HPNPilot1200 said:
He's only got 128. My plan was to swap out the HD with something bigger and take his RAM out and install 2 sticks of 256MB and see how it runs. I'll probably get the RAM off newegg since I've been pretty satisfied with them and their prices are great.
Jason
That's going to make a world of difference, and if you don't mind being geeked out, I'll explain why. Also, I just came up with this analog about a week ago when explaining to a customer why they needed more RAM and I'm proud of it and want to show it off...
But before I do - up his ram to 1 GB like I suggest below and he won't need to replace his computer when Vista comes out, he just might need a bigger drive.
--- Why more memory is the best first upgrade ---
While Microsoft specifies 128 MB ram as the minimum required (or do they set it even lower, I forget...), it doesn't mean windows will run at its best, just that it will run.
32 bit windows actually allocates 4 gigabytes of memory space for random access, regardless of how much physical RAM you have. How can it use 4 GB of space when you've only got 128K? A process known as swapping.
Imagine that you are sitting at a desk that has 6 square feet of surface space. Your job is to process pieces of paper that are exactly 1 square foot in area. However, the pieces of paper must lay perfectly flat on your work area and can not overlap. So you can process 6 squares at a time, and you can do that very quickly.
But, your job requires you to refer to OTHER pieces of paper to do your work, and they can only be put perfectly flat on your desk without overlapping as well in order to refer to them, so to make space for what you need to refer to, you pick up one piece of paper you ARENT using at the moment, carry it down the hall and up 2 flights of steps and store it in an allocated spot in a filing cabinet, then you go to another cabinet, get the piece of paper you need, and take it back down 2 flights of steps, back up the hall, and back to your desk. You do what you need to do with it, and then you find you need another bit of memory in storage, so its back up the hall, back up the steps, back to the huge room of filing cabinets, and so on.
Now imagine that during an hour, you need to refer to around 12 pieces of paper over and over again, sometimes more sometimes less, but usually around 12, but you can only have 6 at a time...very inefficient. If you had a desk that was 12 sq feet in size, you wouldn't have to leave it at all during most of your operation. If you had a desk that was 24 sq feet you'ld be able to keep extra papers around you almost never worked on just to save time!
That is what your computer does when it hasn't got enough physical memory. It takes data that it isn't using at the moment, pulls it off of the desk (out of RAM) and stores it in a filing cabinet that's down the hall and up 2 flights of stairs (the swap file on your hard drive), then it pulls the data it needs, goes back to its desk, puts the data in place and continues processing.
Microsoft's minimum specifications give Windows the 6ft desk when it routinely needs about 5ft of space JUST to do its own thing - keep the computer running, and forget anything network oriented. That leaves 1 space free for extra stuff. Know what takes that up? Antivirus software, antispyware processes, your hardware drivers for your fancy video card and sound card, etc...
By the time you get to Internet Explorer, windows is using 7 sq feet all the time. Add other programs like office and your computer spends MOST of its time moving data in and out of storage. My computer, at this moment, running only the operating system (win xp), its drivers, and its authorized background jobs like antivirus, printer and video support software, etc, is currently using 320 megs of memory actively.
I'm an avid gamer, and some of my games are HIGH intensity. When I load up my games, my computer often exceeds the 700 meg mark. No problem here, I've got a 2 Gig box - I never swap out data...
OTOH loading up Word and Excel... my used memory has only gone up to 340MB. Now as I type in lots of data or load large files, that will go up, but if I break 512MB doing office work it wont hurt too much because the stuff that gets swapped out will be the stuff *I* am not using at the time, and I wont need to go back to it for a few minutes.
When the computer only has 128 MB of ram, the computer doesn't just swap out MY data, it swaps out ITS data - data IT uses actively, more than once a second. It will actually try to put MY data in as a priority over its, so it will swap out more of its memory so I can work on the bit I'm working on at the time, but w/o enough RAM it is always, ALWAYS spending its time going up the steps, down the hall, into the archives, and pulling and storing data, instead of processing it.
A hard disk upgrade is good if he's running out of space, but a faster drive will not RPT NOT help with any noticeable effect if the computer is spending all of its time swapping. Yeah, it will be able to jog up the steps and run down the aisles, but it will STILL spend all of its time jogging and sprinting, not working.
If you ask me, 256MB is the Minimum, 512MB is better, and 1 GB is reasonable overkill. (You really don't want to play to minimums with RAM). If he's a gamer, up it to 2 GB, but based on your descriptions, 1GB will satisfy his computer for life. THEN you start looking at the drive.
I thought you were 19. You sure you aren't a reincarnated curmudgeon? How'd you get so smart?
