+Tech tips: RAM. How much is enough, and other tips

The Plain Truth about RAM

RAM is the cheapest way to computer performance increases. It's also one of the most neglected.

This article suggests you buy lots of RAM. But, buy your RAM from the same place you bought your computer (or at least the same place you bought your motherboard).

When I add RAM, I bring the motherboard manual with me. There are so many variations on RAM, I advise against buying it from anywhere is not within driving distance--unless you have a vendor who will compete on service instead of price. One machine that I upgraded required me to make 3 trips for 3 different kinds of RAM, until I found one that worked.

The trick was this machine would accept only single-sided DIMMs, and not every variation of that style. So don't buy RAM from magazines and don't buy it online unless you really know your RAM.

And now, your tech tips:

How much RAM is enough? Back when RAM cost $45 per megabyte, this was an important question. In those days, wintel computers needed 16 MB to run smoothly, and DOS-only computers needed between about 4 MB. And that is only for basic applications. Add a CAD package, and you're suddenly looking at a massive increase in RAM requirements.

Today, RAM is almost free. It's not unusual for a computer to use 100MB or more, just at idle. If the machine has less RAM than required, it uses "virtual RAM," which it creates on your hard drive. The disadvantages of this are threefold. First, the hard drive runs at about 1,000th of the speed of RAM. Second, reading/writing to a hard drive takes system resources, thus slowing you down and increasing the chances of a system crash. Third, this puts unnecessary wear on your hard drive, and will cause you to lose it prematurely.

How much RAM do you need? Is "need" the right approach? No. The right approach is to ask how much RAM your machine can take! Why? Because each round of software upgrades means more resource demands, especially on RAM. Buy it once, and be done with it. Here is a good strategy:

RAM module types change--get the most advanced RAM packaging that your motherboard can accept. But, make sure it can accept it, before you buy!

Typically, a PentiumX-based machine will have two RAM slots, and each will accept a maximum of 64, 128, 256, 512 MB--or some other value. Always fill a slot to its capacity. This prevents you from having to later throw away RAM just to upgrade a slot that is not filled to its capacity. Thus, you should never buy RAM in increments of less than what your computer can max out on.

There you have it. Buy RAM intelligently, and you'll enjoy your computer more because it'll run faster, crash less, and last longer.

One final tip: in Windows 9x, NT, 2000, and XP, you have a pagefile setting. You can find this under Start/Settings/Control Panel/System. There'll be a tab for Performance and a button to change paging size. Always, without exception, set the minimum and maximum to the same size, which should be 2.5 times whatever your total RAM is (you may want to experiment with adjusting this up or down for optimum performance).

Make this change only AFTER defragmenting your hard drive. I have multiple drives on my main computer, and I have one that is only 1 GB in size. That is where my pagefile resides, with nothing else for it to compete with. This machine really flies!

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Working the Windows Desktop

The whole desktop approach ignores the fact that a computer's hard drive(s) are the electronic version of a paper filing cabinet. It also ignores the fact that people store a huge amount of files in that system. And it ignores a few dozen other facts relevant to using a computer. It's just a bad approach.

The desktop assumes you don't care what files you actually work on. It opens apps, not files, and this is the pathway to problems. You can inadvertently be revising the wrong thing, if you can even find it in the first place.

What you should do instead is use Windows Explorer. Microsoft tends to hide this, but it should be your standard interface with your computer, unless you don't mind working blind.

You can always right mouse click the Start button to invoke it, but you should add Windows Explorer to your Quick Launch bar and several other menus in Windows.

The default settings for Windows Explorer defy logic. Change these so you can actually see what files you are looking at. Enable it to show you the file extensions (unclick the insane "Hide extensions" box that is, stupidly enough, checked by default though actually there is never any reason to ever check this box). Select the option to show details. Now, you will be able to see your file size, file date, and other useful information. If you right click around a bit, you can find quite a bit of functionality in Windows Explorer.

If you haven't been using this interface previously, make a point of using it now. If you always open files from within Windows Explorer, you will always be able to see all available files and select the right one.

Use Windows Explorer to set up your filing system as if it's a paper filing cabinet. Save all files either on the data drive (dual hard drive machine) or in a folder on a single hard drive machine. Do NOT save files to the default locations. These never make any sense. They are typically within your applications, which is a dumb place to save them. That's how you end up with corrupted data files and it also makes file backups difficult.

For single-drive users, an easy solution is to create a folder called 0files as your top-level data folder. The zero means it will show up at the top of your file list, making things easy for you. Below this folder, create you filing structure. Never store anything at the root of this folder. Think of it as the shell of a five-drawer filing cabinet and don't toss stuff in the bottom. Always put files in folders that are in drawers.

With a good filing structure in place, you will always be able to find your files by simply clicking right to them. So think this out as you go and follow a good taxonomy. It's a much more effective way to work than how the zombies at Microsoft envision people working.

Recovering hard drive space

Even with today's huge drives, people sometimes run out of hard drive space. The steps below can recover wasted space.

Do a search for *.tmp files. Delete all of them. Then defrag your drive.

Do a search for *.bak files. Delete all of them. Then defrag your drive.

If you have any *.bmp files, change the format to *.jpg. This will result in radically smaller files. You need an image tool for this; if you don't have one installed already, then skip this step.
Set the Properties for the drive to compress files. In Windows Explorer, right mouse click the drive name. Then select Properties. Then select Compress to Save Drive Space. This could take a while, so unless you want your machine tied up for a few hours do this process one folder at a time and then do it for the whole drive.
If this issue is for your programs drive, then remove any programs you aren't using. Go to Control Panel | Remove Programs.
On your data drive, zip files you aren't using.

There are other steps you can take, but if, at this point, you are still low on disk space you really need to add another hard drive or upgrade one that's in your system. Or, another very cool option, is to add a My Ditto system. See our Review of the Dane my Ditto network server.