Virtual Ram...

[makotech222]

I have a question on this. i have 512 mb of ddr2 ram on my computer i and just recently set my virtual ram to 10-12 gb on my computer. I have an extra 90 gb on my harddrive so i just thought i should use some of it as virtual ram. Is this a good idea? and will it harm/help my computer at all?
thanks

[zen_master]

Errr.. 10-12 Gb is an overkill. I read somewhere that a good rule of thumb is to set your virtual memory twice the size of your actual RAM. Virtual RAM isn't all its cranked up to be, because its not nearly as fast as your DDR2, you will feel major performance drop if your OS uses allot of virtual memory. With allot of virtual memory you will be able to multitask allot of applications but the performance is not going to be any good. If you really want to use virtual ram and you own more than one physical hard drive, you should fragment virtual ram across the different drives to increase the speed a little.

Also I read somewhere that a perfect computer wouldn't need hard drives, and that all the information would be stored on fast RAM. There isn't such thing as too mutch memory. Get some more

[mikeshoup]

My suggestion, set it to 1GB for virtual memory. If you're using 10-12GB of virtual memory, then you seriously need to consider a computer designed for exactly what you're doing. (Gaming won't use nearly that much at all.) Also, the rule of thumb about twice your physical memory should be followed up to 2GB of virtual memory. If you need more than 2GB, there will be too much hard drive thrashing going on and you need more physical memory.

Just what were you thinking using 10-12GB for virtual memory? That high won't harm your computer, but it certainly won't help in any way.

[makotech222]

ok thanks thats all im asking ill set it back down to 2gb.