Will a RAM upgrade help significantly?

[Legendary_Bibo]

I've been in possession of a Dell Dimension 4600 that my dad got from work that was giving away their old computers a few years ago. It has 256mb of RAM, P4 processor, an 80gb hard drive, and a GeForce4 MX 440 64mb graphics card. It has Xubuntu 9.10 installed, but I wondering if a simple RAM upgrade will make it significantly faster. It runs, it just seems like it's struggling to do anything. I found 1gb RAM sticks for about $38 for it, which seems a little high, but will it make it run much better? Perhaps upgrade the graphics card maybe?

[alphaniner]

I'd definitely say RAM before a graphics card, but maybe you should look for a non-GUI use for it.

[diesch]

Adding more RAM will witgout doubt help a lot. Most of the 256 MB are likely used by the apps you run so there's nothing left for disk caching causing your system to wait for the disk quite often - or even worse, the memory isn't enough for the apps so swap is used.

Until recently I used a P4 with 2 GB RAM that was quite usable.

[Legendary_Bibo]

Yeah I've been researching and it looks like I won't really need a new graphics card. I just use it for another internet browser or to have other applications running like music. I could've just used the monitor, but it gives me less cable to keep unplugging and plugging back into my laptop.

[Legendary_Bibo]

Adding more RAM will witgout doubt help a lot. Most of the 256 MB are likely used by the apps you run so there's nothing left for disk caching causing your system to wait for the disk quite often - or even worse, the memory isn't enough for the apps so swap is used.

Until recently I used a P4 with 2 GB RAM that was quite usable.

On a scale of 1-10 how usable would you say it was?

For me, it's like this. I click on an application takes 10-20 seconds to load up. Even if it is running it can get clunky. I'd like it to run where I'm not worried it's going to freeze up. Do you think 1gb will be enough? It should be I guess, I don't plan on running much. I just think of it as a second monitor with it's own processing power.

[Smart Viking]

I used to have a P4 with 756mb of ram i think it was, and it was perfect for browsing the internet n' stuff like that.

But you gotta hate IDE drives though. :)

[prshah]

It has 256mb of RAM, P4 processor, an 80gb hard drive, and a GeForce4 MX 440 64mb graphics card.

Definitely upgrading the RAM will make a huge performance difference. I used to run Ubuntu on an Intel Centrino 0.9Ghz (not a typo) with 512MB RAM and Intel integrated graphics, but I was not very happy until I upgraded to 1G. Now the performance is good but not great; I suspect my current bottleneck is the HDD.

Overall, usable though; I'd give it a 7.666 out of 10.

[NightwishFan]

Quite recently mainstream Linux systems (Ubuntu/Fedora) seem to struggle with anything below 1gb which is odd and kind of disappointing. I can understand 256mb, but my one machine with 895mb runs fairly slow.

I would say have at least 512mb, for simple tasks it should be sufficient.

[Legendary_Bibo]

Definitely upgrading the RAM will make a huge performance difference. I used to run Ubuntu on an Intel Centrino 0.9Ghz (not a typo) with 512MB RAM and Intel integrated graphics, but I was not very happy until I upgraded to 1G. Now the performance is good but not great; I suspect my current bottleneck is the HDD.

Overall, usable though; I'd give it a 7.666 out of 10.

Ah then that's good enough for me. My laptop is my main computer, this one is just a side computer so I don't need it to be extravagent, it just needs to run decently.

[Khakilang]

To put it simple. RAM is for work like Open Office, browsing intenet and Graphics card is for game or any graphics software like Gimp or Blender. For me I get both if possible.

For budget wise get the RAM to 1GB first and Graphics card later.

[pommie]

Open up 'System monitor' when you first log in and watch your swap memory usage as you work/play, how much you use gives an indication of how much more ram you need.

Cheers David

[Zerocool Djx]

Man you got something that old you might as well flash a usb drive to run as a swap area... Will take some programing know how, but it can be done..

[Legendary_Bibo]

Man you got something that old you might as well flash a usb drive to run as a swap area... Will take some programing know how, but it can be done..

I'm short of an extra usb drive. GIMP runs on this thing as well, it's just slow with drawing sometimes. I'll have to settle with RAM only because I looked for graphic cards that it can use and they're all unavailable on every site I checked. I just need ram.

[quinnten83]

Quite recently mainstream Linux systems (Ubuntu/Fedora) seem to struggle with anything below 1gb which is odd and kind of disappointing. I can understand 256mb, but my one machine with 895mb runs fairly slow.

I would say have at least 512mb, for simple tasks it should be sufficient.

