Help: Dual 3.0GHz + 3GB RAM -or- Dual 2.66GHz + 5GB RAM (ordering tonight)

[MRU]

Hey ... can you explain what paging basically means? What is a good number range for it ...

Bascially if you look if you look in the system memory section of activity monitor there is a section that says

page ins/outs this will be a number like 28921/0

avoiding all technical stuff it's the last number after the / you are looking at.

(the first number changes depending on how much work your computer is doing / has done)...

In this case /0 which means at no point did the system run out of memory and have to use virtual memory (hardrive space) which would slow down peformance.

If it stays at /0 you have more than sufficient memory to meet your needs and adding more memory is NOT going to boost your peformance.

However should that /0 change to somthing like 28921/13243
then it means for half of thr activity your computer has been doing you are using a good chunk of virtual memory and therefore could do with more ram in order to boost peformance.

 

[livingfortoday]

To the OP - Go with the first option, that's definitely more bang for your buck right there.

To MRUser above me here - thanks for explaining that! If I get page outs about 10% compared to the page ins, is that average? Does anyone really get 0? I mean, I have 1.5GB in this Mini, ain't gettin' much higher.

 

[MRU]

To MRUser above me here - thanks for explaining that! If I get page outs about 10% compared to the page ins, is that average? Does anyone really get 0? I mean, I have 1.5GB in this Mini, ain't gettin' much higher.

your welcome.

yeah I'd say 10% is about right generally.

Well on my macbook with 1.5gb I rarely get above 0 simply because all I use it for is surfing the net / checking my emails and occasional letter writing...

So it depends on the workload obviously..

 

[dkoralek]

I am glad Transeau and you just posted that. I was about to screw-up. I knew the banks had to be even, but I was going to put (2) 1GB and (1) 512 MB in each bank (riser). Drat, but thanks!

That is simply because the DIMs must be installed in pairs. There is nothing that says that you would have to install one pair on each riser vs. both pairs on the same riser. Just that you gain performance because you can take advantage of quad channel access by doing so.

Cheers.

 

[livingfortoday]

your welcome.

yeah I'd say 10% is about right generally.

Well on my macbook with 1.5gb I rarely get above 0 simply because all I use it for is surfing the net / checking my emails and occasional letter writing...

So it depends on the workload obviously..

Ok, cool, good to know. I guess that means I need to get more than 512MB in my Powerbook, which is currently at around 59%. Wow. But it still launches and runs Office faster than the Mini! *sigh* Damn Rosetta.

 

[Transeau]

If I get page outs about 10% compared to the page ins, is that average? Does anyone really get 0? I mean, I have 1.5GB in this Mini, ain't gettin' much higher.

I get 0. look at my previous post (last one on the first page)
With enough memory, you shouldn't be getting any Page Outs. a 10/1 In/Out ratio just means that 10% of the time, you are swapping to disk.

 

[livingfortoday]

I get 0. look at my previous post (last one on the first page)
With enough memory, you shouldn't be getting any Page Outs. a 10/1 In/Out ratio just means that 10% of the time, you are swapping to disk.

Ah, but my Mini can't take 6GB of RAM, nor can my wallet right now! But I'll probably up this sucker up to 2GB in the future, which should take care of that extra 10%, no?

 

[Karpfish]

i have 2Gb ram, and i get 0 outs mosly

 

[wallock]

Message deleted

 

[iGary]

I can't believe all this advice without asking the OP what types of work he plans on doing...

 

[PowerMike G5]

Bascially if you look if you look in the system memory section of activity monitor there is a section that says

page ins/outs this will be a number like 28921/0

avoiding all technical stuff it's the last number after the / you are looking at.

(the first number changes depending on how much work your computer is doing / has done)...

In this case /0 which means at no point did the system run out of memory and have to use virtual memory (hardrive space) which would slow down peformance.

If it stays at /0 you have more than sufficient memory to meet your needs and adding more memory is NOT going to boost your peformance.

However should that /0 change to somthing like 28921/13243
then it means for half of thr activity your computer has been doing you are using a good chunk of virtual memory and therefore could do with more ram in order to boost peformance.

Thanks so much for the quick explanation!!!!

 

[rob5]

Thanks guys. For now I decided to just go with:

Dual 2.66GHz
4GB (4x1GB) RAM
1x150GB 10,000RPM WD Raptor
2x500GB 7,200 RPM WD RE2 WD5000YS
1x250GB 7,200 RPM stock drive (not sure on model?)
NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT
Bluetooth+EDR

I decided to stick with the stock 7300GT as I don't think the X1900 is needed for me yet - I don't play games at all or require anything that uses the GPU heavily. I'll upgrade in the future if needed. Same with Airport Extreme.

Luckily I already have a Dell 2405FPW for a monitor to save costs.

I did overnight shipping.. est ship by Nov 8-13, delivered by Nov 9-14. I hope it's on the shorter end of that estimate..

 

[PowerMike G5]

Congrats on the purchase ... a mighty fine machine it will be ...

 

[Sawtoothdude]

that is a nice machine. Enjoy (^.^)