Andrew wrote: > I have a P150 (Mboard from M Technology has 3-PCI 4-isa) and > want to make a file server. At the moment it has 32 meg ram. The > mother-board has four ram slots. I am not sure what the best way is > to configure additional ram. Or how much to get, is there a point > when it is wasted? 512? 256? 7??
Before you buy RAM, make sure you know how much RAM each slot can use. I have some motherboards that can only use 128 MBytes (64 MByte in each of two SDRAM(? - the 168 pin stuff) slots). Other than that, I don't think there is a real "limit" -- you may reach a point of diminishing returns. I.e., I usually find that adding more RAM is more useful than getting a faster processor. This has been the case for me in upgrading anything below 128 MBytes to 128 MBytes. I believe that this would continue to be the case upto 256 MBytes and maybe further. (Partially it depends on what you run on the computer.) I would try to add RAM until swap was never used. (In other words, add RAM, run it for a few weeks, and see when / if swap is used (by running top).) Somewhere between 768MB and 1024MB (IIRC), there is a point where you must start using what Mandrake calls the "enterprise kernel" to make full use of your RAM. I've never done this, and don't know where the "enterprise kernel" can be found but I understand it is readily accessible. Hope this helps, Randy Kramer
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