Upgraded memory to 2GB |
From this:
To this:
As mentioned on Hmmcast #19, I’ve been working behind the scenes on a future video component for the show and decided I needed to upgrade memory on the box to 2GB for some extra processing punch.
The first thing I noticed on the machine was how much faster it booted up. The second thing was how much snappier Windows XP performed. Yeah, I know, it should be obvious but it still surprised me. My Tablet PC has had 1GB RAM since day one and all our other machines are 1GB or less. This is the most RAM I’ve ever worked with in any machine and now I don’t think I can go back. It’s sort of like the first time you watch a sporting event in HDTV. You’re spoiled by that crisp picture.
Earlier I checked out Blu-Ray on a 42″ Samsung LCD. A gorgeous picture. Comparing to HD-DVD inside Best Buy I think Blu-Ray gets the edge visually. Now I find myself looking more forward to the PS3 for the Blu-Ray component. We’ll need one of those big flat LCD TVs though. Ouch, my wallet hurts already.
The local CompUSA/Good Guys Megastore is going out of business so I was able to snag two 1GB sticks of DDR SDRAM for 200 bones and change. It feels like I bought a new machine. If your machine seems sluggish maybe you can give it a shot of memory for some extra pep. Might be more inexpensive than springing for an all new machine.
Back to work.
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This definitely made me go hmmm…. I thought that it was common knowledge in the computer industry that it takes at least 512mb to run XP, 1gb for it to be useable, and more to actually run nicely. Is it just me, or should this article have been posted 4 years ago?
Comment by Bob — August 25, 2006 @ 10:11 am PST
Yeah, it’s common knowledge for regular readers I’m sure, Bob, but there are folks that read this blog who ask very non-geeky questions. Perhaps it will help some of them. The computer I upgraded had 756 MB RAM already and it was way too sluggish. It used 128 MB of swap memory so the screenshot above shows as 640MB but it actually had 756MB. I’ve gone from 512MB to 1GB and not seen a performance increase like this before, hence my surprise. It’s all relative. We buy cheap hardware for the most part because we roll in and out of them every 12-18 months. This system will be replaced within a year when Vista comes out and hopefully I’ll be able to use the RAM there unless DDR2 RAM is in the system.
Comment by TDavid — August 25, 2006 @ 10:34 am PST
Earlier I checked out Blu-Ray on a 42″ Samsung LCD. A gorgeous picture. Comparing to HD-DVD inside Best Buy I think Blu-Ray gets the edge visually. Now I find myself looking more forward to the PS3 for the Blu-Ray component. We’ll need one of those big flat LCD TVs though. Ouch, my wallet hurts already.
You can’t really base yourself on what you see inside a store to evaluate the quality of the 2 formats.. to REALLY see if one is superior to the other, you would have to play content of both technologies on the exact same setup, using the same TVs, wiring, etc…
Comment by Kiltak — August 25, 2006 @ 3:32 pm PST
That’s exactly what we did on the TV in the store, Kiltak.
Comment by TDavid — August 25, 2006 @ 3:35 pm PST
Although it wasn’t exactly the same of course. Used the Toshiba HD-DVD vs. the Samsung Blu-Ray player, both used HDMI and same cabling. Same 42″ Samsung LCD at 1080p, 6,000:1 contrast ratio. We also stuck in a DVD into each. The regularly DVD looked better on the HD-DVD player than it did on the Blu-Ray, but the movie in blu-ray format looked markedly better than the movie in HD-DVD playing through the toshiba.
There weren’t a lot of LCD TVs with 1080p at the local Best Buy. The guys were working hard to get me out of the store with a new setup but they were denied.
Comment by TDavid — August 25, 2006 @ 3:39 pm PST
[…] Last week when I checked out that sweet picture on a 42″ Samsung LCD monitor with Blu-Ray movie, it sure seemed as if I was seeing all possible colors. […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » By 2014 color TVs will be as good as our eyes — September 1, 2006 @ 11:20 am PST