ram

If you've been subscribed to Infopackets for any length of time, you've undoubtedly seen a program called "SpeedUpMyPC" recommended in our email newsletters. Judging by name, one might think that SpeedUpMyPC is just another run-of-the-mill system ... optimizer -- but don't click away just yet, because this may be one of the most demystifying articles you'll ever read. ;-) Allow me to elaborate. Back in 2003, I reviewed SpeedUpMyPC 1.0 when it debuted: and it impressed the pants off me -- not just because of the results, but also because it's such a unique product. But I wasn't the only one to ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Richard D. writes: " Dear Dennis, Can you please tell me if it is possible to disable the Windows Page File [also known as virtual memory or swap file]? I have an especially large amount of RAM inside my PC and as far as I'm ... concerned, I don't need the Windows Page File because I doubt I'd ever run out of available RAM. I've read a number of conflicting reports on the Internet that suggest it is possible to disable the Windows Swap File and that in doing so, my PC performance will be improved. However, I've also read that disabling virtual memory would be dangerous. What do ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Ken H. writes: " Dear Dennis, I read your comments regularly and find them very useful and informative. I have a question I hope you can advice me on. When working on my PC, I often receive a message stating that I am low on ... Virtual Memory, and that Windows is going to increase my Virtual Memory settings. I am not overworking the PC and I have an AMD 2700+ processor with 512 megabytes of RAM. Can you tell me what Virtual Memory is and why this might be happening? Many thanks for any information you can provide. " My response: The topic of Virtual Memory can be ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Joseph R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'd like to upgrade my computer and was contemplating which main board I should choose. I noticed one particular solution which sported an integrated nVidia MX 4 64MB video chipset; another main ... board I was looking at did not have the integrated video built in, which meant that I would most likely opt to purchase an nVidia GeForce FX 5200 128MB video card separately. I've read that some integrated video cards actually 'steal' memory from the main board of the computer. So, for example: if your computer system has 512MB RAM of system ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Don K. writes: " Dear Dennis, My computer has 1000 megabytes of primary system memory (RAM). I recently partitioned (split) one of my hard drives into a separate drive letter (Drive Z, for example) and set it as a dedicated unit ... handle all my virtual (secondary) memory. After it was all said and done, a friend of mine commented that having 1 gigabyte of RAM in my machine is plenty of primary memory, and I've wasted my time trying to optimize my system by setting up a separate drive letter for virtual memory. Do you agree with my friend's comments? " My response: ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Peter D. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm running Windows 2000 Professional on a machine that uses a Pentium 3 processor. After around 1 hour online, a RAM defrag utility I use reports that most of my RAM has been lost and I need to ... defrag. Can you tell me why I lose most of my RAM, and why it's necessary to defrag constantly? PS: your newsletter is great. " My response: RAM is just that -- Random Access Memory -- which means that it will get fragmented *very* quickly as computing information is randomly written, read, and deleted from memory. It is true: RAM gets ... (view more)

Speaking of Windows optimization, Infopackets Reader 'Harkatcan' asked me a very interesting question the other day that dealt with the Windows Swap File. " Dear Dennis, How can I get my swap file to empty when I start my computer? When my system ... boots up, a dialogue window appears and reports that I have 572meg in my swap file. Could this be why my computer is running so slow? I use win98se. A techie friend of mine suggested that I write a simple batch file [program] so that my swap file is deleted every time I reboot the computer. That way, it will be replaced with a new swap file that ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Ppeltscott' writes: " Hello! I have an HP pavillion model number 743g and it has 512mb of DDR memory [RAM]. I was just on Hewlett Packard's web site to see how much RAM I could put in my machine, and it said that my particular ... model uses 3 different RAM types: 200mts, 266mts, and 333mts. Does this mean that I can use the 333mts [PC2700 DDR] instead of the 266mts [PC2100 DDR]? Thanks for any input. " My response: The short answer is that you need to match the existing type of RAM inside your machine. A very simple way to find out the speed rating of your current ... (view more)

Update 20181211 : Notice to readers: this article is quite old (originally posted 2002), but still provides an excellent overview of computer processor history from the early 1990s to 2002. If you want to read a much more recent and up-to-date ... article about processors, we suggest reading " Which Processor is Better: Intel or AMD? - Explained ". Otherwise, please continue reading! -- Almost exactly a year ago this day I wrote an article which compared differences between AMD and Intel Processors. Oddly enough, today I received a question from Ali N. which asked, "What is the ... (view more)

" How can I make my computer faster? " The simplest answer to this question is to add more RAM to your PC. RAM allows your computer to process things faster by holding frequently used information for a longer period of time. The longer data is held ... in memory, the greater chance that this data will be used again for computation. The end result is that data is loaded and unloaded at a faster rate, which saves you time. In order to answer the question of how much RAM is required for a computer, we need to inspect two main areas of interest: how much RAM is already inside your machine, ... (view more)