Desktops forum: RAM Upgrade??????

adding much more RAM may not bring noticeable improvement.

VAPCMD

My method to determine if more ram is needed is to monitor the swap file.
If I'm seeing a lot of swap activity then I might think I need more ram or I have too much stuff running.

How to monitor the swap file in XP?.......no idea.
I could tell how to do it with W7........but that might not be of much value.
Perhaps a XP user will be along to give the "how to's"

XP 32 bit will not run that much better from 1.5 to 2.0GB and the Athlon 64's I run into are pretty finicky. If you are looking for some speed take a look a that new 750GB HYBRID HDD.
Bob

Since you use DDR, not DDR2 ram, you may not gain much though it will help. What I'm concerned about is the fact that your PC maybe too old as it uses 3 slots. There were timing issues that greatly effected older mtbds. and a fully populated ram setup varied in results. You're best bet is to install 2Gb of ram and see how that works for you. On top of that does your mtrbd. setup allow 1Gb ram in a ram slot because the 512mb maybe the top level it allows. In such cases, check your setup at http://www.crucial.com and see can be had. Install 1 1Gb ram stick with the other two remaining or install 2x1Gb ram sticks alone and see where that gets ya. IMHO, you'll be pushing the setup, though the XP-32bit will accept 3gb and if the mtrbd. does allow 1Gb perslot, then all should be the same or similar speeds, etc., for best results. But, as already stated you may not gin much but this upgrade maybe the best you can do.

tada -----Willy

I always had 2g with xp. when I updated to W7 I went to 4g. after that fiasco and back to xp,
I dont think I have noticed much difference in running except maybe a little with games - but
I probably would not recomend it due to $$ unless you have something that really needs it.
autocad, photoshop etc.

DDR Memory has become really expensive, and depending on other factors, such as Hard Drive speed, CPU speed, and the amount of software that you are running on your XP machine, it may not be very noticable. If you really want to speed up your XP PC, then by all means spend the money and install all the RAM it will handle, but be aware that you may have to clean up your hard drive of any software bloatware you may have, and you might even consider finding a newer, faster hard drive, and start with a fresh install of the operating system. Of course, all of this is going to incure more expense, as hard drive prices have gone way up, and the DDR memory also is not cheap. If you really want a faster machine then get a new Windows 7 64 Bit PC with DDR3 memory, and a fast SATA hard drive or even an SSD hard drive. Hope this helps.

but will it help?

Yes. depends on what you're doing & what you're looking for. Doubling the amount will help. Don't buy RAM above what your board can handle, that is new RAM in an old RAM slot. It's not going to work & you'll fry something.

You said you're not a gamer, but RAM hungry things are: Pictures, DTP, Videos, & Multi-tasking. I found a greater improvement in doubling the RAM in both of my XP towers. Seeing that you have a very common three slot configuration, look at your owner's manual to be sure you don't need to install a certain way. Otherwise, just remove the first stick (the one in the number 1 slot that is), slide the new one in (the bigger one) & move everything over.

Be sure to turn the power off, unplug the unit (remover the monitor too), push the power button on to discharge the electricity, touch the metal case & R&R.

Keep in mind that you aren't going to have a memory usage of 22% by doubling it (Windows always wants more), but you'll increase the amount available. You won't be able to go "Weird Science", but you'll notice that you can do more. Always make sure to clear your RAM when you're tackling a big project. Reboot, use Task Manager to see what you may want to toggle off for the moment (check here on CNET to find that out).

Good luck & have fun.

I doubt it, XP was design to run on 128 mbytes minimally, 256 mbytes normally. I found the biggest difference to bet between 256 mbytes and 512 mbytes.

I would say that upgrading from 1.5 GB to 2 or 3 GB of RAM in Windows XP is a waste of money, and will not noticeably improve performance. In fact, you would likely enjoy a performance increase several orders of magnitude higher by simply backing up your data, reformatting your hard drive, and re-installing your operating system and application software. Buying a new hard drive might help too, especially if yours is getting old, and accumulating bad sectors.

Windows XP is designed to run satisfactorily on 512 megabytes of RAM, and will run very well on 1.0 GB of RAM. You get a slight performance boost upgrading from 1.0 GB to 2.0 GB, but anything above that will NOT increase performance, and in some cases can actually hurt performance.

Considering how expensive the DDR memory that you use has become, I wouldn't bother to upgrade a DDR-based system above 1.0 GB unless I was being given the memory for free.

On Windows XP, I doubt all 1.5 GiB of RAM will be in use even if the system tries to. Therefore, adding more RAM will simply not cause any speedup at all.

Especially when you consider that Windows will grab up to 2 GiB of RAM on high memory systems for "its own purposes", but never actually do anything with it. You will still only have 1.5 GiB of RAM available for programs, and 1.5 GiB sitting there uselessly hoping you'll copy some floppy disks or do whatever Windows uses its cache for.

A couple of options for you:
'
1. An SSD is a very good way to speed up your computer by speeding up its slowest component: the hard disk. Hard disks are basically slow to access data, but SSDs are reasonably fast.

2. Save up for a new computer running Windows 7

3. Install Ubuntu or some other Linux that will not see a performance decrease over time. You can keep your operating system up-to-date for free too, rather than sit on an old OS because you can't afford the updates to Vista and 7 and 8.

I have an old Dell Tower running XP Pro (my backup computer), I took a class on computer repair and as part of the class I upgraded to 4 gigs of RAM. I do a lot of Photoshop work for clients and it made a big difference for me. Before I was always crashing, now there are no crashes. It took a while for Windows to recognize the added RAM but when it did it sure made my old baby faster!