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Re: Question about ram



On Wed, 30 Mar 2005, Helge Tore Høyland wrote:

> What would be the speediest solution?
> 
> 1. 512MB 333MHz ram
> 2  768MB 266MHz ram

It depends on how much memory you'll typically be using, and how.

The more memory you use for applications the less will be available for 
cache.  So you are more likely to hit cached files with more memory - this 
will result in faster file accesses despite having slower RAM.

If you use so much that the system swaps regularly then any advantage of 
the faster memory will be swamped by the delays in swapping.

A suggestion with no guarantee: If you expect to regularly use up to 300MB 
for applications then 512MB of faster memory may be better.  If you expect 
to regularly use more than 300MB for applications then 768MB of slower 
memory may be better.

This is a gut feel and is not based on a serious analysis.

A proper assessment of system performance is very indepth and requires 
knowledge of the hardware and the expected uses of the machine.

I was assuming here that you're intending to use the system as a general 
purpose workstation with a few services running (ie, a typical Linux box 
accessing the net).

Rob

-- 
Robert Brockway B.Sc.
Senior Technical Consultant, OpenTrend Solutions Ltd.
Phone: 416-669-3073 Email: rbrockway@opentrend.net http://www.opentrend.net
OpenTrend Solutions: Reliable, secure solutions to real world problems.
Contributing Member of Software in the Public Interest (http://www.spi-inc.org)

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