I did the same thing on my new machine. One thing we sometimes forget is graphic's which are very compute intensive. On my new box I have 2 graphic's cards each of which has 256MB of memory, and slightly overclocked. This way each monitor has it's own dedicated card. Even in every day stuff the way windows react is downright amazing.
Pc1 > WinXP P4@1.8 *1024mb Pc2 > WinVista RC1 P4@2.8 *1024mb Pc3 > WinXP P4@2.4 *1024mb Pc4 > WinXP/linux(slackware) P4@2.6 *1024mb Pc5 > Win98/linux(Debian) P3@866 *256mb Pc6 > Win98 K6@300 *128mb Pc7 > OSX PowerPC G4@700 *512mb Pc8 > AMIGA WorKBench 3 Motorola@25mHz *8mb
256 here. Runs fine with about 27 processes in the background. I've learned to use the least resource hungry applications when I boot up into Windows. Which means replacing heavier AV's with things like CA, torrent clients with either Bitcomet or Utorrent, turning off every single service that I do not need, and running at most 8 programs at one time. It feels kind of weird having RAM free though [in Linux I have about 4 MB of memory free ever]. But I guess that how different OS's deal with things.
I could run my system like the attached screenshot: 137 Mb with all security apps running and only 2 MS processes. I even use internet then. hmmm... I can't get windows shut down, only by pulling the plug. But I run 1024 Mb with few more processes running Gerard
Thinkpad lap top maxed at 512 WinXP Pro Sp2 Wife`s garage build = 2 gigs Win XP Pro Sp2 My garage build = 4 gigs Win 2k (I know Windows only recognizes just over 3 gig but have read it will use up to 3.5.......so I just maxed out my new mobos compacity.)
i have 2 gigs. i think with all this virtual stuff coming out 2 gigs may not be alot in a about 12 months. i have a great virtual machine called xen - it's very similar to vmware ESX server
256MB RAM as I only uses my pc for surfing the web and only 2-3 hrs daily most of the time, but planning to make it 512MB Ram.
I'm a gamer (Oblivion mostly now, Gothic 3 in the near future) and I need more memory than most. I run 2GB without any problems. I might be able to get by with less, but I am not taking any chances. If I weren't running such intensive games, 512MB would suit me fine.
512 here, which I use most of the time. Surfing, basic word processing, etc... I have 2 gigs on another machine for multimedia and gaming.
I have seen the difference myself...a while ago, I was running 1 gig of my P4c rig...playing Battlefield '42, DC, Vietnam, and BF2 often. I came across a pair of 256 sticks from a upgrade...added those into my rig..hence having 1.5 gigs. I noticed BF:V and BF2 ran quite a bit smoother. BF'42/DC..not much diff..older game engine, didn't use all that much RAM. I ran task manager while playing them...I'd notice the game .exe itself bouncing around 899 - 950 megs of RAM. You need to leave at least another hundred megs free for Windows to run in the background. The more RAM a game engine can utilize..the less "hard drive hits" it requires as you're playing. Thus..smoother gameplay. So my answer is...yes...depending on the games you play....if they will benefit from being able to run more of the game in RAM. Video RAM...for gaming, don't forget todays newer games, especially for many gamers who run at such high resolutions on 18, 19, 20, 24, even 30" LCD monitors now. I just picked up the ATI x1900xt for my new Conroe rig. 512 megs of vid RAM. This is the year some newer games are benefitting from that over 256 meg cards.
1024 on my new-ish laptop. Tempted to bump it up to 2 gigs in order to test out some modern games. But RAM prices have jumped in the past few weeks, and I'm crazy to think the family will ever afford me enough time for games.
4 Gig ECC DDR SDRAM (Dual processor Opteron's 246) with 3 250 Gig SATA II Hard Disk on Windows XP X64 The Minimum requirement to browse the internet and read e-mail... Hehehehe...
I have 768 total. I use my on-board graphics which uses 64MB leaving 704MB on my computer. I only use up alittle bit over 300MB
SDram, DDR or DDR2 ? How I think ram works.Not an expert by any means. SDram - single data read with sticks working independantly. DDR - double data read requiring two sticks of the same DDR ram working together to achieve true double data read.If only one stick of DDR ram is used it will only work as SDram. DDR2 - quad data read similar to DDR in needing two sticks of the same DDR2 ram to work properly.If a single stick of DDR2 is used you can only achieve DDR. Quite a while ago that I read up on ram and am probably not at current levels so please correct any of my assertions.