista ultimate

 

[Luke]

wow, i never thought to check how much this prebuilt system had. (just using it until my mobo arrives sometime this week.) it has 5gb...i guess i should turn that down a bit.

 

[carnageX]

Put all of the virtual RAM on 1 drive, Redmo0n. That way it doesn't have to jump from drive to drive. Put it on the one that has the most space/you won't care about losing a few gigs.

 

[Redmo0n]

I set my main drive to 1gig but then tried to set my windows drive (partitioned with the main drive) to 0 but it said some rubbish about something or other so i just set it to 500.

Ty Carnage :happy:

 

[carnageX]

No problem.

 

[pokmin100]

thanks guys, i'll leave them both in then. but now, i'm thinking about making my own comp. my friends brother said it's much cheaper, and you get a better product anyways. so i'm gonna make a new topic, about making a comp, cause i need to know exactly what i need and what compatible.