Tips on more ram

Horlock

I love the way that it doesn't seem to matter what question you ask on this site there are always far more people telling you not to do it in the first place than trying to answer your question.

Sure I know there are people who don't like people having powerful computers, and I know there are people who don't like people doing diy, heck I'm sure there are people who don't like people saving money on this site. But please give OPs a chance. At the risk of taking the thread further off topic "Why comment if your comment doesn't help anyone?"

Just to clarify that isn't directed at spannerzone in the slightest. Thanks for the tip. My biggest problem will be that even with that info I'm not convinced I'll know what speed - but in for a penny in for a pound. I'll give speccy a go thanks.

Perhaps there is merit in Bill Gates actual quote "I've said some stupid things and some wrong things, but not that. No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough … I keep bumping into that silly quotation attributed to me that says 640K of memory is enough."

Horlock

Speccy stuff:

I hope you can interpret.

Operating System
MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i7 860 @ 2.80GHz 58 °C
Lynnfield 45nm Technology
RAM
4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 531MHz (7-7-7-20)
Motherboard
Dell Inc. 0X231R (CPU 1) 22 °C
Graphics
SyncMaster (1920x1080@60Hz)
DELL 1800FP (1280x1024@60Hz)
1024MB GeForce GTS 240 (nVidia) 86 °C
Hard Drives
488GB Seagate ST3500418AS ATA Device (SATA) 37 °C
1465GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG HD154UI ATA Device (SATA) 31 °C
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp DVD+-RW TS-H653G ATA Device
Audio
High Definition Audio Device


CPU
Intel Core i7 860
Cores 4
Threads 8
Name Intel Core i7 860
Code Name Lynnfield
Package Socket 1156 LGA
Technology 45nm
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz
Family 6
Extended Family 6
Model E
Extended Model 1E
Stepping 5
Revision B1
Instructions MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, Intel 64
Virtualization Supported, Enabled
Hyperthreading Supported, Enabled
Fan Speed 884 RPM
Bus Speed 133.0 MHz
Rated Bus Speed 2394.0 MHz
Stock Core Speed 2800 MHz
Stock Bus Speed 133 MHz
Average Temperature 62 °C
Caches
L1 Data Cache Size 4 x 32 KBytes
L1 Instructions Cache Size 4 x 32 KBytes
L2 Unified Cache Size 4 x 256 KBytes
L3 Unified Cache Size 8192 KBytes


RAM
Memory slots
Total memory slots 4
Used memory slots 4
Free memory slots 0
Memory
Type DDR3
Size 4096 MBytes
Channels # Dual
DRAM Frequency 531.8 MHz
CAS# Latency (CL) 7 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD) 7 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 7 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 20 clocks
Command Rate (CR) 2T
Physical Memory
Memory Usage 69 %
Total Physical 3.99 GB
Available Physical 1.21 GB
Total Virtual 8.00 TB
Available Virtual 3.86 GB
SPD
Number Of SPD Modules 4
Slot #1
Slot #2
Slot #3
Slot #4

Motherboard
Manufacturer Dell Inc.
Model 0X231R
Chipset Vendor Intel
Chipset Model DMI Host Bridge
Chipset Revision 11
Southbridge Vendor Intel
Southbridge Model P55
Southbridge Revision 05
System Temperature 22 °C
BIOS
Brand Dell Inc.
Version A01
Date 08/11/2009
Voltage
CPU CORE 0.880 V
MEMORY CONTROLLER 3.040 V
+3.3V 3.312 V
+5V 5.080 V
+12V 11.840 V
-12V -8.640 V
-5V -8.640 V
+5V HIGH THRESHOLD 4.919 V
CMOS BATTERY 3.232 V
PCI Data
Slot PCI
Slot Type PCI
Slot Usage In Use
Data But Width 32 bit
Slot Designation PCI1
Slot Number 0
Slot PCI-X
Slot Type PCI-X
Slot Usage Available
Data But Width 256 bit
Slot Designation PCIE1
Slot Number 1
Slot PCI-X
Slot Type PCI-X
Slot Usage Available
Data But Width 256 bit
Slot Designation PCIE2
Slot Number 2
Slot PCI-X
Slot Type PCI-X
Slot Usage In Use
Data But Width 8192 bit
Slot Designation PCIE3
Slot Number 3

If there are any other pages of info that would be needed let me know.