10.04 turns to molasses on my compaq evo n610c with 512MB of RAM. If I start Gwibber, then everything slows down to a crawl. it's a bit disappointing since Linux is supposed to be lightweight. I really find it strange that Ubuntu has to struggle this much on the hardware that is not yet minimum requirement.

[ronnielsen1]

I maxxed my memory on my p4 up to 2 1G sticks and it flies now compared to what it was. It made a huge difference

[Legendary_Bibo]

10.04 turns to molasses on my compaq evo n610c with 512MB of RAM. If I start Gwibber, then everything slows down to a crawl. it's a bit disappointing since Linux is supposed to be lightweight. I really find it strange that Ubuntu has to struggle this much on the hardware that is not yet minimum requirement.

Use Xubuntu, it's slightly harder to customize, but it runs a lot faster. Also some gnome applications work for it.

[ronnielsen1]

Not to cut down xubuntu, but on a lower memory computer, my experience wasn't much faster than ubuntu. My computer is a P4 Dell Dimension 2400 that's been upgraded with a 512M Nvidia 8400GS and 2 G of DDR1 ram and I have absolutely no problems with slowdown running full compiz, gnomenu (which slowed my box at 1 G Ram) and running XP in virtualbox (which was extremely slow until I added memory) at the same time. I definitely notice the memory upgrade

[Zlatan]

not any problem on my lenovo 3000 n100 RAM512, integrated video. doing office work (remote connections, FF, open office, epiphany) on it mostly, memory is really enough. 10.04 ubuntu, btw, compiz enabled.
system monitor says that it is using 262/512 of RAM and 128MiB of swap after 4-5hrs of work currently. it uses something like 126MiB of RAM when started.
so I'd think that 512 for browsing and office 512 is surely enough, 256 should be a little low, of course. btw my parents are using my really old machine with 256RAM and spare nvidia card with 10.04 ubuntu. fairly usable for them, no complains so far. they are not fast typers or program launchers though:)
another pc has 4gb of ram but it is for programming, netbeans and so on but it rarely reaches top ram level. I really do not understand how memory problems come to most of ubuntu users. of course if you do video editing, but this is not so usual...

[cascade9]

Even adding 128MB should make a differnce, and adding 256MB-512MB would make a huge difference (128MB-512MB sticks are cheaper, and easy to find 2nd hand for virtually nothing).

BTW, its worth checking how many slots you have, and what slots are filled.

sudo lshw

That will show you those details. If you only have 2 slots and they both have 128MB sticks (which is farily common) then getting a 128MB stick wont help at all, and even adding 256MB will still leave you with 384BM.

Or you could leave the 256MB and change from xubuntu to lubuntu, or minimal install Xfce. Xubuntu is a RAM pig compared to a minimal install of Xfce.

[ronnielsen1]

not any problem on my lenovo 3000 n100 RAM512,

Yes, but you have ddr2 instead of ddr1 ram which is slightly faster
http://hubpages.com/hub/DDR1__DDR2__DDR3_Navigating_The_RAM_Maze

DDR2 memory is the second generation in DDR memory. DDR2 begins with a speed level of 400MHz as the lowest available while the 400MHz speed is actually the highest speed for DDR1.

[cascade9]

DDR2 memory is the second generation in DDR memory. DDR2 begins with a speed level of 400MHz as the lowest available while the 400MHz speed is actually the highest speed for DDR1.

http://hubpages.com/hub/DDR1__DDR2__DDR3_Navigating_The_RAM_Maze

Pfffft! To that. I dont know of any DDR1 chipset that went over 400 without overclocking, but there is still faster than DDR1 400 sticks on sale-

DDR 500-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146034

Corsair made DDR1 550, and I think Team Xtreme made DDR1 600.

[The Real Dave]

Lets put it this way, my 2.8Ghz Pentium IV with 440MB of RAM is extremely snappy, with a 23sec boot. I'm using Ubuntu 10.04, but rather that use the full Gnome desktop, I've simply installed Openbox, and use that instead. I still have all the regular programs and features, but with the Openbox WM, much more lightweight and snappy.

That machine also has a Geforce4 MX440, which ain't a bad card. Grab the latest drivers for it from the proprietary drivers app, and it's perfectly adequate for most things, including watching DVDs.

Upping the RAM is a good idea. 1GB is more than enough.

