Got a dilemma I ask for advice!

[[SiN]]

Ok the problem is that my 80Gig HD is just about full. Have a total of about 10GB left on all partitions. Yes 10Gb is enough to last, but those are also on my OS, Games, and Applications drives which I want to keep just for their respective title.

My warez drive has only about 2gb left which is not much. Everything I download goes right to disk to save space.

I want to buy another HD but here is the dillema...
My computer gets a bit sluggish after a big game or burning a buch of CD's. My first thought is I need more RAM. I currently have 394MB of ram, and rdram isn't that cheap. So either a HD or ram is the options right now.

My question to you, is do you think it is just my ram causing the slow downs? Or could it be the HD being it is only a 5400rpm. My thought would be ram, but checking system properties I have about 170MB of ram free when the computer begins to become slow.

System specs:
Home built
ASUS P4T mobo
P4 1.7GHz
384MB kingston RDRAM
80Gb 5400rps HDD

Do you think RAM would be my best bet right now to stop the slow downs? I want the HD, but want the slow downs to stop

Later,
Lucky

[Crowdirt]

Hi Lucky...I assume you are running a Good OS (WinXP). If the machine is Fast after a Reboot and slows down after a period of use, then the problem is most likely "Memory Leaks" and "Fragmentation of RAM. Most Burning Proggies and Big Games are quite "Sloppy" when it comes to "Good Design". These things do not "Clean" up after themselves once they finish running. Apps will often leave Hardware Components "Hanging" on unresolved IRQs and chunks of Memory that have not been "Returned" for the System to use.

I would find "Better" Software to use that runs properly, generally stuff that is NOT Shareware/Freeware. Buy another Hard Drive if you need the Space. Lots of RAM is only needed if you run Many Things at the same time.

[[SiN]]

[quote:c180393b3c][i:c180393b3c]Originally posted by Crowdirt [/i:c180393b3c]
[b]Hi Lucky...I assume you are running a Good OS (WinXP). If the machine is Fast after a Reboot and slows down after a period of use, then the problem is most likely "Memory Leaks" and "Fragmentation of RAM. Most Burning Proggies and Big Games are quite "Sloppy" when it comes to "Good Design". These things do not "Clean" up after themselves once they finish running. Apps will often leave Hardware Components "Hanging" on unresolved IRQs and chunks of Memory that have not been "Returned" for the System to use. [/quote:c180393b3c]

That is what I kinda figured... I am using winXP pro, and the only real burning software I use is NERO, and when needed clone CD. The system don't seem to hang when using clone CD, so maybe it is just NERO (and some games) that take time to free up memory cuz after a while system starts to speed up again.


[quote:c180393b3c]
I would find "Better" Software to use that runs properly, generally stuff that is NOT Shareware/Freeware. Buy another Hard Drive if you need the Space. Lots of RAM is only needed if you run Many Things at the same time.
[/quote:c180393b3c]

Regarding the sofware, I have no shareware on my computer, prefer not to use it for the reasons you poiny out.

I was always under the belife/impression that if the system starts to hang is because the swap file (mine being set to 400/400) is being used too much for lack of RAM (although I will need to look and see how much the HD is being accessed to say it is swap file, never really checked). So you don't think RAM will do anything for my situation?

Its just that I know my system should not hang as much as it does at times. Maybe something in the OS itself I need to look into. I also think there is faster RAM out there I could buy, don't quite remember if I have the 600 or 800 RDRam (need to look into that also). Just seems like something is getting bottlenecked, but I made sure to try and prevent that when I built the system - but yet another thing I may have to look into.

Thanks for the input crowdirt, your info and knowledge is always appreciated

[Grzyb]

Hello Mate.......

I've got the following

Athlon 1.4
512 DDRRAM
75 G IBM HARDDRIVE
32MEG GEFORCE GRAPHICS CARD.....

As you know I run mine as a server for the community....

After it has been on a while I expirience the problems you detailed sluggish etc

The only way to get it back to full optimization is to reboot......

Go for a hard disk upgrade After 256mb ram you don't notice much difference in performance unless you have multiple apps open.......

[LuckyDog98]

Hello, I would have to agree with Crowdirt. He has a very good point about memory leaks. But I would also like to point out that the more space you fill on your hard drive the slower the transfer rate is especially when it is almost maxed out. I think you have plenty of RAM, so I would suggest a new hard drive.

LuckyDog98

[Crowdirt]

Hi Folks, if you want to run a Server for long periods of time (weeks) then you should be using Windows 2K Server or equivalent as an OS. Such a system is "Tuned" for that purpose and will not get slow even after months of operation.

Keep in mind though Workstation Proggies should not be run on such a machine. I am thinking of things like ZAP or equivalent, NAV or equivalent, Mail clients, and Surfing Proggies like IE6.0. Such things are not "Robust" enough for long periods of "Uptime".

[Menace Inc]

Very good points.

You shouldn't be running anything on the server at all. If you do, a lot of the proggies can be runing in the background which can slow down your system performance. I would setup a low end of Pentium III or AMD Duron to serve the community.

[quote:19413b0471][i:19413b0471]Originally posted by Crowdirt [/i:19413b0471]
[b]Keep in mind though Workstation Proggies should not be run on such a machine. I am thinking of things like ZAP or equivalent, NAV or equivalent, Mail clients, and Surfing Proggies like IE6.0. Such things are not "Robust" enough for long periods of "Uptime". [/quote:19413b0471]

[Crowdirt]

Hi Menace, actually for a "File Server" I use Dual PII 300's or A PIII 600 etc. Processor with lots of RAM (512 M. A machine like that will easily keep up with anything a "Broadband"/T1/T3 connection can do.