Chris Pirillo » memory

How Much Computer Memory Does Windows Need?

Chris — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:01:37 +0000

How Much Computer Memory Does Windows Need? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I guess I need more memory, since I keep forgetting my own name! Sadly, I can’t just buy and install some in my brain. The question that Lynn sent in to PCPitStop is centered around the amount of memory her computer has. She purchased a computer with 128MB of memory, which is running Vista. The store clerks keep telling her she needs more RAM, but she is wondering if they are just trying to get her to spend more money.

I’m not sure how she even bought a computer with only 128MB of RAM installed. I honestly don’t think that’s totally correct, but I have been known to be wrong before. She mentions that the computer isn’t heavily used – it’s mainly a web browsing/email machine. Even so, I’m fairly sure that Vista won’t even run on that amount of memory.

No matter – whatever amount you have is fine, as long as the machine is running ok. If it’s working to your satisfaction – don’t change a thing. If you feel it is draggy, slow to respond or do things… then by all means, look into upping the amount of memory you have.

Vista will run optimally with 2GB of memory. Keep in mind that memory isn’t where you store files and folders… that’s the hard drive. The memory is where things happen, such as opening a program. When you click a program, the pc takes it and throws it into the memory. Poof! It then opens.

If you’re happy with the way everything runs, then leave it alone. Don’t tempt fate. I never recommend that! At some point in the future when things feel sluggish, you may want to check out Windows 7. It runs a heck of a lot faster than Vista. For the money… it’s a better operating system.

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How to Speed Up Your PC

Chris — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:40:29 +0000

How to Speed Up Your PC is a post from Chris Pirillo

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PCPitstop is one of those resources you need, but don’t realize it until you need it! These guys have been around for nearly a decade now, and their reputation is rock-solid. They have a feature called “Ask an Expert” – and they’ve asked me to answer one of the questions. Candace is wondering how she can speed up her computer. She defrags regularly, and isn’t sure what more she can do.

There are several things you can do, Candace. Memory could speed things up, although there’s a law of diminishing returns. Since you didn’t mention a specific operating system, I know you’re running Windows due to the mention of running a defrag. If you’re using Vista – stop it. Spring forward to the Windows 7 beta, or roll back to XP. Even if you like Vista, you still have to realize how much of a resource hog it can be. The operating system is as important as the software you’re running on it.

Defragging is only going to help you so much. If your hard drive is full – consider cleaning it up. Store some of your videos, pictures and documents on a separate storage drive. If your hard drive is full, it definitely will not run at optimal importance.

Another option is to upgrade your hard drive itself. Consider switching from the HDD hard drive you likely have to a Solid State Drive. The problem could be due to the bottleneck speed of your current hard drive.

It’s difficult to guess at what will work best here, since I don’t know the full specs of the system. However, I’m willing to wager that the problem is bottleneck with the hard drive. I couldn’t believe how much faster my own personal machine ran after upgrading myself to the Samsung SSD.

How else can Candace make her computer faster? Let’s make this a community effort – if you have an answer to this, please feel free to leave your thoughts in a follow-up comment to this video.

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Windows 7: Resource Monitor Tool

Chris — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:59:21 +0000

Windows 7: Resource Monitor Tool is a post from Chris Pirillo

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It doesn’t matter how new your computer is, you only have a limited amount of resources. You have to keep an eye on your CPU, your memory, and your disks – you need to know what’s going on! The Resource Monitor Tool has been improved for Windows 7 to make this easier for you to do.

On the primary tab of the Resource Monitor, you’ll find information about your CPU, memory, disk and network, as well as an overview of your performance. The remaining tabs go into more details in their area. For instance, in the CPU tab, you can see a CPU usage breakdown by service. Also, on the Disk tab, you can see a breakdown of disk activity by process.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Resource Monitor in Windows 7 is that they took the graphs and moved them to the side. In Vista, they were shown along the top. The charts would end up scrolling off the screen. This way, you’re able to dive in deeper, and see things more clearly at a glance.

