*- On 24 Aug, Patrick Olson wrote about "more RAM = more speed?" > > I have Debian 2.1 running on a P-133 with 32MB of RAM and a 6.4GB Western > Digital IDE, but it is awful slow when I have a lot of stuff running, > including a few Netscape Communicator web browsers. Specifically, it > likes to keep me waiting while it stops and runs the hard disk in the > middle of a program, or sometimes when I switch to a virtual console that > has been idle for a while. > [snip] > > 1. Am I barking up the wrong tree with the idea of a RAM upgrade? >
No. Dollar for dollar a memory upgrade will gives a better performance boost in this situation. > 2. Is it a bad idea to buy RAM for a P-133 since it only takes 72-pin? > Instead, should I upgrade to a motherboard that can handle a newer > type of RAM? > Upgrading to a new processor, new motherboard and new memory type with more memory than you have now will still cost more than a simple memory upgrade for you current setup. And you will not get a significant performance boost unless you are doing extensive number crunching > 3. If I upgrade nothing but RAM, how much do I need to have enough to cut > down on the swapping it does now and keep it to a minimum even after I > load StarOffice 5.1? Keep in mind that although my budget is limited, > so is my patience with this old hardware. > This is difficult to say. Netscape tends to take and not give back memory, I often exit and restart it just to release memory. I would suggest at least 96M or more. StarOffice is reported to be a massive memory hog(I personally don't use it). > 4. Is there something else I should upgrade? > Add a second hard drive on the second ide channel(hdc) It is good to have a swap partition on a different controller channel with each partition having equal priority. The kernel will use the partition which will provide the best performance. HTH, -- Brian --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mechanical Engineering [EMAIL PROTECTED] Purdue University http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/~servis ---------------------------------------------------------------------
