Re: Questions about external drives for XP


"GHalleck" <ghalleck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uR2Y9CG3HHA.4676@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Joan, a Pentium-4 2.4 GHZ CPU is not a known speed demon nor is the
Dell 8200 in contrast to today's computers using multi-core, multi-
threading CPU's with real and perceived speeds in the 3.4 GHz and
faster range. Nor should all of the programs be causing any issues
even though they may be resident in memory...we are no longer in the
days of MS-DOS. I think you are getting more inpatient and justifying a
purchase of a computer newer and better than the Dell might be the cure.
If this is the case, go for it! I do my digital photowork using a 3.4 GHz
Pentium-D CPU, 2 GHz of PC-6400 RAM, and fast 300 GB SATA HD's.

Joan,

I think that the machine you have is plenty for what you wish to do. I
really don't think you need to purchase a new machine.

Since you say you are doing regular maintenance (AV/spyware scans, defrags,
etc.) have you looked at your page file? You said you recently upgraded
your RAM to 2GB, but did you also update your page file? I typically
recommend a page file to be at least 1.5x available RAM, plus 11 MB. I
can't remember where the 11MB comes from, but I know if you have Windows
control it, that's what it adds as well. So, with your 2GB RAM, I would
really recommend your page file to be 3083MB. I also do not recommend you
let Windows control the page file, if you do, that file will become
fragmented and defrag.exe will not fix it. Best thing to do is tell Windows
no page file, run a defrag (3 or 4 times back to back to ensure you're as
defragged as you can get) then tell Windows you want your page file Initial
size to be 3083MB and the Maximum size to be 3083MB. This will create a
single contiguous page file that will not change size and thus will not
become defragmented.

To find the page file settings, right click My Computer, go to Properties,
the Advanced Tab, under the Performance section click the Settings button,
go to the Advanced tab, at the bottom there is a section for Virtual Memory.
Click Change then set your Initial size and your Maximum size. Then click
the Set button. You may need to restart your computer after doing this.

Let me know how it goes.

Darhl



.