Quick Q for you techies. I'm increasing my RAM and need to bump up the page file also. Its now set to 'custom'. Should I just change this to "system managed", or increase the custom numbers? Also, can I just pick any custom figure I want, or do they have to be some multiple? yeah, maybe this is a software Q. But now that I've already asked in this forum... thanks, Jay
Recommended page file size is 1.5X of physical RAM. I use 2X. Your system sets a maximum size possible, but having one that big basically just blocks off more of your HD and is rarely, if ever, used.... I'm presuming your OS is W2K or XP??
Whether to use 1.5x or 2x depends on your base memory footprint and how many virtual memory hogs you run at once. Example - on one of my machines I've got 1/2 GB of RAM and I'm running 3/4 GB page file (1.5x). Doing 2x would be a waste of disk space. On the other hand, if you only had 128MB of RAM, then it wouldn't be overkill to run a 256MB page file. Load up your machine's workload with as much as you're likely to use and then check the task manager and see how much virtual memory you're consuming. If you've got a reasonable physical memory footprint and a typical machine load, chances are that 1-1.5x will be more than enough page file space.
ArchAngel is spot-on. However, don't go overboard on reducing your page file to what you think is minumum or unnecessary to conserve HD space. I once couldn't boot my computer due to "insufficient page file" error. That's a chicken- and-egg deal. Can't boot because my page file is too small, and can't reset my page file because I can't boot.
thanks guys. I run XP and 768 MB ram. I'll set the page file to a gig. I don't care if I use HD space. I only use this computer for trading and web surfing and have gobs of unused space. Jay
The optimal thing is to set the minimum and the max the same. This helps keep the disk from getting badly fragmented. But the fastest way to set up a paging file would be to put it on a second hard drive(only if you have one). But even faster than that would be to have shit load of RAM.(1 Gig plus)