Re: more RAM = more speed?
On Tue, Aug 24, 1999 at 09:21:48PM -0700, Patrick Olson wrote:
>
> I have Debian 2.1 running on a P-133 with 32MB of RAM and a 6.4GB Western
> Digital IDE, but it is awful slow when I have a lot of stuff running,
> including a few Netscape Communicator web browsers. Specifically, it
Heh, netscape is a bit of a memory hog. After running it for a few days, I
have seen it eating more than 60megs -- even with only one window open. I
understand that calls to free the memory don't always make the OS actually
reclaim it -- which makes sense, in some senses, but .. I don't want to
restart netscape every few days just to reclaim memory..
In your case of course, more memory would show *huge* speed increases. It
looks like another 32 megs would stop the immediate swapping problem. If you
want to run StarOffice, I imagine another 16 to 32 megs above that is
required. I don't have star office installed myself, so I can't check for
you. :( (one more week... :)
But, when a new motherboard and new celeron and 128 megs of sdram run $90 +
$80 + $110 = $280 .. whereas another 64 megs of simms can cost $100.. the
celeron chip/mobo is 400/133 (roughly 3*) faster -- the harddrive
controllers might be able to do the nice dma hard drive access routines, and
the whole thing can (probably) overclock to between 450 and 600 MHz..
it is a tough call. I think perhaps the new mobo+cpu+memory might be in
order --0 unless you need to replace other components as well, that won't
fit on the new system (eg, if you have isa soundcard, modem, network card,
and scsi card -- they probably wont fit on a new motherboard..)
If you can afford it, the new mobo+cpu+ram would probably be the right thing
to do.
> likes to keep me waiting while it stops and runs the hard disk in the
> middle of a program, or sometimes when I switch to a virtual console that
> has been idle for a while.
>
> Based on the report below, I think a RAM upgrade might reduce swapping,
> which should speed things up.
>
> ----
> $ uptime
> 8:10am up 11 days, 15:11, 5 users, load average: 1.10, 1.21, 0.83
> $ free
> total used free shared buffers cached
> Mem: 30964 30408 556 14472 652 14928
> -/+ buffers/cache: 14828 16136
> Swap: 128484 32196 96288
> ----
>
> On top of this, I plan to install StarOffice and try and run it without
> exiting any other programs. Could someone take a moment and give me some
> advice on this issue. I can think of four specific questions:
>
> 1. Am I barking up the wrong tree with the idea of a RAM upgrade?
>
> 2. Is it a bad idea to buy RAM for a P-133 since it only takes 72-pin?
> Instead, should I upgrade to a motherboard that can handle a newer
> type of RAM?
>
> 3. If I upgrade nothing but RAM, how much do I need to have enough to cut
> down on the swapping it does now and keep it to a minimum even after I
> load StarOffice 5.1? Keep in mind that although my budget is limited,
> so is my patience with this old hardware.
>
> 4. Is there something else I should upgrade?
>
> Your response is appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
> Patrick Olson
>
>
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