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2 Gig Ram a worthwhile upgrade?

post #1 of 33
6/2/05 at 3:24pm
Thread Starter 
With sticks being so cheap right now, im thinking of upgrading my 1.25 to 2 gigs. But will I notice a difference?

Say I'm running 25 tabbed Firefox windows, Word, WMP 10.0, AIM, Zonealarm, Quickset, and Diskeeper...will I notice any speed improvement?
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post #2 of 33
6/2/05 at 3:27pm
I would say probably not. If you are using a RAM intensive app then you would notice a difference but what you listed I would not see much diff.
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post #3 of 33
6/2/05 at 3:47pm
I have 2GB and i notice it over 1GB bigtime. I am a power user, close no applications have World of Warcraft running in the background along with all my other IE, email and other stuff. 1GB just didn't cut it. at 2GB it hums along nicely. Your call. Only you know your usage habits.
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post #4 of 33
6/2/05 at 3:51pm
yes
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post #5 of 33
6/2/05 at 4:01pm
I agree with Boo Boo.
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post #6 of 33
6/2/05 at 4:23pm
If you have the money, go ahead. If that's iffy, I suspect 1.25 gigs will be fine for most things. You could always sell the 256 chip on eBay to some poor sap who's willing to pay a lot for it.

I've had basically all that open on my 9200, along with burning a DVD and analyzing a DVD on the HD, and I barely noticed a slowdown with only 1 gig. So I'm not sure how much another gig would help.
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post #7 of 33
6/2/05 at 5:05pm
yeah it all depends on what u do to take advantage of the 2 gigs, im running fine with 1.256 in mine, but its so cheap, im thinking of doing the same. 2 gigs
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post #8 of 33
6/2/05 at 5:06pm
Yeah, I would too. But on a student's budget, and given that I'd have to replace both sticks on mine, I'm gonna keep mine how it is now. But the thought does make me drool.
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post #9 of 33
6/2/05 at 5:10pm
I'm going to do it soon just because 2ghz and 2gig ram sounds nice
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post #10 of 33
6/2/05 at 5:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bugg
I'm going to do it soon just because 2ghz and 2gig ram sounds nice
Thats probably the worst reason to spend money but go for it if you think you need to.
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post #11 of 33
6/2/05 at 5:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RelaxGuy
Thats probably the worst reason to spend money but go for it if you think you need to.
That's why most people even think about buying 2 gigs of ram, honestly I say don't do it 1gig is far enough for anything I do then again I only do one thing at a time when I game I game and nothing else when I surf the web I surf the web and nothing else etc. If you're like me it should be a worthless upgrade for you until they come out with games/apps that take up around a gig alone then of course, the upgrade would be very worthwhile. Btw the comp parts never appreciate so don't worry about the ram hehe it'll just get cheaper and cheaper.
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post #12 of 33
6/2/05 at 6:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RelaxGuy
Thats probably the worst reason to spend money but go for it if you think you need to.
Haha.. a little sarcasm, but its nice to have it at full capacity just for the future, its not a bad time anyways to upgrade since Ram is dirt cheap.
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post #13 of 33
6/2/05 at 6:27pm
For the normal everyday user there will be some difference but not huge differences. If you are one of those types that has multiple apps and windows open and running while also playing a game (not sure why anyone would) then the 2Gb RAM will handle it easier than your 1.25Gb obviously. Most people dont run their machines like that though so 1Gb is usually more than sufficient for the everyday user.

Ozy311 doesnt seem to fit the everyday user stereotype IMHO. And I dont mean that as a insult to him neither. His usage is just different is all. By his own admission he's a power user and a serious one by the sounds of it.
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post #14 of 33
6/2/05 at 6:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gettinI9300
will I notice any speed improvement?
Probably not, but here's how you tell:

Open up Task Manager and select the performance tab. If your Peak Commit Charge ever exceeds your Total Physical Memory, that means that at some point you swapped to disk. More RAM will reduce the amount of swapping, and improve overall performance.
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post #15 of 33
6/2/05 at 6:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skott
For the normal everyday user there will be some difference but not huge differences. If you are one of those types that has multiple apps and windows open and running while also playing a game (not sure why anyone would) then the 2Gb RAM will handle it easier than your 1.25Gb obviously. Most people dont run their machines like that though so 1Gb is usually more than sufficient for the everyday user.

Ozy311 doesnt seem to fit the everyday user stereotype IMHO. And I dont mean that as a insult to him neither. His usage is just different is all. By his own admission he's a power user and a serious one by the sounds of it.
No offense taken. Computers are my life. I am a Senior SysAdmin @ eBay. I work on this laptop, i play on this laptop, and often mix the two together at the same time. Its like money well spent on a good set of tools. If it makes your job easier, its worth every penny.

1.5GB in use, 500mb free. Runs silky smooth. Good stuff.
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post #16 of 33
6/2/05 at 9:22pm
Woo thats a lot of processes. Yeah I can see needing 2 gig for that
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post #17 of 33
6/2/05 at 10:24pm
Yep I love the 2GB. I'm a pgmr/analyst, graphic artist, web designer, etc. Not a gamer lol! But I can have Visual Studio, Photoshop, Image Ready, Dreamweaver, Flash, bunches of web pages, etc. all open at the same time ON A NOTEBOOK! Then kick back and watch a DVD...

Gotta love it!
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post #18 of 33
6/3/05 at 12:02am
I sure hope my 2GB arrives tommorrow, 256MB has me living like an animal here.
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post #19 of 33
6/3/05 at 12:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mordant
I sure hope my 2GB arrives tommorrow, 256MB has me living like an animal here.
I got one of two in today (laptop coming tomorrow). I ordered one and then another one the next day. I just have never had a machine with the maximum memory before.

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post #20 of 33
6/3/05 at 12:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dellbert
Probably not, but here's how you tell:

Open up Task Manager and select the performance tab. If your Peak Commit Charge ever exceeds your Total Physical Memory, that means that at some point you swapped to disk. More RAM will reduce the amount of swapping, and improve overall performance.
Hey Dell, with 2GB, there is really no need to add a partition for your swap drive right? Because it will hardly need to use it. Correct?

Unless your OZY, and have 100 process going. lol
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