How would having 2GB RAM help me?

T

terry_bogard_007

New Member
I currently have 512Mb DDR SDRAM and have found some things still run very slow for me and would just like to know if increasing my memory to 2GB would help me in the following aspects.

1. Transfering large files from one harddrive to another ( I often work with large video files, some which go up to a few GB in size )
2. Burning DVD's ( takes me about 13-15 minutes to burn a standard 4.7 GB DVD )
3. Speed of Microsoft Internet Explorer surfing, uploading and downloading files.
4. Speed of importing and creating videos with Windows Movie Maker 2.
5. Quality of videos and sound played on computer.
6. Speed of computer in general - opening folders with many files in them ( sometimes can take up to 20 secs just to show me the contents of a folder ), starting programs, starting and shutting down windows, copying and pasting files.


as I mentioned above, i currently only have 512Mb and is still finding many things on my computer running very slow and so i am wanting to increase the speed as much as possible and is just wanting to know if this would do the job or should 1GB be sufficient enough for someone like me?

If there are other aspects in which you have found have improved since you upgraded to 2GB memory, please tell me about them, thank you.
 
1gb is enough and for burning you should worring about how much cache size your drive has 16mb is good.
 
kof2000 said:
1gb is enough and for burning you should worring about how much cache size your drive has 16mb is good.
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thanks for your suggestion.
what do u mean by cache size?
here are my DVD burner's specifications

Write Speed (DVD+R) : 2.4x, 4x CLV, 8x ZCLV, 12x, 16x PCAV

Write Speed (DVD+R DL) : 2.4x , 4x CLV

Write Speed (DVD-R) : 2x, 4x CLV, 8x ZCLV, 16x PCAV

Write Speed (DVD+RW) : 2.4x, 4x CLV, 8x ZCLV

Write Speed (DVD-RW) : 1x, 2x, 4x, 6x CLV

Write Speed (DVD-RAM) : 2x, 3x ZCLV (Ver.2.2), 3x-5x PCAV(Ver.2.2)

Write Speed (CD-R) : 4x, 8x, 16x CLV, 24x, 32x, 40x ZCLV

Write Speed (CD-RW) : 4x, 10x,16x CLV,24x ZCLV

(High Speed: 10x, Ultra Speed: 16x, 24x)

Read Speed (CD-ROM) : Max 40x

Read Speed (DVD-ROM) : Max 16x

Write Method(DVD-RAM) : Random write

Write Method(DVD-R/RW) : Disk-at-Once, Incremental Recording

Write Method(DVD-R/RW) : Restricted Overwrite (DVD-RW only)

Write Method(DVD+R) : Sequential Recording

Write Method(DVD+RW) : Random Write

Write Method(CD-R/RW) : Disk-at-Once, Track-at-Once

Write Method(CD-R/RW) : Session-at-Once, Packet Write

Data Transfer Rate(CD) : Max 6,000KB/s, DVD: Max 22.16 Mbytes/s

Access Time(CD) : 125 ms, DVD-ROM 145 ms, DVD-RAM 165 ms

Buffer Size : 2MB with buffer under run prevention technology

Loading Type : Motorized Tray

Interface Type : E-IDE / ATAPI

Compatible Formats Write : DVD-RAM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-R/RW

Compatible Formats Read : DVD-RAM, DVDR/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-ROM

Compatible Formats Read : CD-R/RW, CD-ROM Mode 1, 2 CD-DA, CD-IFMV

Compatible Formats Read : CD-ROM XA, Mixed CD, CD-Extra, CD-Text

Compatible Formats Read : CD-Plus, Photo-CD, Video CD

W x D x H : 145 x 184.6 x 41.3 mm

Weight : 920g

OS : Windows 98 SE, ME, 2000 Professional, XP Home Edition, Professional
 
By "drive", he meant your hard drive. Having a least an 8MB hard drive buffer will increase overall performance. Your DVD drive looks good. What hard drive do you have in your system? Specs on that?

Usually, mainstream hard drives are produced with 2, 8, and big 16 Megabyte caches.
 
oh ok thanks. i have an 8MB buffer 80GB HD atm and is planning to get a 200GB one soon.
whoa i didnt know you could get 16MB HDs. i knew you could get 10,000rpm ones though.

any help with my memory though?
 
What kind of help? Do you need help choosing a type of memory? If so, budget? And any other requests for the memory type?
 
i want to know how much memory i should have so that i will be able to do the tasks i listed in my first post efficiently and if increasing memory will actually increase the speeds of doing the listed tasks.
 
It would probably help with 4 and 6. If you want you could watch your memory usage in task manager when you're doing different things. I'd recommend 1 GB of memory; it's not too expensive and you'll proabably get use out of it at some point.
 
1. Transfering large files from one harddrive to another ( I often work with large video files, some which go up to a few GB in size )
Click to expand...
RAM may help but not noticeably, the bottleneck is the drive.

2. Burning DVD's ( takes me about 13-15 minutes to burn a standard 4.7 GB DVD )
Click to expand...
If you're doing anything serious with the DVDs you're potentially burning too fast.

