On Tue, Aug 24, 1999 at 09:21:48PM -0700, Patrick Olson wrote: > > 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
Heh, netscape is a bit of a memory hog. After running it for a few days, I have seen it eating more than 60megs -- even with only one window open. I understand that calls to free the memory don't always make the OS actually reclaim it -- which makes sense, in some senses, but .. I don't want to restart netscape every few days just to reclaim memory.. In your case of course, more memory would show *huge* speed increases. It looks like another 32 megs would stop the immediate swapping problem. If you want to run StarOffice, I imagine another 16 to 32 megs above that is required. I don't have star office installed myself, so I can't check for you. :( (one more week... :) But, when a new motherboard and new celeron and 128 megs of sdram run $90 + $80 + $110 = $280 .. whereas another 64 megs of simms can cost $100.. the celeron chip/mobo is 400/133 (roughly 3*) faster -- the harddrive controllers might be able to do the nice dma hard drive access routines, and the whole thing can (probably) overclock to between 450 and 600 MHz.. it is a tough call. I think perhaps the new mobo+cpu+memory might be in order --0 unless you need to replace other components as well, that won't fit on the new system (eg, if you have isa soundcard, modem, network card, and scsi card -- they probably wont fit on a new motherboard..) If you can afford it, the new mobo+cpu+ram would probably be the right thing to do. > 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. > > Based on the report below, I think a RAM upgrade might reduce swapping, > which should speed things up. > > ---- > $ uptime > 8:10am up 11 days, 15:11, 5 users, load average: 1.10, 1.21, 0.83 > $ free > total used free shared buffers cached > Mem: 30964 30408 556 14472 652 14928 > -/+ buffers/cache: 14828 16136 > Swap: 128484 32196 96288 > ---- > > On top of this, I plan to install StarOffice and try and run it without > exiting any other programs. Could someone take a moment and give me some > advice on this issue. I can think of four specific questions: > > 1. Am I barking up the wrong tree with the idea of a RAM upgrade? > > 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? > > 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. > > 4. Is there something else I should upgrade? > > Your response is appreciated. > > Thank you, > Patrick Olson > > > -- > Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null -- Seth Arnold | ICQ 3172483 | http://cswww.willamette.edu/~sarnold/ I prosecute unsolicited bulk emails, using the RealTime BlackHole List. You should too. Ask me how, or visit http://maps.vix.com/rbl/
