RAM requirements

[Guest]

Happy Noo Yeer, Everybodeee!
I am running a Dell 4600 p4 with 256MB RAM. I am planning on adding a DVD
burner and burning many DVDs. Obviously, 256MB ain't gonna cut it. I'm
looking at going up to 1GB, but have an opportunity to GET and ADDITIONAL 1GB
inexpensively. Would that be overkill, or, in your estimable experience, is
more better?
Thanks,
Chuck :-D

 

[Rock]

Happy Noo Yeer, Everybodeee!
I am running a Dell 4600 p4 with 256MB RAM. I am planning on adding a DVD
burner and burning many DVDs. Obviously, 256MB ain't gonna cut it. I'm
looking at going up to 1GB, but have an opportunity to GET and ADDITIONAL 1GB
inexpensively. Would that be overkill, or, in your estimable experience, is
more better?
Thanks,
Chuck :-D

Based on what you plan, ;just burning DVDs, 512MB would be fine. 2GB
would definitely be overkill.

 

[Jon_Hildrum]

Not in my mind specially if your burning application also process the video
files.

 

[Guest]

Not to denigrate your knowledge at all, but I have a few friends with 512MB
machines that lock up when trying to burn DVDs. Also, I'm running about 80%
usage just with my normal, minimal background stuff.

 

[Guest]

An excellent point I had not thought to bring up. I will be processing video
as well. The wife wants home movies.

 

[R. McCarty]

Unless you run VPC (Virtual PCs) or work with large multimedia files
then taking the memory count about 1.0 Gigabytes isn't necessary.

More is better, but only in light of your usage patterns. I would open
your normal workload and then look at TaskMgr, Performance (TAB)
and see what the PF meter shows. Usually, it hovers around 250 Meg
even with a few applications open & running.

That being said if you can get the extra and afford it, then it won't make
the machine any faster but may provide some future benefits.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

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~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Rock]

Not to denigrate your knowledge at all, but I have a few friends with 512MB
machines that lock up when trying to burn DVDs. Also, I'm running about 80%
usage just with my normal, minimal background stuff.

:

I can't answer for their problems or their system specs, but it also
depends on what other software you will be doing. DVD burning is
resource intensive, not just RAM. Video editing requires more memory.
In that case 1GB would be better. Monitor page file usage using the
utility mentioned on this page:

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

If page file useage is high then consider upgrading memory.

 

[Guest]

I will also be editing the video going to some of these DVDs, which I
understand will cause a big sucking sound in my PC as my RAM gets used up.
???

 

[Jim]

Happy Noo Yeer, Everybodeee!
I am running a Dell 4600 p4 with 256MB RAM. I am planning on adding a DVD
burner and burning many DVDs. Obviously, 256MB ain't gonna cut it. I'm
looking at going up to 1GB, but have an opportunity to GET and ADDITIONAL
1GB
inexpensively. Would that be overkill, or, in your estimable experience,
is
more better?
Thanks,
Chuck :-D

Mine does all that and more with only 512mb. I have though about adding
more, but as the system works quite well as is there really isn't any reason
to install more memory.
Jim

 

[Jonny]

Depends if that's for what you've said,
Or to include any software additions or hardware changes, or a Vista upgrade
that you make in the future.

I encode, translate AV, burn DVDs just about every 4-5 days. Working with a
single 512MB RAM module by Crucial. I won't work with multiple RAM modules
unless they are: 1. identical 2.compatible for the PC's motherboard. Just
burning or copying DVDs isn't that big a deal. When dealing with large A/V
encoding or translating then burning the results to DVD movie compatible
encoded DVD is something else.

 

[Charlie Tame]

Put simply it won't hurt. If you can get the 1.5GB at a good price try it
and see... it may be useful later for something you are not yet planning.

Right click my computer>properties>advanced and look at the memory and page
file settings.I find the best for general use is to let Windows manage it
all but you may want to make sure you give priority to programs etc... that
should be what it's set at anyway. Make a note of the before and after page
file settings windows has - I don't know if it will change or not, but I
have certainly found that on older machines with slower drives more memory
helps a lot. You can often use them for software that simply won't run
sensibly with less RAM.

Much depends on the stuff that's running, most of the time the extra RAM
will be excess, but if you are going to be doing video work the only way to
see if it uses the extra really is to try it.

Charlie

 

[Charlie Tame]

BY the way - someone else mentioned this...

If you find that the extra isn;t being used then take out the older RAM
leaving the RAM you bought all together in place (Moving slots as needed of
course) - better chance it all compatible that way. No use having some that
is a bit slower and drags the new stuff down to that speed.

Charlie

 

[Jonny]

Well, figure out what you intend to do. What boot apps you intend to leave
open as well. Then write another post so readers don't have to read the
entire gamut to find applicable information for themselves.