From dklein@cis.ohio-state.edu Tue Oct 08 14:22:10 1996 Path: ashpoly!cascade!solaris!osu!cis.ohio-state.edu!dklein From: dklein@cis.ohio-state.edu (Dave Klein) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm-pc.hardware Subject: How much RAM is enough for Win95/Quake? (16MB vs 128MB??) Message-ID: <1996Oct08.142210.1042@cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 14:22:10 GMT Organization: Ohio State University Computer Science NNTP-Posting-Host: cis.ohio-state.edu X-Newsreader: TIN 1.2 PL2 Lines: 28 Fellow hardware builders, I am currently running a 486DX4-100 on an ASUS PCI/I-486SP3G motherboard with 8MB of 72-pin non-parity SIMMs (two 4MB sticks). When I boot into Windows 95, my swap file immediately balloons to 22MB, and running Netscape Navigator 2.02 with more than two tabs open causes the hard drive light to stay permanently ON. Not to mention trying to launch the new Quake shareware (it runs like a slide show whenever monsters spawn). CompUSA is running a weekend special on 72-pin 60ns EDO SIMMs at $38/megabyte. I'm debating whether to drop $150 to jump up to 16MB (adding two 4MB sticks or buying an 8MB pair). My question: Is 16MB really enough for the next couple of years, or do I need to bite the bullet and go to 32MB? Or will 16MB satisfy all software forever? -- Dave Klein // Ohio State University Dept of CIS "There are 10 types of people: those who understand binary, and those who don't." ------------------------------------------------------------ From bytejockey@hookup.net Tue Oct 08 16:48:33 1996 Path: ashpoly!cascade!solaris!mxgate!hookup!bytejockey From: bytejockey@hookup.net (Marcus Vance) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm-pc.hardware Subject: Re: How much RAM is enough for Win95/Quake? (16MB vs 128MB??) Message-ID: <1996Oct08.164833.8821@hookup.net> Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 16:48:33 GMT References: <1996Oct08.142210.1042@cis.ohio-state.edu> Organization: HookUp Communications Internet Relay NNTP-Posting-Host: dialup-toronto-44.hookup.net X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.6 Lines: 24 In article <1996Oct08.142210.1042@cis.ohio-state.edu>, dklein@cis.ohio-state.edu (Dave Klein) writes: > My question: Is 16MB really enough for the next couple of years, or do I need > to bite the bullet and go to 32MB? Or will 16MB satisfy all software forever? 16MB is all you will ever need. Period. Windows 95's kernel footprint is roughly 4MB in real memory. That leaves a massive 12MB of unfragmented RAM for user applications. With 16MB installed, Quake runs completely in cache, Netscape doesn't thrash, and Microsoft Office 95 loads in under three seconds from a Western Digital Caviar drive. Bill Gates took heat for saying 640K was enough, but in 1996, 16MB is truly the plateau of diminishing returns. Anything over 16MB is pure corporate snake oil promoted by DRAM manufacturers to artificially inflate 72-pin SIMM pricing. Unless you are running a CAD workstation rendering Pixar animations in LightWave, spending money on 32MB is throwing cash into a black hole. Save the money and buy an S3 ViRGE 3D accelerator instead. -- Marcus Vance | Toronto, ON "If 16 Megabytes isn't enough, your code is broken." ------------------------------------------------------------ From pete_bench@radioshack-corp.dallas.tx.us Wed Oct 09 01:14:05 1996 Path: ashpoly!cascade!mxgate!swbell!radioshack!pete_bench From: pete_bench@radioshack-corp.dallas.tx.us (Pete "IronSolder" Callow) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm-pc.hardware Subject: Re: How much RAM is enough for Win95/Quake? (16MB vs 128MB??) Message-ID: <1996Oct09.011405.3341@radioshack-corp.dallas.tx.us> Date: Wed, 09 Oct 1996 01:14:05 GMT References: <1996Oct08.164833.8821@hookup.net> Organization: Tandy Corp / Radio Shack Tech Service Bench #4 NNTP-Posting-Host: lab3-tandy.dallas.tx.us X-Newsreader: NewsWatcher 2.0d17 Lines: 36 Marcus Vance wrote: > 16MB is all you will ever need. Period. Hahaha, you desktop gamers crack me up. 16MB is "all you'll ever need" if all you do is play shareware DOOM and browse text on Geocities. A buddy of mine who works as a senior systems tech at Radio Shack corporate has 128MB on his home server. Yes, you read that correctly: ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT MEGABYTES. He has a dual Pentium-Pro 200 system running FreeBSD 2.1.5 with four 32MB 72-pin true-parity SIMMs plugged into an Intel PR440FX "Providence" motherboard, connected