Thanks by the way - this stuff really does look very interesting. Although I can't for the life of me work out which of the "speeds" I'm comparing.

closed

It's a money saving site - we are trying to save you some money. config.trim_on_minimize in firefox might help

Horlock

closed wrote: »

It's a money saving site - we are trying to save you some money. config.trim_on_minimize in firefox might help

Thank you, I will have a look in the morning when I'm a bit more awake.

But just for the record. I didn't say that I only use the computer for browsing. I said that the browser uses a lot of memory and that I am getting close to using all 4 GB.

I know that I need to reinstall windows. I also know that when I do I'll get a SSD which will make a bigger improvement than any amount of memory will. But as I've just been given £50 to buy memory I was planning on doing just that.

Sorry if I sounded grouchy. I was just periodically checking the board and noticing that rather than answers to technical questions about ram, people are suggesting that I don't buy it. I probably should have taken more notice of the OP who said that any suggestions would be greatfully received - or at least should have. I just wanted to know techy stuff related to my ram more.

santer_2

If you use firefox, you could try their memory restart add on, which goes from green to red if the memory useage is high, then has a restart firefox option

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/memory-restart/

You could try Palemoon without as many add ons, though it will run most firefox add ons

http://www.palemoon.org/

closed

I don't know what you are running, but would guess that most of your ram would be in use as a cache, as windows has nothing else to use it for, if and when windows needs it for an application it will reduce the cache accordingly. I'm using firefox now with multiple tabs, and it's using 18-75Meg

Horlock

When I say multiple tabs I'm referring to approximately 100 tabs, quite a few of which will be technical videos from plural site, one or two will be forums I'm currently monitoring (but don't want to bookmark - because they will expire), I will also have visual studio running, and quite feasibly photo editing software. Since I also use the computer for entertainment it is also feasible that I will want to watch a dvd without having to close any other applications when I feel I need a break from work. The computer is only ever shut down to perform software updates and during holidays of longer than 1 week, as it is constantly running other processes in the background. On the few occasions that I do video editing I generally close down the photoediting and visual studio.

Hopefully we have now established that while some people would want to make do with less ram - I (possibly in contrast) am quite happy to pay out £50 or more if necessary to buy the right type of ram for my system. However, I don't want to pay £50 if paying £40 would have the exact same effect.

I am a geek, but I am not a hardware geek (hence the fact I bought a dell pc) now can anyone please answer my original question about what the difference is between the memory that crucial are trying to sell me and which I should really buy.

John_Gray

Horlock wrote: »

I am getting close to using all 4 GB.

That is exactly what you should expect, regardless of however much RAM you have installed. Windows memory management is fairly sophisticated and will make use of all the installed memory. What is more important in the decision about whether to install more RAM are the "Physical Memory" figures in the Performance tab of Task Manager: Available should be fairly large, and Free fairly small. Also look at the very bottom, for the Physical Memory percentage (which should be quite low, say 35%, if nothing much is running).

Horlock

John_Gray wrote: »

That is exactly what you should expect, regardless of however much RAM you have installed. Windows memory management is fairly sophisticated and will make use of all the installed memory. What is more important in the decision about whether to install more RAM are the "Physical Memory" figures in the Performance tab of Task Manager: Available should be fairly large, and Free fairly small. Also look at the very bottom, for the Physical Memory percentage (which should be quite low, say 35%, if nothing much is running).

This is what I've been looking at when referring to it being close to used. Generally the physical memory percentage is around 96-97% although with VS and photoediting closed at present it has dropped to only 68%.

John_Gray

Good! You're looking in the right place, and it seems you could do with some more RAM.

For further reassurance that this would be helpful, you could click on the Resource Monitor button in the Performance tab of Task Manager, and then on the Memory tab, and check the graphs while running more memory-intensive Stuff... The Hard Faults per second will give you a view of how much paging your PC is doing. Lots of paging means more memory would be good.