Spending money????

[codswallop]

I've got �50 birthday money,what would you spend it on? a) external hard disk drive or b) more RAM.
I have a 73GB of which 66% is free space.RAM is 736.
How do I find out the max RAM that my pc will support? Thanks

[poohshunny]

Hi codswallop. I read your question out to my hubby and his advice is go to this site http://www.crucial.com/ and click on the scan my system button. Follow the prompts and it will give you the information you need about what type of memory you need, and how much you can put in your system. Take this information and shop around for the best deals.

[sn�gged]

Go for more RAM... I'd second Crucial...

[ACtheTROLL]

if you have 736Mb - I suppose we are talking an oldish machine (a p3?) - so throwing ram at it isn't going to make much difference ... and could actually slow things down

download ccleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/download
use it .... run chkdisk .... and defrag the disk
that will do more good.

the next question is - does your machine have USB 1 or 2?

if it's usb 2 - an external drive will be a better buy
if its 1 - a usb disk will be verrrrrrry slow.
go get a radio controlled helicopter ... or some other gadget

[codswallop]

Thank you all,you've stirred the muddy waters,what do i do now??? It seems like thermals for a helicoppter flight.Can you all read each others answers and come up with the best option......PLEASE? Thanks again for your informative and funny replies.

[ACtheTROLL]

you could buy a muddy waters album
a radio controlled heckilopter is fun

everyone just assumes ram will improve things .... it won't
700 - 1Gb is enough - much more than XP was ever meant to have .... and on older machines .... it's more than the mobo mfr expected as well

but you haven't said usb 1 or 2 .... of your options ... the ext disk would be my choice

[rojash]

Not often I disagree with my furry faced friend, but it seems to me that if you have 66% storage free, you really don't need an external hard drive.

I suggest that you get together with a few others who also have 50 quid to spend, and then go and order something from here:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/shop/view-wish-l ist/user_id/585499eef8ba7dd2625d5d427825d9fe

[ACtheTROLL]

roj - lol .... never saw that coming - (also never saw the 66% free)

I raise your link
http://www.iwantoneofthose.com
(I just looked to see it was still there ... cost me �500 so far .... can't talk .... more gadgets to buy ;-)

sorry cod .... loosing the thread
I think most of us seem to think you should do something less "computery" with your money

[VHG]

You have a 73Gb hard drive, which has 66% free, which is about 50Gb, which in hard disk terms is quite a lot.

So no need for an external drive.

You also have 736Mb of ram, which for Windows XP (if that is what you are running) is probably fine.

If you are doing "basic" computing work then you probably never use all your 736Mb of ram so adding more will not gain you much.

Adding more memory only gains you speed if you are constantly usng MORE memory than you have, and at 736Mb I doubt if you ever are.

Best thing to do is save that �50 and put it towards a new PC as soon as you get some more money.

[codswallop]

Thanks again to you all for your second thoughts.It seems considering the age of the pc (6 yrs)I would not gain much in buying either It has surprised me though that an increase in RAM would be of little benefit. I'll just have to ask for a bigger birthday gift and buy a new pc (greedy git)

[rojash]

AC,

Buggered if I'm gonna pay 60 quid to give my wife my last Rolo. She can have the chewing gum I've got stuck on the underside of my desk - I've been saving it for a special occasion...

[VHG]

>It has surprised me though that an increase in RAM >would be of little benefit.

When you close down a PC the RAM is emptied. So when you start up a PC you are starting with nothing in the RAM.

As the PC starts up Windows (parts of it) are placed in the RAM, and then other programs that are needed during start up are also placed in the RAM.

Once the PC has finished its start up then maybe 300Mb or 400 Mb of RAM has been used (total depends on all sorts of things).

Once you start to use the PC, and start various programs, then each of them are also placed in RAM. As long as the amount of RAM used does not go above what you have got installed then the PC will work fine.

When you close down a program most of the program is removed from RAM so you have more free space in your RAM to start another program.

more......

[VHG]

So as I said in my append above, as long as the total amount of RAM you are using never goes above what you have installed (in your case 736Mb) then adding more RAM gains you nothing.

But what happens if you start a LOT of programs, and all of a sudden your RAM fills up?

Well Windows copies part of RAM out to your hard disk in a place it calls Virtual storage.

When it needs that back in RAM it copies something else out from RAM to Virtual storage, and copies what it needs back into RAM.

This process of moving data from RAM to hard disk and back again is called SWAPPING. It is swapping data back and forth from RAM to hard disk.

Now RAM memory is VERY VERY fast, but a hard disk (in computer terms) is VERY slow.

So the more time Windows has to spend swapping, the more it slows your computer down.

In fact if your PC has very little RAM memory then Windows has to spend so much time swapping it can never get any other work done (that is called Thrashing).

So the only time you gain benefit from adding more memory is if Windows is using more RAM than you have got.

As long as Windows never fills the memory you have then more RAM memory is just a waste of money.

[VHG]

In fact if you open the Windows Task Manager you can see how much memory you are using.

If you are using XP or Vista then press these three keys one after the other, but DONT let go of the keys (they all need to be down together)

Press Ctrl, then Alt, then Del

XP and Vista are slightly different, but you get a chance to open the task manager.

The Task Manager shows you what is running on your computer and how many resources it is taking.

In the Task Manager click on the Performance tab.

The lower window shows you how much memory is currently being used.

I have Vista and 2Gb of memory. If I look in the task manager it says 865Mb of memory is currently being used.

So my PC would work happily with 1Gb as it is currently using less than 1Gb (if I started a few programs it would then go above 1Gb and start to slow down).

In case you cant get to see the Task Manager for some reason here is a picture of it:

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/images/task_manag er_mem_small.jpg

[codswallop]

Thanks VHG that was long but the best explanation I've had to explain RAM and virtual memory.

[codswallop]

PS when I had the idea of buying an external hard disk drive I had it in mind to use it as a backup in case of loss of all photos etc.Or again was this an extravagence that could be done a cheaper way? Thanks

[ACtheTROLL]

the good old external drive is a good old backup device

it's also good for transporting big files ... but the main advantage (in your case) is that it will fit in your new PC.

couple of things to bear in mind are both scale
the difference in speed of a PC is relative ...
for a p4 - the clock speeds 2.8 to 3.6.
a 3.6 is "faster" by only a few milliseconds - so decoding a film might complete in 4 hours rather than 4 hrs 5 mins

My quad core is (as you'd expect) faster than my p4
p4 (1 Gb ram) takes 4 hours to recode a 2 hour film (I tried it)
my quad (3Gb ram) takes (conveniently) 1 hour to do the same film.

if just throwing memory worked ... I'd just have a p4 (with 2000Gb of ram)