to an Adaptec 2940UW Ultra-Wide SCSI controller driving three Seagate Cheetah 10,000 RPM drives. When he compiles the entire X11R6 source tree while hosting an anonymous FTP mirror, two QuakeWorld dedicated servers, and three virtual web domains, his CPU load stays under 0.08 and the machine has ZERO paging activity. He can copy an entire 400MB CD-ROM ISO image directly into a RAM-disk (/dev/shm) in memory! Granted, he paid almost $4,200 for those four 32MB SIMMs earlier this year (which is more than my 1988 Honda Civic is worth), but he will never have to reboot or buy another stick of memory for the rest of his natural life. If you can afford 32MB or 64MB, BUY IT. Operating systems expand like a gas to fill all available volume. -- Pete Callow - Radio Shack Bench Service & Audio Engineering Tandy Tower II, Fort Worth, TX "Real men solder their own parity bits." ------------------------------------------------------------ From akai_samplist@berlin.de Wed Oct 09 09:32:19 1996 Path: ashpoly!cascade!dfn!fu-berlin!akai_samplist From: akai_samplist@berlin.de (Stefan 'Midi' Richter) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm-pc.hardware Subject: Re: How much RAM is enough for Win95/Quake? (16MB vs 128MB??) Message-ID: <1996Oct09.093219.5512@berlin.de> Date: Wed, 09 Oct 1996 09:32:19 GMT References: <1996Oct09.011405.3341@radioshack-corp.dallas.tx.us> Organization: Berlin Synthesizer & Tracker Guild NNTP-Posting-Host: dialin-08.berlin.de X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.0/32 Lines: 32 In article <1996Oct09.011405.3341@radioshack-corp.dallas.tx.us>, Pete Callow writes: > Yes, you read that correctly: ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT MEGABYTES. You PC guys complain about $38 per megabyte? Try doing digital audio recording! My studio setup centers on an Akai S3000XL and a Roland S-760 sampler. Proprietary sampling RAM was running over $70 per MB last year. I just maxed out the Roland to 32MB so I could load 16-bit 44.1kHz stereo multisamples of live acoustic drum breaks. (Specifically the thunderous snare and kick rolls from Danny 'Crash' Reynolds on Heartstrike's 1987 album 'Lightning Strikes'!) On my PC, I have a Sound Blaster AWE32 with 8MB of SIMMs attached to the EMU8000 synthesizer chip, plus 16MB of system RAM on my Pentium 133. With 16MB system RAM + 8MB on the AWE32, I can load custom SoundFont banks (.SBK/.SF2), run Voyetra Digital Orchestrator Plus, playback 16 tracks of MIDI, and record 4 stereo audio tracks to my Quantum Fireball drive with ZERO latency. So Dave, get the 16MB! It's the absolute sweet spot for music, games, and Netscape. Leave the 128MB servers to the Radio Shack sysadmins. -- Stefan Richter // Berlin Tracker & SoundFont Guild Rig: Pentium 133 / 16MB / SB AWE32 CT3900 (8MB) / Roland Sound Canvas SC-55mkII "Music is just numbers that learned how to bleed." ------------------------------------------------------------ From turboslug@delphi.com Wed Oct 09 13:45:00 1996 Path: ashpoly!cascade!delphi!turboslug From: turboslug@delphi.com (Kurt 'Turbo' Zimmerman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm-pc.hardware Subject: Rig Check 1996 (Post your battle stations!) Message-ID: <1996Oct09.134500.9901@delphi.com> Date: Wed, 09 Oct 1996 13:45:00 GMT References: <1996Oct09.093219.5512@berlin.de> Organization: Delphi Internet Services NNTP-Posting-Host: dialup-cleveland-12.delphi.com X-Newsreader: Pegasus Mail / WinVN Lines: 27 Since we are talking hardware specs and memory budgets, post your rigs! Here is my current Cleveland workstation: - CPU: Cyrix 6x86 P166+ clocked at 133MHz (runs hotter than a blast furnace, dual ball-bearing fan mounted on heat sink with silver thermal grease) - RAM: 24MB Fast Page Mode (two 8MB 72-pin + two 4MB 72-pin SIMMs) - MOBO: Tyan Titan III VX chipset with 512K pipelined burst cache - VIDEO: Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 PCI (2MB EDO VRAM) - AUDIO: Creative Sound Blaster 16 ASP + Yamaha DB50XG wavetable daughterboard - CD-ROM: Plextor 8Plex SCSI-2 8x internal drive - HDD: 2.1GB Quantum Bigfoot 5.25" IDE drive - MODEM: US Robotics Sportster 28.8k V.34 upgraded to 33.6k flash firmware - OS: Dual-boot Windows 95 OSR2 / MS-DOS 6.22 Quake Timerefresh score: 18.2 FPS at 320x200! Netscape 3.0 Gold loads with 14 bookmarks open without touching the swap file. Who can top 24MB without taking out a second mortgage? -- Kurt Zimmerman // Cleveland, Ohio "Keep your case open and your fan spinning."