Laptop with Windows XP Pro, 1.66GHz/Duo with 2G of RAM.

If I upgrade to 4G RAM - is it always good to upgrade WinXP from 2G to 4G RAM?

Can anyone tell me if there a noticeable hit to battery life? Any downside anyone can
share?

Thanks!!!

Toni wrote:
> Laptop with Windows XP Pro, 1.66GHz/Duo with 2G of RAM.
>
> If I upgrade to 4G RAM - is it always good to upgrade WinXP from 2G
> to 4G RAM?
> Can anyone tell me if there a noticeable hit to battery life? Any
> downside anyone can share?

Are you using the 2GB now? Do you often run out of memory?

Adding more memory (that what you have now - 2GB - for your operating
system - Windows XP, likely 32-bit) is not necessary for most people. Using
AutoCAD? PhotoShop/Illustrator for some big drawings? Editing multi-track
music? Generating animations or editing some heavy-duty videos? Heavy
calculations of any sort? Intense database searches? If no - you likely
are not even coming close to using 2GB.

CTRL+SHIFT+ESC
Performance Tab

Although not the best reference - it is built in and gives you a quick
enough overview to tell if you are running short.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

philo wrote:

>
> The 32bit version of XP can use about 3.25 gigs of ram
>
> check your machine specs to see how much RAM the laptop can support


Have you got similar facts handy about 32 bit of Vista?

On Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:23:28 -0500, "Toni" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Laptop with Windows XP Pro, 1.66GHz/Duo with 2G of RAM.
>
> If I upgrade to 4G RAM - is it always good to upgrade WinXP from 2G to 4G RAM?



No, not at all. In fact for most people, even 2GB is more than you can
make effective use of.

How much RAM you need for good performance is *not* a
one-size-fits-all situation. You get good performance if the amount of
RAM you have keeps you from using the page file significantly, and
that depends on what apps you run. Most people running a typical range
of business applications under XP find that somewhere around 512MB
works well, others need more. Almost anyone will see poor performance
with less than 256MB. Some people, particularly those doing things
like editing large photographic images, can see a performance boost by
adding even more than 512MB--sometimes much more.

If you are currently using the page file significantly, more memory
will decrease or eliminate that usage, and improve your performance.
If you are not using the page file significantly, more memory will do
nothing for you. Go to
http://billsway.com/notes%5Fpublic/winxp%5Ftweaks/ and download
WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip and monitor your page file usage. That should
give you a good idea of whether more memory can help, and if so, how
much more.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Per Toni:
>If I upgrade to 4G RAM - is it always good to upgrade WinXP from 2G to 4G RAM?

I did that just on GPs.

But now that I've done it and begun watching TaskMan, I'm hard
pressed to find situations where I am using more than 1.5 gigs of
memory.

That *may* mean I don't know how to read TaskMan's numbers... but
there it is....
--
PeteCresswell

Since both Vista and XP use memory mapped I/O, I would expect the same
amount of usable Ram.
Jim
"ANONYMOUS" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> philo wrote:
>
>>
>> The 32bit version of XP can use about 3.25 gigs of ram
>>
>> check your machine specs to see how much RAM the laptop can support
>
>
> Have you got similar facts handy about 32 bit of Vista?
>

On Jan 28, 6:23*pm, "Toni" <Ton...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Laptop with Windows XP Pro, 1.66GHz/Duo *with 2G of RAM.
>
> If I upgrade to 4G RAM - is it always good to upgrade WinXP from 2G to 4GRAM?
>
> Can anyone tell me if there a noticeable hit to battery life? Any downside anyone can
> share?
>
> Thanks!!!

Do what makes sense for you and you environment so the end result will
not leave any questions.

If you have the means ($$$), put in 4GB into your unspecified system.
Then you will know that you have the best you can possibly have.

If you are a general purpose computer user eliminate the questions.

You will never have to wonder if you need more or if adding more will
make your system faster or work "better". It will be physically
impossible for things to be better concerning the amount of much
memory in your system if you have the maximum supported.

No discussion, no what ifs, no might be, no could be, no maybe, no
might need it, no might not need it, nothing to download, nothing to
install, nothing to run, nothing to interpret or monitor, etc.

On Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:27:41 -0600, "Jim" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Since both Vista and XP use memory mapped I/O, I would expect the same
> amount of usable Ram.


Also Windows 7. It's the same maximum amount (depending on your
hardware, between 2 and 3.5GB, usually around 3.1GB) in all 32-bit
versions of Windows.


> "ANONYMOUS" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > philo wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> The 32bit version of XP can use about 3.25 gigs of ram
> >>
> >> check your machine specs to see how much RAM the laptop can support
> >
> >
> > Have you got similar facts handy about 32 bit of Vista?
> >
>
>

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

I agree with your response.

it is not for us to determine
how the o.p. will use their
computer.

the upside would be
if the computer had the
available slots for adding
more ram "or"

the downside would be
if the chips the o.p. has
now would have to be
replaced.


--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @Hotmail.com
- nntp Postologist
~ "share the nirvana" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>

"Jose" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:7c19d296-8b98-499d-b49d-(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Jan 28, 6:23 pm, "Toni" <Ton...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Laptop with Windows XP Pro, 1.66GHz/Duo with 2G of RAM.
>>
>> If I upgrade to 4G RAM - is it always good to upgrade WinXP from 2G to 4G
>> RAM?
>>
>> Can anyone tell me if there a noticeable hit to battery life? Any
>> downside anyone can
>> share?
>>
>> Thanks!!!
>
> Do what makes sense for you and you environment so the end result will
> not leave any questions.
>
> If you have the means ($$$), put in 4GB into your unspecified system.
> Then you will know that you have the best you can possibly have.
>
> If you are a general purpose computer user eliminate the questions.
>
> You will never have to wonder if you need more or if adding more will
> make your system faster or work "better". It will be physically
> impossible for things to be better concerning the amount of much
> memory in your system if you have the maximum supported.
>
> No discussion, no what ifs, no might be, no could be, no maybe, no
> might need it, no might not need it, nothing to download, nothing to
> install, nothing to run, nothing to interpret or monitor, etc.
>
>

In news:(E-Mail Removed),
Toni <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:
> Laptop with Windows XP Pro, 1.66GHz/Duo with 2G of RAM.
>
> If I upgrade to 4G RAM - is it always good to upgrade WinXP from 2G
> to 4G RAM?
> Can anyone tell me if there a noticeable hit to battery life? Any
> downside anyone can share?
>
> Thanks!!!

No, it will not impact the BIOS battery life in any way and would be
negligible to a UPS's numbers.

2G is likely enough; it depends on what you do. There are many pagefile
monitors available that you can run and watch to see if your pagefile is
ever maxed out. Task Manager isn't a good indicator for this because it not
only requires RAM space, which skews the numbers, but it doesn't clearly and
concisely pinpoint actual pagefile usage; such has to be deduced and then
isn't accurate depending on WHEN you look at it.

These links should help you out:

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com...1-5073570.html

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555223

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...-Monitor.shtml


HTH,

Twayne