[WMCoolmon]

A few weeks ago I upgraded my computer from two Pentium III 733s to a Duron 1.6Ghz, since most things I did were single-threaded (that required much processor power). Basically, it went from

2xPentium III
2x128 MB 133Mhz RAM
PIO-mode HD (Driver problem in Win2k)

to

1xDuron 1.6Ghz
1x256 MB DDR400
UATA-100 HD (Driver problem fixed w/ new motherboard)
1xReversed-cable floppy drive...the light always stays on and I keep forgetting to fix it.


Yet afterward, the computer seems to move things around in memory much slower; I notice it caching on the HD much more often. Memory usage also seems to hover around 300 MB (During normal usage). Is there any way to clear this up?

(I also read somewhere that having a different memory and processor speed can cause slowdowns, so next reboot I'm going to slow the memory down to 266 Mhz, if possible).

[Grey Wolf]

Run the memory synchronized with the processor.

[IceFire]

Memory usage should not be 300mb.  Thats rediculous.  Mine starts at 95mb and usually goes to 120mb by the time I'm running a few programs.

[Thorn]

If you're running XP, it will probably should sit around 128 or so when idle. 256 is the bare minimum for XP. You probably want to get another 256 chip.

[Grey Wolf]

XP can hit 200MB easy. Poor memory management by the OS. And Thorn, he has to have at least 512MB, unless he's referring to the paging file.

[WMCoolmon]

I'm running 2000, and yes, that is including the paging file.

[Grey Wolf]

300 including paging file doesn't seem unusual at all.

[Taristin]

Duron? Why did you get a Duron? My Duron is weeeeaaaak.

[WMCoolmon]

Monetary concerns...the upgrade had to be cheap. The board I got should support an Athlon. It was also a special at the local computer store.

When you only have a 733 Mhz processor everything seems fast. I can now play MP3s with winamp at 24-bit/96000hz without any skipping. Heck, MP3-without-skipping period...couldn't do that before.

Edits: clarification

[Xelion]

Originally posted by Grey Wolf 2009
300 including paging file doesn't seem unusual at all.

Agreed, but only when your running a few programs and half a dozen explorer/browser windows. I've got a gig of ram and yet more than 90% of the time I don't use half. Though I would rec. another 256MB stick WMCoolmon like Thorn said.

[Lightspeed]

Duron = the bad.

[Kazan]

Pentium IV = da worse

Should have gotten a Athlon XP and DDR333 ram (DDR400 still has major performance isues - the subrevision of DDR400 with them fixed still isn't mainstream yet)

[Taristin]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
Monetary concerns...the upgrade had to be cheap. The board I got should support an Athlon. It was also a special at the local computer store.

When you only have a 733 Mhz processor everything seems fast. I can now play MP3s with winamp at 24-bit/96000hz without any skipping. Heck, MP3-without-skipping period...couldn't do that before.

Edits: clarification

Preaching to the choir here. I have a Duron 600, 128Mb PC27(?)00  (The 266Mhz one) RAM, and a GF2 MX PCI, and I still manage to run musicmatch, TS, 3dMax6, and/or Mozilla Firefox sometimes simultaneous.

[IceFire]

266 mhz ram is a PC2100 spec and not PC2700.  I have the PC2700 stuff which is 333 mhz and PC3200 is 400 mhz.  Not sure how the numbers match up....but they do work like that

[Liberator]

Older Durons were much better performers compared to their Athlon brethren of the same generation.  But the newer ones just plain suck compared to AthlonXPs, besides AthlonXPs can be had for less that $100 if you know where to look.  I got my 1800 for $60.

[Sandwich]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
When you only have a 733 Mhz processor everything seems fast. I can now play MP3s with winamp at 24-bit/96000hz without any skipping. Heck, MP3-without-skipping period...couldn't do that before.

Now that's not hardware. I can run winamp on my P3-600 at any quality level I want without anything even nearing a skip. Sounds like a over-laden OS install.

[WMCoolmon]

*shrugs* I tried to be pretty frugal in my reinstalls of Win2K but the problem was consistent. Running in UDMA mode had a tendency to murder my drive...I think there might be a fix out for now but I haven't had any problems with the new mobo. As a result, at the time I was stuck with PIO mode.

Although - I would usually be doing something else, like browsing the internet, so it wasn't just Winamp that was drawing on my processing power...

Kaz: What kind of issues?

[Kazan]

Issues as in DDR400 performs poorly and DDR333 kicks it's but it's soo bad

[Grey Wolf]

Of course, DDR550 is DDR 500, is DDR466, is DDR 433, is DDR 400, is DDR333, is DDR266, and is DDR200. They're the same chips. They increase frequencies by increasing latencies.

Realistically, the best ram you can get is anything with a BH-5 or BH-6 chip from Winbond. Unfortunately, they were both discontinued, so the memory market is basically screwed until someone develops a new competent chip.

Kazan: You referring to the fact that most systems don't like 3 or more non-ECC DDR400?

Ice Fire: The PC2100 and PC3200 names refer to the bandwidth. A DDR module running at 200MHz (DDR400) has a maximum theoretical bandwidth of 3.2GB/s.

[Kazan]

Grey Wolf 2009: I'm refering to the fact that almost every combination of chips/motherboards for DDR400 currently on the market don't get along and run right