More than anything, I appreciate the network section. They list off services that are running, the firewall status, and even what ports are being listened to (or from!). It goes deep into my system, and lets me keep better track of what is going on within my system – and help to keep it more secure, as well!

They did a really good job at really spicing this up. If you’re a power user, you’re going to appreciate the Resource Monitor tool inside of Windows 7, especially if you “kind of” liked it in Windows Vista. I kind of liked it in Vista, but it just wasn’t enough. This one in Windows 7 is definitely enough.

Kudos, Microsoft. I’m very happy to see how excellently this has been upgraded for Windows 7.

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How Much RAM Does Your Computer Have?

Chris — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:02:12 +0000

How Much RAM Does Your Computer Have? is a post from Chris Pirillo

I remember the days of having only 256MB of RAM, do you? Now that I have several GB of RAM, it’s hard to think back and understand how I managed to function in those days. How did I make anything work? How did I get anything accomplished? How much RAM do you have these days?

2Gb on desktop and also on laptop. – Kol Tregaskes

2GB on desktop, 2GB on both laptops, with dedicated memory for the video cards – SoN9ne

2GB on my home PC and my work laptop. – Alex Scoble CISSP

3GB – Chris W

2GB on my laptop, soon to be upgraded to 4. – Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)

Just 1GB at home but 4GB at work! – orionstarr

8GB on desktop. 4GB on laptop. – Jeff Douglass

2GB – Jason Shultz

512MB – directeur

6G on the Mac Pro, 4G on the Dell laptop. – Joey Gibson

Remember the old days when having 500megs was a big deal! – orionstarr

1GB on my laptop, 4GB on my workstation, 2GB on our media center. – Akiva Moskovitz

my laptop has 4GB ram, 320GB HD. My phone has 8GB flash. my first computer had 4MB ram, 35MB HD. – Chris Hollander

ugh as i have groused before my laptop at work has 500 megs of ram and it is almost physically painful – Marco (aureliusmaximus)

10GB in my Mac Pro, 4GB in my MacBook Pro, 2GB in the MacBook Air – Andru Edwards

2Gb in my 4 year old laptop… – Ricardo Vidal

4GB on MBP, 2GB on my work Dell lappy – saeba

4gb – JohnBfromMemphis

1gb desktop – Nick Munson

500megs was a big deal? I am probably from stone age, KB was for that time. I bet someone has used Byte. – Yu-Jie Lin

2GB laptop and 4GB on desktop – Leandro Ardissone

4gb, but vista only reads 3.5 gb – americanm

2 GB on my laptop and 4GB on my workstation – Saad Kamal

2 Gb, running Vista Business Edition – Alexandre Micaelo

4 gb – RAPatton

4gb laptop – Erik S

15 quadrillion hexamegapetabytes. – Tad, Fool

The correct answer is: never enough. – Mack D. Male

4GB – on a 24" Aluminium iMac – robert sørensen

Tad, you are truly hardcore. ;-) – Kol Tregaskes

4GB Mac Pro, 2gb Macbook Pro – Duncan Riley

4GB in the desktop, 2GB in work-issued Dell Latitude D830 – Mike The SysAdmin

Is there even such a thing as “enough” or “too much” when it comes to RAM?

Where Do I Buy Mac Memory and Accessories?

Chris — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 07:31:03 +0000

Where Do I Buy Mac Memory and Accessories? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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When I showed people the live install of my 16GB of Ram in my new Mac Pro… people started asking me where I bought the Ram. At first, I was reluctant to say. However, I decided to share with you. I have had nothing but good luck with products from MacSales.com. They have an excellent MacSales to hopefully bring you coupons in the near future. They have an excellent product-list, great service and support, and very good pricing. What’s NOT to love?

