Ram

[dizzynoodle]

what does one gain in performance going from 384MB RAM to 640 or 768MB... realistically on a PII 400 machine. I use Photoshop/ After Effects to most besides Net Surfing on DSL ??

[Guru]

what os?

[omegaRED]

I`d guess you wont see a HUGE difference, unless you are working with very large files ... But if you can afford it, go for it! But personally, i`d upgrade the CPU/MoBo ... 384Mb is more than enough for everyday use, even with Photoshop/After Effects ... You`ll see a much bigger difference if you get a faster CPU than 768Mb RAM on that rig ...

[dizzynoodle]

running WIN2K...pls read

YOu think i will get seriuos performance boost if i go for a Win2k machine with PIII 800 and 512MB SDRAM over my PII 400 384MB ram machjine ? My only concern is that the only Asus MOBO i can get where i live is the CuSlXX MOBO, is that a good one [I would love to have the P3B-F...watcha think ?

[Guru]

Have3 a look at the article over at anandtech

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=483

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=863

and just for comparison's sake, AnandTech conducted benchmarks with 512MB of RAM, however there were absolutely no performance differences what-so-ever between the 384MB and 512MB systems, illustrating that the limit of the benefit of increased memory sizes in these types of applications was reached. This limit will vary according to the nature of your application usage, however for the tests AnandTech conducted, it seems as though anything above 384MB wouldn't produce too great of an improvement in performance for most professional users (web servers excluded).

EDIT:Why would it have to be a ASUS mobo?

[omegaRED]

Definitely!!! PhotoShop 6 seems to work quite a bit faster in Win2K than in WinMe, atleast it looks it does to me ... and i have 256Mb RAM and a Katmai P3 500 ... the 800 should speed things up quite a bit (gaming included, since the G400 becomes the bottleneck with 800/850Mhz P3s). Win2K is a definite go ... best OS out of Redmond ...

About the MoBo ... i`m sorry, i cant help you with that one ... i have an Abit BE6II, and i`m very satisfied with it ( after i d/l the proper drivers for the HPT366 UDMA controller ) ... i`m sure someone will give you a good suggestion ...

Try searching the board for MoBo suggestions ... there were quite a few threads about MoBos ...

[Guru]

If I remeber things right ps6 uses the sse (kni, mmx2) instructions on the p3!

[dizzynoodle]

ASUS Rulez

I have had nothing but great pleasure + stability after using this MOBO for the past 5 yrs in several systems i put together... i don't mind using another brand if it is fast + reliable.

The anandTec linx posted are about multi-processing !

[cbman]

CUSL2 - Very Good Board, With Tweak Bios... Excellent Board...

[The_King]

Speaking of RAM, I have just upgraded from a BX MOBO (PII450) to an Athlon 1200. In my old machine I had 128 MB RAM and I now have 1 stick of 256MB. The problem is that I'm always getting the message of running low on memory. Why is this? Is it to do with the MOBO? I had less problems running 128MB than 256MB. I'm running Win98 BTW.

[Guru]

Re: ASUS Rulez

Originally posted by dizzynoodle
The anandTec linx posted are about multi-processing !

Basicly the first article is about what will speed up your system the most a faster cpu a second cpu or more ram! Thas why you should consider reading it! The second article is just a follow up to the first!

[Alec]

The King,

What exact message do you get? What programs do you have open? What´s your swapfile size? What space do you have free in your hard disk?

Also, Win 9x/Millennium do a lousy job managing memory...

One advice:
Do one of two things: install W2K (best option) or install Cacheman 5 on your W98.

[Jorden]

Dizzynoodle, what Asus board are you trying to upgrade? I just upgraded my P2B-F from a P3-450/256Mb/WinME to a P3-750/512Mb/WinME. I'm faster in everything. The only things I needed to buy were 2x256Mb, a P3-750 (100) and an Abit slotket. My old memory (2x128Mb) went to my girlfriend

Written by Alec: Also, Win 9x/Millennium do a lousy job managing memory...

Ever tried Win98/ME with 256Mb or more memory, Alec? Do you know what swapfile I have in WinME with 512Mb memory? Would you believe I have no swapfile, without me changing anything?

I tried running WinME with 256Mb and swapfile purposely set to 0 (zero), and it worked great even then. I could still load 3 or more Mozilla windows, open Office2k Excel and Word windows and have multiple IE5.50 windows open (even on dualhead) without my PC crashing.

Jord.

[dizzynoodle]

I'm on P2B...

Can i upgrade my MOBO ? What is the max PIII CPU i can put on it ? I currently have a PII 400 on the damn thing Do i need a slot key for all upgrades, do they cause problems ?

thnx

[xortam]

Re: I'm on P2B...

Originally posted by dizzynoodle
... do they cause problems ?

Yeah ... you'll want to keep ugrading your CPU. I'm running a P2B-S R1.03 with an Abit SloKET!!! housing an 1 GHz P!!! 100 FSB, fairly stable . I was running an 850 dead stable.