[blackecho]

Hmmm... I have a (newer) Toshiba Satalite Laptop with a 2.6Gigahertz Celeron, 512mb or ram, a cd-rw, internal modem and network card, and a moniter hookup. I use it mainly for doing graphic design work.

It's got 512mb or ram, which is pretty good considering my last comp had a mere 64mb. But I'm thinking about upgrading it to a gig of ram. But, I don't want to drop a massive 300$ on a ram chip (DDr SDRAM) that will be not be usable by the next laptop I buy within the next year or two. So my question is this, should I buy the ram and what chances do I have of being able to reuse the chip in my next laptop (think AlienWare)?

 

[Elvandil]

Laptop RAM, unlike desktop RAM, can be very proprietary. Take a look at memory sales sites and see if RAM for your machine is compatible with any other machines whatsoever.

Over all, I'd say the chances of being able to use the RAM again are not great ones.

Are you sure you would even benefit from more RAM? 512 is, I think, anyway, the optimal amount for XP. It is probably overkill for 98 and any more than 512 in 98 can lead to all kinds of problems (though there are a select few who say they have no problems with it).

Do some experimenting with running your most RAM-intensive apps and see what Task Manager says about how much RAM you are actually using.

In XP Pro, set up a performance monitor to track RAM usage and keep the results in a text file for examination later (Run: perfmon.msc).

Also, look at pagefile usage. If your pagefile is being used rarely, you have not exhausted the available RAM.

Here is an additional memory usage monitor:
http://www.gena01.com/memuse/

And one to monitor pagefile usage (more accurate than XP's Task Manager since the TM shows potential usage rather than actual, current usage):
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

This can be set up as both a logon and logoff script, and can be run manually at any time. It keeps a log of all its readings in C:\PageFileLog.txt.

 

[JohnWill]

Unless you're manipulating massive graphic images, 512mb is more than enough, I'd save the money for more pressing projects...

 

[lisaa7002]

Hey guys. I just stumbled across this & tried the pagefile usage down load. My pc says the current pagefile size is set to 768mb. Is that where it should be? I have 512mb ram. -- Thanks guys! Lisa

 

[griffinspc]

And just one more. With this processor, 2.6Gigahertz Celeron, you probably won't see any noticeable improvement with the RAM buy.

 

[Rusty1952]

lisaa

768Mb Paging File size is about optimum size for 512Mb Physical size. Generally, 1.5 times ur given actual physical amnt is considered to be ur optimum Page File size.

 

[lisaa7002]

Thanks it seemed odd to me that it would be More than my ram.

 

[Rusty1952]

Yeah, i can understand that from my own experience befor i knew what the paging file (swap file) actually is and what and how it does what it does.

The general school of thought is that it is better to keep it a constant size rather than to hav it range from 1Mb all the way up to the max. available size of ur free available unused hardisk space. By keeping the size constant; it is thought to help cut down on the amount of file fragmentation that can occur from paging file usage.