tigerwoodKhorns Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 Learn from my mistake. I feel really stupid. I replaced computers recently and I am looking for a use for my older computers. I checked out the specs and I lived with 1 GB of ram for years. The computer ran fine but I just discovered that I could have upgraded to 4 gb for $30 on ebay (pulls from working machines). I just checked our laptops and ordered 4 gb to go from 2 gb to 4 gb on the only machine that is nto already maxed out. (Yes, I know, 32 bit only sees 3.2 or 3.5 GB) Total cost, $30 shipped. Check your computers for what type of RAM they take and the max amount and follow on ebay. Crucial's website will give all the info you need (but I like to open up the computer and have a look for myself before ordering). When the price is right, max out your RAM. A friend thinks that I was foolish to get 32GB RAM in my replacement computer. It was $100 extra and I will not make this mistake again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joessportster Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 what does you pc friend believe the optimum amount of ram is ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason str Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 4-8 Gb of memory is plenty for almost any application using Windows Vista or newer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted May 6, 2014 Author Share Posted May 6, 2014 Don't know the amount that he believes is the correct amount. Jason's answer is probably the correct answer. In my situation, the computer had 8 gb of RAM. My optiosn were upgrade to 16 GB for $30 or 32 GB for $100. Going from 16 to 32 would have required replacing all of the RAM in my compuiter in the future (to 8 4 GB sticks). So this was a no brainer. In any event, the moral is that you may be able to cheaply upgrade now and not be aware of it, so check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 I just checked our laptops and ordered 4 gb to go from 2 gb to 4 gb on the only machine that is nto already maxed out. (Yes, I know, 32 bit only sees 3.2 or 3.5 GB) Total cost, $30 shipped. Convert that unused half-gig into a RAM disk: http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk; click on DOWNLOAD SOFTWARE under RAMDISK LITE. It's free and it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted May 6, 2014 Author Share Posted May 6, 2014 I just checked our laptops and ordered 4 gb to go from 2 gb to 4 gb on the only machine that is nto already maxed out. (Yes, I know, 32 bit only sees 3.2 or 3.5 GB) Total cost, $30 shipped. Convert that unused half-gig into a RAM disk: http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk; click on DOWNLOAD SOFTWARE under RAMDISK LITE. It's free and it works. I am sure that it does whatever it is supposed to do and does it very well, but I cannot seem to fidn where they actually explain what it does. Reminds me of a weigth loss website or a pyramid scheme. What exactly does this do? . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 What exactly does this do? . Creates a blazingly-fast solid-state hard drive in a section of memory. The only caveat is that the RAM disk loses its contents when you turn off the computer, so consider it to be temporary storage only. I locate the Windows "tmp" directory on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max2 Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 It will help, but there are diminishing returns. RAM cant overcome a slow and outdated processor which most old systems that suffer from lack of RAM usually do..... not to mention bottle necks from the old CPU and Mobo's architectures which are always a future lost cause. If you are into overclocking or maxing out an old setup, check out Mushkin RAM. Some of their upper models will run at crazy speeds and keep things stable as long as you can keep the system cool. Good RAM is more important than gobs of Generic RAM that have to run at crappy latencies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REDdawn6 Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 Newegg man, crazy deals , great site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 It will help, but there are diminishing returns. RAM cant overcome a slow and outdated processor which most old systems that suffer from lack of RAM usually do..... not to mention bottle necks from the old CPU and Mobo's architectures which are always a future lost cause. The difference can be quite noticeable, even on "slow" systems. For example, whenever I download a file, I download it to the RAM disk first. Virus scan on the RAM disk runs a lot faster than on a regular disk. Also, if it's a compressed file, uncompressing it goes a lot faster on the RAM disk. It's perhaps a little thing, but on a 32 bit Windows system it beats letting 0.5 - 0.8 gig of RAM just go to waste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NBPK402 Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 I can still remember when it was $50 for 1 MB of ram... What a deal ram is now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 I can still remember when it was $50 for 1 MB of ram... What a deal ram is now. I once spent $200 for 64K of RAM! It was a kit that I had to solder. That was a very, very long time ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted May 7, 2014 Author Share Posted May 7, 2014 RAM is much cheaper now, but considerign how much more is used it is probably just as expensive as ever. The thing to do is to watch it with your computer, and when it starts to get really inexpensive you probably need more anyway. I checked and in Linux Mint, I can set it up so that it uses a Physical Address Extension (PAE) to access all of the RAM (it can actually use up to 64 GB on a 32 bit system). I will look into tjhis because the 4 GB that I bought is for a 32 bit system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max2 Posted May 7, 2014 Share Posted May 7, 2014 I can still remember when it was $50 for 1 MB of ram... What a deal ram is now. I once spent $200 for 64K of RAM! It was a kit that I had to solder. That was a very, very long time ago. Things have changed a lot. Not too long ago....around 20-25 years , Dells flagship tower had 500mb hard drive. It was advertised on the back of Computer shopper and was the shite at the time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NBPK402 Posted May 7, 2014 Share Posted May 7, 2014 I remember having a 486 with 32MB of ram and being offered enough money to buy another computer for just the RAM when the plant in Japan burned down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JL Sargent Posted May 7, 2014 Share Posted May 7, 2014 My first computer at work was a 4.7 mhz IBM sporting a 5mb hard drive. It also had a math coprocessor (an expensive add on) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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