Whoops, I wanted this to go to the list! -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Need Advice on System RAM Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 14:02:07 -0600 From: "Donald R. Spoon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Ryan Kirkpatrick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Ryan Kirkpatrick wrote: > > On Thu, 1 Nov 2001, Donald R. Spoon wrote: > > > 1. Is the "quality" issue really valid today? > > If you are buying DDR PC2600 whatever RAM for today's modern > computers, then yes, quality is an issue. As for 60ns 72pin Parity SIMMs, > if they work (after all these years) then their quality is probably pretty > good. :) Parity SIMM RAM was pretty limited in use to only server class > machines, so what of it that was made, it had to be pretty high quality to > begin with. Just by saying parity SIMM, you are implying a certain level > of quality. > As for myself, when I went to upgrade my XLT366 from 192MB to > 256MB (I use it as web/database server), I just went to eBay, found some > Compaq branded 32MB 60ns 72pin Parity SIMMs for $30 a pair. Installed them > and they work great. For RAM of this type, I would highly recommend eBay, > as any reseller is going to charge a premium for this relatively "rare" > memory. > > > 2. Will 256 Megs make my machine happy and quit using swap space > > anytime I look at it? As a side question, will I see significant > > difference between 128 Megs and 256 Megs in performance? > > You will see a different between 64 and 128, especially if you run > lots of Xapps. Between 128 and 256, I can't really say. Depends how much > software you try and run at once. Though as they always say, you never can > have too much RAM. So, if you can afford it, go for the 256. > My two cents, hope they are of use. > Thanks for all the advice. Here is some follow-up. I upgraded to 8 sticks of 32 Meg Hundai parity SIMMS (total 256 Megs) obtained from SMI in Carrolton, TX. (Highly recommended!!) This transformed my DEC Alpha 300XL from a "dog" into a "gazelle"...WOW! This machine has moved from being the house "dog" to the front of the pack. Before, I had just 64 Megs of RAM. Before the upgrade, KDE took forever to start, and when I started Mozilla 0.9.5, it would go into a continuous disk-access mode (swap??) and would not load any web pages. I knew it worked, because I could get it up under GNOME, but still slowly. Now everthing starts in a resonable amount of time, and Mozilla will bring up web pages as fast a anything I have around the house even when run from KDE. Performance is now comparable to my AMD K6/2-500 machine, which is the fastest machine I have here. I would highly recommend a RAM upgrade if you can afford it. BTW, mucho thanks to those who got KDE running on the Alpha (Chris??). Cheers, -Don Spoon-
