[PLUG] Is 1 GB enough memory?

[Richard C. Steffens]

Michael Rasmussen and one or two others wrote this or something similar:
> It really depends on what you're planning to do with the system.
> Video editing?  Not enough.
>
> General use? Sure. Especially if you use XFCE and Chrome for your browser. 
> Firefox will chew up that RAM.
>   

General use is probably the right characterization. I'll be trying out 
different distros. I'm also going to try running several virtually, at 
the same time, for the experience. One thing I want to try is to see if 
I can get an old copy of Win98 to run as a virtual machine and have 
access to the SCSI controller I'll put in the box so I can run the 
original software that came with my Epson Perfection 600 scanner. At one 
time it worked under SANE, but somewhere in the last year or two that 
model disappeared from the supported scanners list. The scanner on my 
all-in-one Brother printer has developed a line running the length of 
the scan, plus the 600 can handle legal size originals.

So, a test machine with occasional scanning, but no serious production work.

Fred James wrote:

> First - check the specs on the motherboard and see just how much memory, 
> and in what configurations, the board will take.

Next time I have the lid off I'll see what I can figure out. I might 
have some documentation from my sister, too. I know it has two slots, 
but don't know the top end limits. On the other hand, this box is a few 
years old, so I won't be putting a lot of re$ource$ into it.


Tim wrote:

> However, you should consider whether or not the motherboard is
> dual-channel or not.  Not sure if you're familiar with this timing
> hack that motherboards have been using, but often you can get better
> speed out of 2 or 3 smaller memory sticks rather than a single one of
> a larger size (with all timing specs being otherwise the same).
>   

No, I'm not familiar with that. I'll have to look into it.


Update: My wife had to visit Pacific Solutions to have another machine 
looked at, so she took my sister's old box with her. The tech installed 
a 1 GB stick along with the 256 MB stick. The machine seems to boot XP 
faster than before, which is what I expected. I will soon start loading 
Linux distros on it.

Thanks to all for your advice.

-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens