How many....X2 with 1gb RAM

[StormPC]

Did you really mean to say that, and call people that use their PC in such a fashion 'stupid' ?

Your argument in this thread is baseless, since you cannot possibly understand of know how everyone uses their PC, yet you presume to do so by calling people with lots of running applications 'stupid'.

I currently have the following up and running on my PC, as I type this:

Photoshop CS
Homesite 4.5
Firefox
Outlook XP
Steam
MSN Messenger
Rivatuner
RMClock
WiFi Card Manager
System Studio 2
Winamp
NOD3D Anti Virus
Microsoft Word
PuTTY
UltraMon
DynDNS Updater
Gadwin Printscreen
EPSON Printer Monitor

Combined, they're using nearly 800MB of physical memory, with a further 300MB or so paged out to disk but mapped and in use. All of those applications are either required for me to do my job, or are small utilities that help me use my computer quickly and easily. That's over 1GB of mapped memory, the OS pushing some out to disk.

The minute I start the process of editing images in Photoshop for use in HomeSite, while I use Word for copy checking, I'll run into memory pressure with the OS having to go out to disk more often. 2GB would be a help for me.

I don't consider my use of a PC, or the apps and utils I run, to be out of the ordinary. Do you? Infact, I consider it entirely normal.

I shut down the bigger apps when I want to game, but I certainly don't close down all the smaller utilities I frequently use. Am I stupid, in your eyes, for not doing so? If I am, and I'm far from alone in how I use a computer, then I suggest you start to rethink your notions of computer use before any more threads you participate in are sidetracked by your incorrect assumptions about how folks use a PC.

I know it's common for the overclocker to shut as much down as possible, in the pursuit of a higher benchmark result, and I know that's where you're coming from, but that's really not how most us a PC system. Please try and understand that.

Calling RoGuE|SaBeR stupid for his tiny list of useful apps he uses is uncalled for. Please exercise restraint before you insult anyone else, thanks!

Is your computer so slow that you can't manage to close some of the larger applications? I mean, you don't actually use all of those programs at the same time, right? How many arms do you have? If you find you need a program it really isn't that difficult to doubleclick an icon, is it (especially if you have enough arms and hands to use that many programs)? If you can't use them all why are they open?

I never called RoGuE|SaBeR stupid, just got a giggle out of his post.

[nichomach]

Because it's a flipping hassle having to close and reopen an app every time you want to switch to it? Because it's a waste of time? Because I'd rather have a slightly tidier desktop? Certainly I'd regard it as a waste of my time, especially at work, when I could just chuck some more RAM in and obviate the necessity for it (says he, quite happy that his Opterons are burping quietly over their 2GB). Let's just look at that list a mo'; quite a lot of those are background apps anyway, and I can quite see the larger ones being switched between perfectly sensibly, especially on someone whose machine is being used for content creation. You don't just work in one program, even if you're doing one task; you might be editing graphical content for embedding in a web page before previewing it, and it's actually quicker and simpler to have the three programs that one might sensibly be using for that open at the same time. Say, Photoshop, Homesite and Firefox for instance. While having your mail client open, since if you receive a work related email you want to know about it.

[Dougal]

I guess it could also be useful for people who do not have the brains to close an application when they are finished with it. If a person is that stupid then they are probably too stupid to be able to switch between 17 open applications.

Errrm, he said he had 17 apps open and you said that people with 17 apps are stupid.

Viz you called him stupid

[MD]

well put it this way, I am totally with Rys on this, due to the nature of the work I do I have plenty of programs running at any one time, and its not an option to keep closing and reopening programs, I, like many others at HEXUS try to juggle many different things at once and I can be working in one app and have to run and do something else and then will jump back to what I was doing originally for a little bit and then get on to something else.

I had a shuttle, with a 3.4 chip, and 1GB of ram, it wasn't enough, programs would run slow and a new install of XP made no difference, I went back to 2GB in a tower and now everything is fine. To write a review on HEXUS I can need up to 20 different applications, brwoser windows and editing tools just to get the review done quickly without any hassle (the worst thing about the flow of writing for reviews is getting interupted and losing your train of thought)

Its down to each individuals usage patterns, just because you have the ability to close apps inbetween things does not mean you need to.

Then on the other hand, BF2 is a suggested 2GB game for all its glory, but then of course, thats not a sign of things to come is it?

m@

[Smokey21]

Storm are you denying that more memory isn't better? lol.

Of course 2Gb is better than 1. Well ill be using 2GB of ram soon and an X2, so ill get back to you how much smoother it feels in loading games, and with stuff open etc.

I imagine games in the future will start to run better with 2GB as well, and D3 definatly helps with 2GB on Ultra quality.

[TechPro2005]

I think Storm likes to argue just for the sake of arguing.

[StormPC]

Plenty of games do/will be needing 2gb in the future.

Everquest2, BF2 are just two I can think of right now.

I dont see anything wrong with having 2gb, as it will futureproof your pc for quite a while.

Ram is also quite cheap atm, which makes it more of a good idea.

I don't subscribe to the theory that "if a lot is good, too much is better", but I guess many of you do.

Nobody said it was wrong, just an unnecessary expense. The money could be better spent. It always cracks me up when I see people spend money on RAM and CPU, and then scrimp on the hard drive and/or videocard, or some other rediculous scenario.

