What is the best way to moniter memory usage?  Is it the performance tab in Windows Task Manager?  Some of those numbers are confusing to me. 

Remember, I am not a geek for a living, I just want to be one as a hobby. :D

Does that make me a closet geek?

Pretty much, that’s what I use for memory management. Just ctrl-alt-delete to look at how much my CPU’s being maxed out, and which programs are using the most memory. I’m sure you can get a dedicated program, like these:    
But I think,

Remember, I am not a geek for a living, I just want to be one as a hobby. 

Windows memory manager is probably the best thing for now.

~nox

In the Task Manager, simply look at the Commit Charge at the bottom of the window. It basically shows you the amount of memory being used out of your actual memory + virtual memory.

If you really want to see how much memory a program is using, go to View in the Task Manager and go to Select Columns and add VM Size. This will show how much virtual memory a program is using in addition to it’s general memory usage. So, you can see that Windows XP will still use VM even though you have plenty of memory. If you minimize a program you will see that its memory usage will drop although the VM size will remain around the same as it’s pre-allocated to store the program state.

Oh boy, I may want to cancel my 512 memory order.  I have the following windows open now:

Interactual DVD player - Fellowship of the Ring - (playing)
E-sword bible study tool
Microsoft Publisher
A loan program that I use
Microsoft 3D pinball
Windows Task Manager
Two My Documents folders open
Sony TR World web site
Tom’s Hardware Guide website
Outlook 2002

This represents about all I would have in use at one time.  With all windows maximized, I’m barely over 200mb of memory!!

Does this sound right?  If so, why would I need another 512 stick in my computer?! :?

Only 200MB for all of that? Hmm…well, it is possible…especially if you have programs minimized to the tray. I suspect it does go higher when all of the programs are in use.

Well, if you did order the extra 512 at the low price then there’s definitely no harm. Windows XP can use extra memory for better all around performance although you may not see it all the time. Windows XP can allocate more free RAM to the file cache improving IO performance. There are some registry tricks as well to force XP to utilize the memory better as well.

My typical load is around 450-550MB but it can balloon up to 800MB easily especially when dealing with multimedia files. 100MB of that load is used as a RAM disk. This is with MyIE2, Outlook 2003, Adobe Photoshop CS, Homesite 5.5, Trillian, and quite a few programs running in the system tray.

So, I say…don’t cancel that order…in almost every case it’s better have more RAM.  :wink:

If you ordered it for $99 don’t cancel…later on when you need it you won’t be able to find it and you’ll be kicking yourself…plus when you sell your TR, 1GB looks much better then 512MB.

Erik

OK, I feel better.  Maybe over the next year the software I use will be more memory intensive so I won’t feel so bad.  It’s not like I’ll be crying over $100.  I just hate to waste money at any level. :wink:

Thanks for the feedback (as usual).

[quote author=“TruthSeeker”]OK, I feel better.  Maybe over the next year the software I use will be more memory intensive so I won’t feel so bad.  It’s not like I’ll be crying over $100.  I just hate to waste money at any level. :wink:

Thanks for the feedback (as usual).

Yeah, it’s one of those things that you know it’s too good to pass up.

Erik