> That's another big question of mine... let's say a system with 3GB of DDR2-667 > RAM, even some DDR-400, why would someone need a swap partition, considering > that the normal use doesn't fill up the RAM? I've looked into this and found > no > definitive answer, some people say you need swap, some say you don't.
Well, that does imply asking the missing key piece of information: how much RAM is there in the computer (and what is the maximum capacity). If you have 3G of RAM, and do not have super-heavy memory usage, then no, you don't really need swap. So, to go into a bit more detail, if thoroughly thinking through how much swap partition to make, the factors are * expected actual memory use (but often not known in advance) * amount of installed RAM * capacity of memory slots * hard disk size (if SSD, think if can avoid swap) If I have 2-4G RAM, and dont expect to be pushing its limits, then as above, swap isnt so necessary. But if I have plenty of disk space, I'd make a swap partition anyway, because it's easier to do it now than later (after having system and data on disk). If i have plenty of disk space, i make the swap partition twice the size of the maximum capacity of the memory slots. With a smaller HD, I'd balance disk capacity against swap. E.g. with the 40G disk in example: with 512M-1G RAM i might make 1G swap; with 2-4G RAM i might skip swap.