I also never called anyone stupid. It is a coincidence that Rys had 18 (not 17) apps going. I just chose 17 as an example. Really though, how hard is it to open an application? Saving time? Wow, it must take at least 200 nanoseconds to click on an icon. Unless you are Bill Gates, I doubt your time would be wasted.

There are some applications where a workstation (and especially a server) really benefits from more than 1GB, but you mainstream gamers are not going to see any performance increase no matter how much you scream the virtues of GB's at the top of your lungs.

I thank all of you who believe you need to have 2GB+ RAM though, because it is you guys who are bringing the price of RAM lower and lower. It means really cheap RAM for us sane people who know how to close a window once in awhile.

[Rave]

Erm....never heard of supply and demand then? If more people want 2GB, there's more demand for modules, and the price will go up.

[SilentDeath]

I don't subscribe to the theory that "if a lot is good, too much is better", but I guess many of you do.

Nobody said it was wrong, just an unnecessary expense. The money could be better spent. It always cracks me up when I see people spend money on RAM and CPU, and then scrimp on the hard drive and/or videocard, or some other rediculous scenario.

I also never called anyone stupid. It is a coincidence that Rys had 18 (not 17) apps going. I just chose 17 as an example. Really though, how hard is it to open an application? Saving time? Wow, it must take at least 200 nanoseconds to click on an icon. Unless you are Bill Gates, I doubt your time would be wasted.

There are some applications where a workstation (and especially a server) really benefits from more than 1GB, but you mainstream gamers are not going to see any performance increase no matter how much you scream the virtues of GB's at the top of your lungs.

I thank all of you who believe you need to have 2GB+ RAM though, because it is you guys who are bringing the price of RAM lower and lower. It means really cheap RAM for us sane people who know how to close a window once in awhile.

thankyou for chosing me as your quote, obviously you thinnk of me as the least sane person here.... anyway:

Harddisk? well unless your constantly downloading pr0n/warez, an old 40gb hdd will do (assuming it has FDB and therefore resonably quite.)


What hard disk would you consider? an old'ism max0r is good enough for me.

video card obviously the most important thing, luckly I have a x850xtpe.

As for ram, games need it just as much as they need anything else. If you want textures at max, the games gotta have somewhere to put them!

If you havent anything usefull to say then please stfu (but i expect you will ignore this, and contine posting in many more threads in which youve been proven wrong after your first post...)

[StormPC]

Erm....never heard of supply and demand then? If more people want 2GB, there's more demand for modules, and the price will go up.

Didn't think anyone could be more illogical than you Rave, but |SilentDeath| kicks your arse!

Erm...if you read my post I think you'll see that's exactly what I said.

[ed^chigliak]

1gb or 2gb of RAM hardly a life of death decision. When I build a system I look at the amount of RAM I need and double it. There is rarely a need to upgrade the RAM during the life of the PC. I avoid the problem with incompatible sticks later when I can't find the exact same sticks to ugrade. It's a day one upgrade for convenience more than anything else. Also I don't like to fill all the RAM slots because it will drop performance or lack stability or need a bios update or explode in my face because I'm unlucky with RAM upgrades.

[Smokey21]

How is 2Gb an "unnecessary expense" when it's the same price as a quality set of 1GB, lol.

[Rave]

Didn't think anyone could be more illogical than you Rave, but |SilentDeath| kicks your arse!

Erm...if you read my post I think you'll see that's exactly what I said.

No, read your own post.

I thank all of you who believe you need to have 2GB+ RAM though, because it is you guys who are bringing the price of RAM lower and lower.

More demand for RAM = rising prices. This is about as basic an economic principle as you can get. TBH making you look daft is starting to lose it's appeal for me now, you just make it too easy.

[blueprint]

I agree with the guy who said that you don't need 2gb.
Its like graphics cards; a 256mb card by no means its faster than the same card with 128mb. Applications just don't use it. It wasn't that long ago when 128mb was the standard.

You can only use so much RAM and 1gb is more than enough.

I put it to you upgraders that you will get negligable performance increase with 2gb installed.

[nichomach]

You can put it to whoever you like, but when you already have 800MB used with just the apps open that you may be working in and when you may need to task switch between apps with frequency then you'll find that 2GB coming in very handy. Personally, due to the large number of background apps that I have to have running concurrently, my workstation has already consumed 878MB. Now that's only having Outlook and Firefox open as apps that I'm interacting with. I guarantee that at some point in the next hour or so my machine WILL use more than a gig of RAM. And will do so regularly throughout the day.

[RDL]

2gb while being more, isn't always better. For a start 2gb is crap for overclocking, so in that retrospect you might want to stick with 1. My two main rigs (one listed in sig, the other P4 3.4ghz, 2gigs RAM, 500gb HDD, 9800Pro etc.) have the difference of 1gb RAM. Granted the system specs are different, but I don't notice the 3.4ghz to be faster in the slightest. The 2gb RAM is simply there because I use that computer for office work, and it handles Access Databases and the like a lot. However this rig (see sig) is here for internet browsing, IRC, MSN, Boinc and gaming.

So really it depends what you are doing with your system. I'd still follow the idea that if you don't desperately need 2gb at the time why bother with it?