mcdougal

Distinguished
Sep 5, 2006
17
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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.
 
G

Guest

Guest
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.