Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (
More info?)
BTW, I am not advocating moving the paging file - it could easily be a
totally pointless process that gives you no perceptable benefit.
Your stuttering issue is probably the big fish at the moment.
- Tim
"John Smith" <recons@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:282_c.2995$lv3.723943@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net...
> Great stuff Tim, the first read was over my head but I will sit and
> analyze what you are saying. I would love to find a way to get my scsi
> irqs by them self it has not been easy. I have a RealMagic XCard that I
> have been meaning to pull out but I use it for video playback at times,
> but maybe i will do a little experimenting moving the cards around.
> Thanks for all the input, Mike
>
>
> "Tim" <Tim@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
> news:cha6r4$f7m$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...
>> To put a page file on its own partition.
>> 1. Create the partition / assign a drive letter. In your case, make the
>> partition the size you want the page file to be.
>> 2. Confirm the drive is present in My Computer.
>> 3. In Control Panel, System. Advanced, Performance, Advanced, Virtual
>> Memory, click the new drive above and set a custom size = to free space
>> on the above new drive. For other volumes with page files on, you can set
>> the size to Zero (click the drive, Click No Paging File). There is no
>> point in setting an Initial Size for a page file and a Maximum Size -
>> this can only result in a lot of extra disc IO's to extend the page file
>> when it is needed, then later somehow it is contracted pointlessly - so
>> set it high and leave it high.
>>
>> If you want performance, do not place the partition on the same drive as
>> the C drive since the C drive is likely to be at the front of the disc -
>> putting a partition further down the disc for a page file will only
>> guarantee longer seeks to get to the file = slower system. If it is the
>> only active partition on a drive, then it doesn't really matter.
>>
>> I recommend you either use Perfmon to verify the disc volume with least
>> IO's (if your page file is this important) to determine where the page
>> file can be placed, or configure a disc drive with this specifically in
>> mind EG on the front edge (fastest part) of one or both of your backup
>> discs - so long as the backup discs are both Master IE separate IDE
>> channels (they will compete otherwise for the IO channel if Master /
>> Slave). Modern IDE drives are OK for this as they have good IO bandwidth,
>> even though the seek time may be somewhat less than SCSI. NOTE: if you
>> optimise your page file, you may steal performance from other parts of
>> your system to the point where "system" goes well, but "application" now
>> has suffered a penalty. In short, if Total Commit memory is not near
>> Total Physical memory, your page file is probably not a problem. A very
>> important clue that memory is or has been stretched is that if the
>> Available Memory in the Physical section (task manager of course) heads
>> towards 4MB, then you have had a very low free memory situation and
>> Windows memory scavenger process has or is about to go and pinch memory
>> of other applications to feed the hungry one - try loading your system up
>> severely and watch the memory stats; open say a huge graphics file when
>> the Commit charge is near Physical and watch what happens - you will see
>> a big shuffle of memory resources between applications. 4MB is a trigger
>> level to the VM memory scavenger process (sorry forgot what its called).
>>
>> Many claim that the page file gets a lot of IO's. It can *seem* to get a
>> lot of IO's on a lightly loaded system. There are several metrics in
>> Perfmon you can learn about to analyse your page file usage. It is
>> important to understand the metrics as a superficial understanding will
>> lead you to entirely wrong conclusions. EG Virtual Memory Page Faults are
>> normal in Windows, some types of VM Page Faults can cause page file
>> operations, *but* not all. Most VM Page Faults do not result in touching
>> the page file, so a drill down to understand the workings of the VM
>> system is a good idea.
>>
>> From your description of application usage, it does not sound like your
>> applications are huge memory gobblers.
>>
>> As for IRQ sharing. If it is working, if you are not getting errors in
>> your event log, if all else is OK, then don't fret about the IRQ sharing.
>> However the stuttering you describe is *bad*. This is often due to poor
>> HDD drivers, ill configured HDD drivers - not using DMA, or not using the
>> best UDMA settings. It can also be due to recovered Reads on a failing
>> disc drive. If you have a SMART enabled bios, then turn it on. I am sure
>> that if the problem was due to disc IO issues then you would know about
>> that already. Nearly always the drive DMA settings come up correctly, so
>> the thing to do is to search around to find out what the active settings
>> are (IE the UDMA or PIO mode of the drives, watch the CPU in task manager
>> during intense IO - if it goes high during say a backup, then PIO may be
>> being used so performance will suffer and needs fixing). Sorry not sure
>> there - there is usually a utility somewhere: try device manager, check
>> device manager settings, check bios settings, check... It *is* in
>> situations such as this that others report no choice but to force
>> Interrupts apart - but most usually sound cards. If there are hardware
>> devices not in use EG firewire, disable them in bios, remove unnecessary
>> PCI devices, try moving the SCSI card to another slot.
