jwcolby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Mon Apr 7 08:28:55 CDT 2008
Susan, I recommend 1 gig at a MINIMUM for Windows XP. XP itself uses at around 256 megs all by itself. If you throw in Antiviruses, software firewalls, malware detectors and the like... well you get the picture. If you multitask heavily (access, word and Office plus Outlook all open at the same time) then you should have much more. If you want to run VMs then you will need more. Depending on what you want to run inside of the VM, I would recommend at LEAST an additional 500 megs / VM, probably 750 Megs / VM to be on the safe side - those will be the amounts that you give the VM. Most people will not multi-task heavily inside of a VM, they tend to be used mostly for testing a program against a specific OS, so the memory requirements usually won't be as extreme as a developer's main machine. If you use a lot of memory in the VM then obviously you will need more memory for that VM, however you will quickly run into a limit of how many VMs you can have going at the same time, not that most of us run a lot of them simultaneously. BTW, more cores helps the speed of VMs. I would HIGHLY recommend at least a dual core and a quad core if you really get into the VM thing heavily. Windows comes to a screeching halt when it starts hitting the swap file, which it sounds like yours is doing. Memory is CHEAP (at least for DDR2 800) and can guarantee you will never hit the swap file under normal circumstances. What kind of memory you need will depend on how old your machine is. Anything produced in about the last 4 years or so uses the DDR2, otherwise it could be the DDR. The DDR is no longer as cheap as the DDR2 because of declining demand. I use the following inexpensive brands and can recommend them: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211066 If you anticipate running X64 systems and 8 gigs (seems unlikely given your question) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211188 If your machine runs DDR then I do not have any specific recommendations other than perhaps: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231047 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211014 Newegg is a reliable and "best price" supplier that I have used for many years and probably 20K dollars. I get nothing for recommending them and they are privately held so I don't own stock etc. John W. Colby Colby Consulting www.ColbyConsulting.com -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Susan Harkins Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 9:01 AM To: DBA Tech List Subject: [dba-Tech] upgrading RAM <http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/viewscanbyid.aspx?id=F3E2AAC431D926C3> I'm running on 256MB, which is adequate, I can certainly work, but there are days when everything grinds to a screeching halt. I want to upgrade so I can run a virtual machine with Office 2003 on one and Office 2007 on the other. I don't really have any other needs -- no special software, I don't do any desktop publishing -- nothing like that. Recommendations? Susan H. _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com