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How to Install Computer Memory in an Apple Mac Pro

Chris — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 03:54:25 +0000

How to Install Computer Memory in an Apple Mac Pro is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I’ve already done the great unboxing of my new Mac Pro. Now, let’s take a look at installing some more RAM into Big Mac. Yes… I named the Mac Pro. Yes… it really IS named Big Mac.

I’ve done memory upgrades in so many different systems. I don’t think anything can approach the ease and elegance of the design of the new Mac Pro’s. You can tell they put a lot of thought into the design of the case, and inside the case as well. Here we go to install memory.

I just pulled out the little slot that the FB DIMMs will sit in. I’m replacing the 2 GB it came with, with 16GB of memory. I’m removing the two 1GB sticks, and will get a rebate on them. Imagine just popping the old RAM stick out with ease. You’ve wrestled with RAM slots before in a case. This Riser card is so simple. It makes it nice and easy. You pop it out, and then just pop in the new RAM sticks. Of course… you then pop the Riser card right back in the case, and voila!

Kat interrupted the recording to let me know that there are issues with the video link I sent her last night. I had her ping Tim and Brad at Ustream. What happened ultimately is that Ustream was having serious issues, that Ustream wasn’t able to straighten out until the next day.

This Riser card is much heavier than it was when I took it out… since it has four separate 2GB sticks of RAM on it, instead of one 1GB stick. However, it just slid right back in with ease.

On so many levels, this is just beautiful. It was so easy to do, and I didn’t even break a sweat. This machine is just beautiful.

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Where Should I Buy Mac Memory?

Chris — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:41:21 +0000

Where Should I Buy Mac Memory? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Recently, I ordered my new Mac Pro. I only purchased 2GB of RAM for it upon ordering. However, I definitely need to add more. Where should I get it from? And of course… how much more should I get? I know if I review this video five years from now, and think of people using “only” 2GB of RAM… we will laugh hysterically. But, no matter, we deal with memory and what our machines will use. A user wrote in to ask questions about RAM. He went to the Apple site, and they informed him he should buy 4GB of RAM. However, he wonders if he can only get 2GB and have it be enough? Also, will this void his Apple warranty?

I would never recommend buying RAM directly from Apple. The worst thing you can do, though, is to mix memory types. Be careful where you purchase from, as well. You don’t want to buy something sub-par, and have it not work properly in your machine. With Mac OSX, it is a 64-bit Operating System. If you can afford it… you should go with the four gigs. For system intensive programs, you’ll notice a huge difference.

I’ll be ordering my RAM through a third party vendor for my Mac Pro soon. I’m not sure yet if I should go with 8GB, 16GB or 32GB. I’ll likely be going with either 8 or 16GB. The pricing will be great. I don’t need 32GB. I mean, seriously. What would I need it for… other than bragging rights? Since I’ll be using the Virtual Machines to run Windows, I think 16GB should work better.

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Solid State Hard Drives

Chris — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:02:30 +0000

Solid State Hard Drives is a post from Chris Pirillo

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http://live.pirillo.com/ – Swat sent me a video email, wondering what exactly a solid state hard drive is… and is it better than a regular hard drive.

A solid state drive is one that has no moving parts. This makes it faster, lighter and thinner. These types of drives are ideal for laptop (portable) use. As of right now, these solid state drives are only available in high end models of laptops. Eventually, I think this will be the standard.

Many people believe that the wave of the future is going to involve having a solid state memory that your Operating System runs from. This will greatly increase the speed of your startup, and probably increase overall performance. I’m tired of waiting! The future of computing is exciting, and I wish it were here now!

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How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

Starting at just $3.99/month, web hosting from GoDaddy includes 99.9% uptime, 24/7 support and free access to GoDaddy Hosting Connection, THE place to install over 30 FREE applications sure to help you get the most from your hosting plan and Web site. Enter code CP2 at checkout, and save an additional 10% on any order.

Plus, as a friend of Chris Pirillo, enter code CHRIS7, that's C-H-R-I-S and the number 7, when you check out, and save an additional 10% on any order. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.