>>
>> - Tim
>>
>>
>>
>> "John Smith" <recons@nospam.com> wrote in message
>> news:wH%Zc.2559$lv3.349346@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net...
>>>I agree with your comments on the board and the RDRAM, I love this board.
>>>That is the reason why I am considering spending the money when the same
>>>money could by me a new board and ram.... It is probaby a silly decision
>>>to invest money into this setup, however let me tell you about my 96
>>>Cadillac Eldorado ETC, lol...
>>>
>>> Let me tell you a bit about my system in response to your observations:
>>> 1) I have a new Windows XP Pro installation as of April 2004
>>> 2) All patches are installed up to SP2
>>> 3) I use Ad Aware 6.0 Pro and run it daily at noon (its up to date)
>>> 4) I use Norton AV 2004 it runs at 6 PM every night
>>> 5) I run defragment every friday night, after doing disk clean-up
>>> 6) I have Spam Bully 2.0 guarding my Outlook mail (this program is a hog
>>> I think)
>>> 7) I have an ASUS FX 5600 video card running Nvidia's most recent
>>> drivers
>>> 8) I have 2 Seagate X15 Ultra 160 drives with an Adaptec 39160 adaptor
>>> 9) I am using two 7,200 IDE drives for automatic back-ups and video
>>> editing
>>> 10) I changed my PAGING FILE to a minimum of 1024 and a max of 2048
>>> 11) I am trying to figure out how to put the paging file into its own
>>> partition so that there is no defragmentation
>>>
>>> However I do have one problem that I have been unable to fix. My
>>> Adaptec SCSI adapter shares IRQ 21 with my LAN card and NEC PCE to USB
>>> Open Hose Controller, NOT GOOD!!! Now what do you think? When I say
>>> sluggish I mean that I will type and there will be a LAG in it appearing
>>> on screen, VERY ANNOYING....and my MOUSE will STUDDER..... Now what do
>>> you think? Mike
>>>
>>>
>>> "Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
>>> news:4137C4A4.7030201@neo.rr.com...
>>>> First, let's deal with your last question:
>>>>
>>>> The P4T533 has only 2 memory slots and takes only 232-pin 32-bit RDRAM.
>>>> The two speed grades are RIMM 3200 (800MHz, aka PC800) and RIMM 4200
>>>> (1066 MHz, aka PC1066). Convention is to use the "RIMM xxxx"
>>>> designation for 32-bit 232 pin RDRAM and "PCxxxx" designation for 184
>>>> pin 16-bit RDRAM.
>>>>
>>>> The only commonly available modules are 256 MB per module, which will
>>>> max out the board at 512 Megs, the configuration that you currently
>>>> have.
>>>>
>>>> 512 Meg modules definitely do exist, and they show up on E-Bay. Two of
>>>> them would give you one gig. However, they are expensive, usually over
>>>> $200 each, and they are VERY RARE. Sometimes, months will go by
>>>> without a single one showing up (although, on rare occasions, I've seen
>>>> 4 or more at once available). By the way, yes, you can mix sizes, that
>>>> is, you could have one 512 and one 256 for 768 megs of memory.
>>>>
>>>> According to the Samsung catalog, 1 gig and even 2 gig modules actually
>>>> were made and sold, but I have never seen one of either size. Never,
>>>> and I work with this particular motherboard a lot.
>>>>
>>>> I love the P4T533 motherboard, it's incredibly fast and it's incredibly
>>>> stable, more so, I think, than later motherboards using dual channel
>>>> DDR. It makes me sick that industry politics killed a memory system
>>>> that was far superior to the system that ultimately prevailed.
>>>>
>>>> But, that point aside, you can buy a new motherboard AND memory for
>>>> less money than what it will cost to upgrade your P4T533 to one gig.
