Need Advice on System RAM
Hello All.
THE Situation: I have a DEC Alpha XLT/300 with 64 Megs of "true parity"
RAM currently installed. The normal Debian "testing" + Gnome seems to
run within this ramspace fairly nicely. When I add in Mozilla 0.9.5
from "unstable", then I get a slow-down accompanied by a lot of Hard
Disk thrashing. KDE from "unstable" causes the same symptoms, and
trying to run Mozilla from within KDE is really bad....sometimes I have
to wait minutes for the disk activity to settle down so I can start a
new task. Obviously, my machine is using the swap space rather
extensively during these operations, and I need more RAM to accomodate
these programs.
THE Problem: Financial constraints dictate the amount of new RAM I can
install. At present it looks like I can afford to go to about 256 Megs
at one place and 128 Megs at another found on PriceWatch...somewhere in
the $150 - $200 price range. The main difference is the "quality" of
the sticks...the 128 Meg solution uses a name-brand, while the other
uses a "generic" brand that I know nothing about. From past experience,
I have found that this computer is quite sensitive to the RAM installed,
and for best results (in fact any results) all the sticks should be from
the same manufacturer, and must be "true parity". Hence I am torn
between the lower-memory "quality" solution and the higher-memory, more
risky solution.
Questions:
1. Is the "quality" issue really valid today?
2. Will 256 Megs make my machine happy and quit using swap space
anytime I look at it? As a side question, will I see significant
difference between 128 Megs and 256 Megs in performance?
I would appreciate any opinions / advice.
Cheers & TIA,
-Don Spoon-
1.
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