How much virtual memory?

Given these specs, what is the optimal amount of virtual memory?

XP Pro SP2
2.4 GHz P4
533 MHz Asus motherboard
256 MB PC2700 DDR RAM
64 MB Radeon 7500
2 x 80 GB 7500RPM HDD


Now, same thing but with 512 MB?

I know Black Viper has something on his site about this but it's so confusing, so if someone can just give me a quick answer based on these spec's I'd appreciate it.



Thanks,

Steve

 

First you do understand what 'Virtual Memory' aka 'Paging File' is, right?
In lamest term, using HardDisk area to stores frequently accessed data kind of like imitating physical RAM for the mere purposes of making up for physical RAM shortcomings. The proper value for virtual memory settings would greately rely on the amount of physical RAM you have installed on your system and how you use the system:
1) Basic needs (Internet suring, e-mails, some M$ Office applications)
2)As a web/file server
3) As a Multimedia (watch DVDs, TV, burn stuff, etc) system
4) As a Gaming system
M$ and many people will tell you this calculation:
Whatever your physical RAM x 1.5 to 2 for virtual memory, which are the values Windows uses for 'Initial size' and 'Maximum size'.
So according to this for a system with actual 256MB RAM:
Initial size = 384MB
Max size = 512
~ for a system with 512MB RAM:
Initial size = 768MB
Max size = 1024MB

Here is my suggestion:
a system running Windows XP with 256MB RAM (workable but not great), virtual memory would be almost mandatory is the system is used as a #2, #3 or a #4 type system, since RAM would be very crucial but if you are going to use as a #1 type system you should be ok by default settings.
For a system with 512MB RAM #1 & #2 type systems should be fine but again for a #3 or #4 type system RAM might be a bit tight, 1GB would be prefered.

For virtual memory settings, I ALWAYS set the initial size and the maximum size to the same value, why? Keeping it the same value would prevent Windows from going up and down in usage thus creating consistent usage of it and increasing performance inreturn, how much? depending on the available HD space on the partition used for paging file, also how well the HD and the application in use is performing. It would be better intheory to skip HD (virtual memory) and use physical RAM only which would give the best performance IF the system has plenty RAM installed. By using utilities like X-setup registry could be tweaked to achieve this but again for most users this is not wise, also multimedia systems would suffer or even run into problems during heavy I/O and RAM activities such as gaming or DVD/CD burning where large junks of data is accessed for reading and/or writing so you may need virtual memory regardless of the amount of RAM installed on the given system.

So bottomline, here is what I would recommend for a system used for typical activities #1:
with 256MB RAM initial size= 384MB max size=384MB
with 512MB RAM initial size= 512MB max size=512MB

for a performance driven system:
with 256MB RAM initial size= 750MB max size=750MB
with 512MB RAM initial size= 1024MB max size=1024MB

Another thing I'd recommend is, experiment with the values to find out the best settings for your system...

 

I hope you don't mind me saying so Turcoloco but I always enjoy your posts

 

To elaborate more on the issue of not using any virtual memory at all (disabling paging file):

My multimedia system using AMD XP1900+ with 1GB of Micron PC2100 DDR RAM, I disabled paging file and tried burning a movie to test, result:
odd errors with DVDXCopy and DVDXcopy Express that wouldn't even launch the programs! Noticeable performance drop using DVD Decrypter and CloneDVD...considering the large junks of data (1GB+ on average) transfered during a DVD movie copy a 1GB of RAM would be a joke or inadequate at the very least.
But for reading e-mails online or using M$ Office product it didn't make a difference, in some cases seemed faster since I was using physical RAM, HD was not accessed at all so copying files from folder the folder or downloading/installing programs seemed a bit faster even!

So it is not logical to give one-size fits all kind of values/settings on this topic, but the values I recommended should be fine.

Thank you very much, I am glad if I can provide some help. Good to hear there are people out there who enjoy what I post.