>>>> And the new motherboard will support faster CPUs and FSB's, although
>>>> the memory system (DDR 800 dual channel) is actually slower.
>>>>
>>>> So, to that extent, you have to make some decision as to how you want
>>>> to proceed, and what various things are worth to you.
>>>>
>>>> Now, however, let me go off on a different tangent.
>>>>
>>>> I don't think that you have the problem that you think that you do, or
>>>> that upgrading from 512 meg to 1 gig will help you (or help you much).
>>>>
>>>> What you are doing is not really that demanding. When you open "x"
>>>> documents in word (whether "x" is 1 or 20), there is only one copy of
>>>> word itself running and loaded into memory, and the documents
>>>> themselves take up almost zero space (in most cases, only 50k to 400k).
>>>> Basically, as long as you are just running "office" applications -- and
>>>> nothing that you've listed is outside those parameters -- memory just
>>>> is not going to be your issue. 512 megs is plenty, probably beyond the
>>>> point at which more memory will make much of a difference. I do
>>>> everything that you do plus video capture and editing, and DVD burning,
>>>> with the same system that you have (P4T533 with 512 megs). And the
>>>> system is very fast.
>>>>
>>>> I susepct, rather, that your system has just become "dirty". Meaning
>>>> that your disk is fragmented, your registry is a mess, your temp file
>>>> directory overfloweth, you have adware / spyware and MABYE virus', and
>>>> WAY too many programs are loading and doing things at startup.
>>>>
>>>> If that's the case (and I'm about 85% sure that it is), adding memory
>>>> won't help, while some time spent cleaning up your system might do
>>>> wonders. The ultimate cleanup is to reinstall windows on a freshly
>>>> formatted disk drive, but I won't deny that this is a LOT of work.
>>>>
>>>> Also, if you have a large drive (more than 80 gigs) with only a single
>>>> partition, you might consider partitioning things down. Simply, it
>>>> takes time to search the disk drive data structures when the disk gets
>>>> big, and this applies to both FAT and NTFS, although there are
>>>> differences in the relative efficiency of the two file systems (FAT is
>>>> better with small drives, NTFS is better above about 16 gigs; but both
>>>> systems slow down as the size of the drives increases, especially if
>>>> they are also badly fragmented).
>>>>
>>>> Hope that this helps.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> John Smith wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi, I have 512 mb of RDRAM in an ASUS P4T533 running XP Pro with a
>>>>> P4-2.4 533 processor and ultra 160 X15 SCSI drives. I have had bouts
>>>>> of 'sluggishness' and high CPU usage at times, which I find is solved
>>>>> by re-booting and reloading what I am working on. I don't know if
>>>>> you can call me a power-user (which sounds hokey) but I frequently
>>>>> have many programs and documents open at the same time and I mean
>>>>> MANY...., maybe 6 Word docs, 3 Excel files, sometimes 3 IE6 windows,
>>>>> Outlook, mapping programs, well you get my drift...along with the
>>>>> usual assortment of security programs, firewall, virus, ad stopper,
>>>>> and spam stopper. Maybe I am a STUPID user not realizing the
>>>>> limitations of my system and over running its potential I don't know.
>>>>>
>>>>> That said, I just loaded XP's SP2 and definately do see an
>>>>> improvement in that the sluggishness is minimized, but it is still
>>>>> there ever so slightly on heavy use. I just increased my paging file
>>>>> to a minimum of 1024 (2x) and a max of 2048 (4x) and am still
>>>>> observing to see if it makes any differences.
>>>>>
>>>>> 1) Will the ASUS P4T533 take 1 GIG of RDRAM?
>>>>> 2) If I buy new RDRAM, how do I make sure that it is compatible with
>>>>> the RAM that I have? I have two sticks of 256 MB RDRAM, is it
>>>>> advisible to buy 1-512 MB stick and pair it with an existing 256 mb
>>>>> stick to net 768 MB? The only way to get to 1 GIG is to buy 5-512MB
>>>>> sticks, will the take 2-512 MB sticks and remain stable, I had heard
>>>>> that this board will not take 1 GB, is that true?
>>>>>
>>>>> I know this RDRAM is expensive, but upgrading to a new motherboard is
>>>>> also expensive, maybe its cheaper to go to 1 GIG if it solves my
>>>>> problems and improves performance, what do you guys think? Mike
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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