Adding more RAM to Windows XP?

[Toni]

"Toni"wrote...

> Laptop with Windows XP Pro, 1.66GHz/Duo with 2G of RAM.

>

> If I upgrade to 4G RAM - is it always good to upgrade WinXP from 2G to 4G RAM?

>

> Can anyone tell me if there a noticeable hit to battery life? Any downside anyone can

> share?

>

> Thanks!!!

>



Follow-up...



Went from 2G to 4G RAM (of course, XP shows only 3.24G available), and after testing

reduced my swap file setting from 2G/4G to 1.5G/1.5G.



Laptop is NOTICEABLY FASTER!!! Max swap file usage never goes above 12% and is normally

at 2%. RAM usage has never gone above 56%.



Oddly enough, battery life seems to be improved?!?!?!? It must be that accessing the

extra RAM is more efficient than hard disk usage for the swap file - never thought of

that!



Toni

 

[Tim Slattery]

"Toni" wrote:



>Went from 2G to 4G RAM (of course, XP shows only 3.24G available), and after testing

>reduced my swap file setting from 2G/4G to 1.5G/1.5G.



>Laptop is NOTICEABLY FASTER!!! Max swap file usage never goes above 12% and is normally

>at 2%. RAM usage has never gone above 56%.



>Oddly enough, battery life seems to be improved?!?!?!? It must be that accessing the

>extra RAM is more efficient than hard disk usage for the swap file - never thought of

>that!



I can easily believe that operating the disk takes more juice than

reading/writing RAM.



--

Tim Slattery

Slattery_T@bls.gov

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt