Page file and cooling fan?

[Germanicus75]

Hi guys,

Thanks alot for your helpful replies to my questions a couple of weeks back. I went ahead and got some more RAM, so now I have 2 GB.

I've two more questions I'd like to try on you:

1) What's the best page file size under Win XP for 2 GB RAM? I hear conflicting views about this and I'm quite confused. I'm asking especially in relation to running RTW optimally.

2) I've got the fan/heatsink that came with my boxed Athlon64 3800+. Can someone recommend a cooling fan/heatsink solution that will keep the CPU running cooler than the one supplied in the box?

Thanks for your help!

Cheers, Germanicus91

[Incinerate_IV]

I have 2 gigs of ram, and I put my page file at 500mb. It doesn't seem to cause any problems.

Also, I hear the new heat pipe heatsink AMD has is quite good, as good as a XP 90 infact. So if you have a heat pipe heatsink your fine. If not then I would recommend XP 90 or XP 90C (The XP 90C is currently the best air cooling heatsink avilable).

[OTZ]

If you are not overclocking, then there really isn't a need for a new HSF. 64's don't really get that hot even with stock cooling.

[Hadrian]

Incinerate_IV has his page file set for what would be considered "maximum gaming setting" to keep from using excessive Hard drive space. This is a common practice amongst serious gamers who are trying to maximize their systems rescources.The "standard" ratio would be one and a half times you actual RAM. For example you have 2GB of RAM so your page/swap file (virtual memory) would be 1024MB start page and 3072MB max page.

I remember you were contemplating overclocking before.OTZ is very solid and practical with his advice. If you are going to definately OC,then there are several we can recommend but if you not going to OC then stay with the factory supplied cooler because you will void the warranty on you CPU if you change out the stock heatsink/fan. They are certified to be effective if your not OCing and you'll save about $50-70.00 and a little bit o trouble.

[Germanicus75]

Many thanks guys, and especially Hadrian (for replying to a number of my hardware queries with great patience). I've decided to stick with the stock cooler and I've set the page file to what Hadrian recommends :-)

Cheers! Germanicus91

[Kurwa]

with 2 gig ram why do you need swapfile? I run 1.5 gig without any and no one complains

[Hadrian]

I have found that you can't "turn off" the page file system. Windows will configure it and use it on its own if it is set to "0" or "no page file system". The minimum is 2MB and whatever you set the max.Setting the minimum and the maximum the same to prevent resizing and fragmenting is a disputed technique. Some "experts" say Windows will resize the virtual memory on its own if it thinks the file is too small or too big....
The undisputed best way to keep the page file from slowing down you system is to keep it away from your OS by putting it on a secondary HD,at the front,or in the middle,in a seperate,small(2-50MB) partition.The small partition will also keep it from fragmenting.I must do more research on this subject...

[Ahlerich]

my opinion is with 2gig of ram u almost need no pagefile so i would pick a small one like 400 or 500.
if you assign eg 4000mb pagefilesize the pc page more which will slow down the computer