3. Speed of Microsoft Internet Explorer surfing, uploading and downloading files.
Click to expand...
More memory should help but not an earthshattering difference I wouldnt suspect

4. Speed of importing and creating videos with Windows Movie Maker 2.
Click to expand...
Importing is HDD bound. Creation is partially memory bound but mostly CPU bound

5. Quality of videos and sound played on computer.
Click to expand...
Quality is whatever it is. Cant be improved

6. Speed of computer in general - opening folders with many files in them ( sometimes can take up to 20 secs just to show me the contents of a folder ), starting programs, starting and shutting down windows, copying and pasting files
Click to expand...
.
Again, looks like HDD bottleneck

as I mentioned above, I currently only have 512Mb and is still finding many things on my computer running very slow and so I am wanting to increase the speed as much as possible and is just wanting to know if this would do the job or should 1GB be sufficient enough for someone like me?
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To find out if you NEED more physical memory,
1. Disable virtual memory
2. Do your tasks whatever they may be and keep an eye out for the amount of free physical memory you have available :)

what do u mean by cache size?
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Unless he's talking about DiamondMax10s or SCSI drives (and you just happen to have those) then you're outta luck unless you wanna buy them :)

here are my DVD burner's specifications
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What media do you use? ATIP information if possible

little help please?
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Ya sure -- but theres no need to bump after 2 hours

Usually, mainstream hard drives are produced with 2, 8, and big 16 Megabyte caches.
Click to expand...
I dunno if i'd consider the DiamondMax10 to be targeted towards the mainstream.... its certainly mainstream priced but I dunno....

It would probably help with 4 and 6
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Huh?
 
Wow thanks Praetor! That helped greatly :)

Praetor said:
RAM may help but not noticeably, the bottleneck is the drive.

Importing is HDD bound. Creation is partially memory bound but mostly CPU bound

Unless he's talking about DiamondMax10s or SCSI drives (and you just happen to have those) then you're outta luck unless you wanna buy them :)
Click to expand...

So I see I will probably be better off getting a better HDD and upgrading my CPU first. I've never looked at the SCSI range of HDDs and when I did just now, I was like :eek: damn, prices are high!
I dont think I have that kind of money to be spending atm... maybe later on in my life...
btw, do u require a special adapter or something to be able to use SCSI HDDs? or are they fit for use with the newer motherboards by themselves?

Praetor said:
To find out if you NEED more physical memory,
1. Disable virtual memory
2. Do your tasks whatever they may be and keep an eye out for the amount of free physical memory you have available :)
Click to expand...

After disabling virtual memory, I was left with 100Mb of physical memory after running a few programs so I guess 1GB would probably be enough for what I'll ever need.

Praetor said:
What media do you use? ATIP information if possible
Click to expand...

sorry I have no idea what ATIP information is... i'm just using normal 4X DVD+R's so thats probably why its so slow atm... would it be better to buy 8X speed DVD-R's or 16X?
 
btw, do u require a special adapter or something to be able to use SCSI HDDs?
Click to expand...
Generally yes

After disabling virtual memory, I was left with 100Mb of physical memory after running a few programs so I guess 1GB would probably be enough for what I'll ever need
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.
Sounds like it :)

For DVD discs, a program called DVD Identifier is needed and can be obtained from http://dvd.identifier.cdfreaks.com/ ... the ATIP defines exactly what company made the disc (since some comapnies make good media and others dont) rather than the name of the company who stampped their logo on the disc ... as for burn speed, slower is better
 
oh cools, thanks for that. :cool: I always used to just go for the cheaper brands ( i mean, who would pay more for something that does the thing? ) but now I guess I will be more cautious about which brands to buy.
and slower is better?
is 8X slow enough?
the ones i'm using atm at 4X and I'm hating the speeds at which they are burning!
burning data from HDD takes about 13-15 mins and copying a DVD takes about 50 mins! :eek:
 
and slower is better?
is 8X slow enough?
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Slower is definitely better. 8X is okay if you have good media (16X is just silly). If you're not sure about the quality of the media, 4X is reccomended.

the ones i'm using atm at 4X and I'm hating the speeds at which they are burning!
burning data from HDD takes about 13-15 mins and copying a DVD takes about 50 mins!
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Something is definitely wrong here: I burn at 2X and it only usually takes me 30minutes
 
does DVD copying speed depend on the speed of the other DVD-drive?
I have a LG Burner ( bought recently ) and a Liteon DVD-Rom ( over 1 year old ) so it may be because of that, that it's so slow?

and also, one more question on memory - if you have programs constantly freezing, does that mean you dont have enough memory?
 
The type of cpu and the mobo that you have will also effect the time of your Burn believe or not. Before I change my mobo it would take about 18 to burn a dvd then I upgrade to a better mobo the time was down to 8 min. Even when doing multi task. with only 512 ram. Not only that my quality also got better. I only use MADE IN JAPAN dvd's to burn.
 
does DVD copying speed depend on the speed of the other DVD-drive?
Click to expand...
Yes if you're doing on the fly copying (which is ill-advised)

I have a LG Burner ( bought recently ) and a Liteon DVD-Rom ( over 1 year old ) so it may be because of that, that it's so slow?
Click to expand...
The LiteOn there is one of the best DVDROMs available. Cant say the same for the DVDRW though

and also, one more question on memory - if you have programs constantly freezing, does that mean you dont have enough memory?
Click to expand...
New topic = new thread please :)

The type of cpu and the mobo that you have will also effect the time of your Burn believe or not. Before I change my mobo it would take about 18 to burn a dvd then I upgrade to a better mobo the time was down to 8 min.
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Actually ... given that CPU utilization is usually <10% it wont play a difference. Your burn speed on the otherhand, will.

I only use MADE IN JAPAN dvd's to burn.
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Doesnt matter where they are made... it's who makes them. If I recall, CMC has a shop out in Japan ... and CMC is crap
 
Well I have not run in to any CMC type made in JAPAN. They are all Taiyo Yuden code TIG01. Please find out the CMC made in JAPAN, Praetor
 
Please find out the CMC made in JAPAN, Praetor
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Exactly how do you want me to answer that? My point is that just because it's made in Japan doesnt mean its good
 
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