How much RAM? |
This morning I logged into one of our test machines and it’s running in super slow mo. Every keystroke is … like … de. Layed. Reminded me a bit of some older x386 and x486 experiences. I knew I shouldn’t have taken out that 256MB stick of RAM and put it in another machine, what was I thinking? This got me thinking, is 256MB RAM inadequate for running multple applications these days? Let me tell you what was running on it when it started choking and sputtering (not listing the background process list which is also a major culprit):
- Opera 8 with six tabs
- Internet Explorer 6 sp2, one tab (MSN)
- Screen Grab Pro
- Outlook
- Photoshop 6 (yeah, an older version, that’s the one I have a license for on this machine)
- Windows Media Player 10, playing Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Simple Man’ (oh the irony!)
Tray processes:
- Revenue Checker for Adsense
- ActiveSync
- MSN Messenger signed off icon … I need to rip that thing out
- InstallShield Update manager
It is kind of sad that this combination of apps won’t work smoothly with 256MB RAM. Have have moved past a 256MB reality for webmaster usage? Here is how much RAM we have in a few other machines:
1GB RAM - Motion Computing M1400 Tablet PC
756MB - Dell
256MB - eMac [note: I’m typing this post on the eMac and it is running a different set of multiple programs and the slow-mo syndrome isn’t setting in there, so perhaps I don’t have the memory hogging happening there that is happening on the HP. I realize this is a totally bogus comparison, but just thought I’d mention it).
How much RAM are you using in your computer(s)? Is it adequate or are you getting slowdown? Plans to upgrade? A gig of RAM is like $75 USD or so these days, so I need to go out and just buy one for this test machine … after making sure it’s not something else. Reboot.
Did this post make you go hmm?
(Hmm, no ratings yet)
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I’ve got 512 on a Compaq, but I’d love a gig.
Comment by Jesse — February 9, 2006 @ 11:39 am PST
1.25 GB, but need way more. Start up a couple of virtual PC’s and I’m crawling.
Comment by Sterling Camden — February 9, 2006 @ 12:45 pm PST
512MB on my Toshiba M200, but I’ve also allocated an additional 1.5GB in virtual RAM.
I’m currently using 2×256, and the M200 can take up to 2×1Gig. A gig stick costs $155, so I doubt I’ll be upgrading anytime soon.
Comment by Andrew Ferguson — February 9, 2006 @ 5:18 pm PST
I run Corsair 1GB on both my desktop PC that I built.
It’s even got some flashy lights on it that change with the usage. Not really necessary, but cool looking.
I also have 1 GB on my laptop.
I wouldn’t run with anything less. Memory is relatively cheap. There’s nothing like trying to use your unit when it bogs down. I’ve actually run enough programs and aps to tax the 1GB pretty hard.
Comment by ^Lestat — February 10, 2006 @ 9:39 am PST
I have 256MB on my Athlon2200+. Running XP Pro SP2.
Usually I have twenty or thirty IE windows open (big memory user, sometimes 60MB for a simple webpage)…
My page file after a week of not rebooting is usually around 1GB (on my 2nd disk, Barracuda 7200.7).
Switching to IE windows that’s gone the longest without being brought on screen sometimes takes a full minute of disk swapping. At that time it would take 2 or 3 seconds to bring up the start menu.
I might consider putting more RAM in later, maybe a 1GB module.
Comment by Yue — March 27, 2006 @ 12:13 am PST
[…] All in all, it looks like I may only need to purchase a little more memory to be Vista compliant on some of our machines and a couple graphics cards. A little while back I polled readers for how much RAM you were using and got a somewhat decent response. […]
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