Optimal swap file?

mcdougal

Distinguished
Sep 5, 2006
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18,510
How to configure optimal swap file with 2 GB RAM - dual chanell? I have 2 systems and think that 1 GB RAM work better than 2 GB, especialy with overklock!?
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Spec: P4_3000GHz,
2 GB - DDR-400 - Corsair value RAM - 3-3-3-8,
ASUS P4P800 SE - i865PE,
GF 6800,
500W Enermax
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Spec: P 805D@3.32GHz,
1 GB Corsair XMS-667 - 4-4-4-12,
ASUS P5LD2 - i945P,
GF 7300GT
PSU - FSP 500W
 
It all depends. You have to ask yourself these questions:

1. How much RAM do you or can you use up at a worst-case scenario?
2. How fast is your hard drive or drives?
3. What OS are you using (this will affect swap sizes and how memory is managed.)

I personally have 2GB of RAM in my desktop and have 6GB of swap as 2 3GB partitions striped across both of my HDDs. I run 64-bit Linux (that's why I can have a swap partition size > 2GB) and I run programs like VMware and R/Octave that can eat up a ton of RAM in a hurry.

If your case is is what I think it is, you probably run 32-bit XP and your biggest RAM hog is the OS + a game. 2GB ought to be plenty, just keep the swap file size 1GB or less as 32-bit OSes have a 3GB/1GB user/kernel memory split if PAE is not enabled. PAE allows a 32-bit CPU to access 64GB of RAM using a virtual 36-bit address space. It's rather slow from what I hear and I also hear that Windows XP does not like to use PAE much.
 
Important thin is for it to be fixed as wusy stated, otherwise it might cause fragmentation, also if you have 2 Hd or more, put it on the HD where the OS does'nt reside. I personally use 512, wheter it has 1gb or 2gb , I found 512 not to be that big and doesn.t really change my overall capacity while being enough for anythig I do.