There are tools for this, but you can use task manager (in Windows) to do this:
Here's an excerpt from an article: Tip One - OK...I want to pump some life into my old computer. How much RAM should I buy? In a recent installment of TOTW, I imparted a few ideas on how to breathe new life into aging computers. My number one recommendation was to buy more RAM. I also wrote that to figure out what kind of RAM you needed for your particular computer, you should pull one of the RAM sticks off the motherboard and read the specs off of it. But what I left open was the matter of how much RAM to buy. In that installment of TOTW, I wrote that you should probably just double up on whatever amount you currently have. In this installment, I share a better, more precise method of determining just how much memory you need. Here's what you do: * First, turn your computer on and leave it on for two or three days. Use it during that time the way you normally would--surf the Net, read e-mail, play your games, do your work (EPRs, PowerPoint presentations), etc. If you do any type of graphics work, like manipulating pictures from a digital camera, be sure to do some of that, too. And if you commonly open multiple programs at once (like I do) be sure to do that, too. * After the two or three day observation period, click CTL+ALT+DEL and click the TASK MANAGER button. That opens the Task Manager application. Now click on the PERFORMANCE tab, which looks like this: * Now notice the items I have circled in the image above. The item circled in blue is the total amount of RAM I have installed in my computer. The item circled in red is the highest amount of RAM my computer has needed to function properly since I first turned it on this morning. Notice that the number circled in red is higher than the number circled in blue. That's a bad thing. Now you might be wondering, "How did Norm's computer use more RAM than it actually has?" The answer lies in something called virtual memory. Virtual memory is simulated RAM. It's a trick your computer uses to fool itself into thinking it has more RAM than it actually does. How it does this is by using some of your hard drive as RAM. Sounds great, and it's a clever trick, but the problem is, compared to real RAM, your hard drive is slow. I mean, sloooooooooow. We're talking F-22 vs. bicycle here. So every time my computer needs to use more RAM than it actually has, it kicks in the virtual memory trick. The problem is, my computer slows way down when it does that because using the hard drive as RAM is a slow process. * Compare the two numbers on your computer. Do the same thing I did. To read these number in megabytes (MB) instead of kilobytes (KB), just divide the numbers by 1000. So my total memory is 259MB and my peak usage was 343MB. * If your PEAK number is higher than your TOTAL number, go buy more RAM. Buy at least the amount shown as PEAK. When you do buy RAM, I recommend that you buy the largest stick you can afford, and buy one stick instead of two. That way you'll keep an empty slot available for any future upgrade. _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are"
