computers


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Old 02-03-02, 12:19 PM
farnhampa
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Angry computers

I have a Gateway g-6-350 computer, it came with 64 ram. This past week I had 320 ram installed. It does not seem to be any faster than previously, am I doing something wrong? I understood that the ram would automatically update. Nothing seems to be faster than before. Thanx
 
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Old 02-03-02, 01:03 PM
Smokey
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RAM upgrades are really noticeable but I am sure your computer will thank you for it. I had an old 200 MHz Pentium with 64 megs of RAM and it did okay. Got a new Dell with 528 Megs of RAM and it does a lot better.

Where you notice it most is the ability of the computer to handle larger files. Speed? Speed is limited by your Pentium processor.

Smokey
 
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Old 02-03-02, 06:25 PM
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Ram is dynamic storage capacity. Nothing more. Windows relies on disk caches also. More ram can increase performance [performance is not necessarily speed alone] for some operations with given programs and hardware, but more ram cannot exceed the limits of the hardware, itself, or the software.

Having more memory available than Windows or Applications could possibly need is a good general premise. In addition to more ram, and for optimal performance without altering hardware, regularly cleaning up disk caches [swap file, temporary internet files, cookies, history, and the like] and defragmenting plus loading fewer programs on start up leads to better performance.

Windows is not a lean mean fighting machine OS. Is is a memory and disk hungry swiss army knife of sorts. The Windows hot rod is a motherboard that supports a very fast processor, gobs of fast memory, and current hardware with its own onboard memory and/or procesor. The alternatives are feed it more memory and disk space, and learn to manage what you have or choose MAC or DOS (for the sofrware).
 
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Old 02-04-02, 04:52 AM
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You said
I understood that the ram would automatically update
Does that mean that it didn't? Did you get a message when you rebooted that more memory was found?

Go to Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/General tab
Bottom line shows your RAM in KB. Is it showing the right total?

Secondly, more memory to a point may speed things up. It will have to rely on cache less. However, beyond a certain point, more memory can actually slow things down. Memory management starts to use more resources. Exceeding 256Mg will rarely help.
 
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Old 02-04-02, 01:46 PM
farnhampa
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thanks for the help, I appreciate it.
 
 

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