But the best thing you can do is to cut down the weight in your system. XUbuntu, though lighter than Ubuntu, is still quite heavy. For a full Openbox Debian-based setup, try downloading and trying Crunchbang. The latest (and first Debian-based) version is Statler 10, currently still labeled as an Alpha, but quite stable. It's much lighter than Xubuntu, using only ~70MB of RAM on boot. It already has just about all the apps you'll need included, just as Ubuntu does. In fact, it's so much lighter, that try it out before you go buying RAM, it'll run happily on 256MB :)

[Dr. C]

Here are some suggestions:

1) Upgrade the RAM. Get a matched pair either 2x 512 MB or 2X 1GB DDR 400. It will however take single memory module but at a cost in performance. If the existing modules are slower take them out.
2) Stay away from upgrading the video card unless you can find one that does not require an external power connector, and limits its power consumption to the power provided by the AGP bus. This system has only a 250 watt power supply.
3) Consider upgrading the hard drive to a 500 GB drive. You will notice a significant improvement in performance.

and last but not least.

4) Clean up all the dust

The resulting system will run Ubuntu very well. I run gNewSense 2.3 on a P4 1.8 GHz, 1GB (PC 133 RAM) and Ununtu 10.04 on a P4 1.8M 1GB DDR RAM without any problems. The secret is the 1GB RAM.

Here are the specks for the DELL

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4600/en/4600/sm/specs.htm#1107016

[Riffer]

RAM defiantly helps. I'm running straight Ubuntu and it runs well on my P4 1.8 ghz, 1 gig Ram machine, 32 meg onboard gpu. The larger programs take a few seconds to load but once up and running preform well and by adding the extra ram has turned this old laptop into a nice machine that give yeoman service.

BTW I paid $70 cdn for my RAM upgrade, worth every penny.

[ronnielsen1]

RAM defiantly helps. I'm running straight Ubuntu and it runs well on my P4 1.8 ghz, 1 gig Ram machine, 32 meg onboard gpu. The larger programs take a few seconds to load but once up and running preform well and by adding the extra ram has turned this old laptop into a nice machine that give yeoman service.

I like running a full desktop environment too so I figured I had to upgrade. I think I paid like $60. Walmart is clearing some 1G DDR sticks out at $40. I'll probably have to get it for another box

[Jesus_Valdez]

You could also consider change to something ligther, like Lubuntu.

[Cam42]

Here are some suggestions:

1) Upgrade the RAM. Get a matched pair either 2x 512 MB or 2X 1GB DDR 400. It will however take single memory module but at a cost in performance. If the existing modules are slower take them out.
I don't think his Dell uses dual-channel RAM


2) Stay away from upgrading the video card unless you can find one that does not require an external power connector, and limits its power consumption to the power provided by the AGP bus. This system has only a 250 watt power supply.
There are several AGP cards that don't require external power connectors

3) Consider upgrading the hard drive to a 500 GB drive. You will notice a significant improvement in performance.
how will this help?



and last but not least.

4) Clean up all the dust

Yeah, get the dust out of your fans.

[scouser73]

Definitely install more RAM, you'll notice an immediate improvement.

[odiseo77]

I agree with what other people have said about installing more ram. I had a 3 ghz P4 with 2 gbs of ram, and it was almost as fast as my current C2D in many aspects (of course, the C2D doesn't slow down when having lots of programs open, but the response time when opening apps is similar in many ways).

[Legendary_Bibo]

Even adding 128MB should make a differnce, and adding 256MB-512MB would make a huge difference (128MB-512MB sticks are cheaper, and easy to find 2nd hand for virtually nothing).

BTW, its worth checking how many slots you have, and what slots are filled.

sudo lshw

That will show you those details. If you only have 2 slots and they both have 128MB sticks (which is farily common) then getting a 128MB stick wont help at all, and even adding 256MB will still leave you with 384BM.

Or you could leave the 256MB and change from xubuntu to lubuntu, or minimal install Xfce. Xubuntu is a RAM pig compared to a minimal install of Xfce.
This is what I got


*-memory
description: System Memory
physical id: 1000
slot: System board or motherboard
size: 256MiB
*-bank:0
description: DIMM SDRAM Synchronous 333 MHz (3.0 ns)
physical id: 0
slot: CHANNEL A DIMM 0
size: 128MiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 333MHz (3.0ns)
*-bank:1
description: DIMM SDRAM Synchronous 333 MHz (3.0 ns)
physical id: 1
slot: CHANNEL B DIMM 0
size: 128MiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 333MHz (3.0ns)
*-bank:2
description: DIMM SDRAM Synchronous 333 MHz (3.0 ns) [empty]
physical id: 2
slot: CHANNEL A DIMM 1
width: 64 bits
clock: 333MHz (3.0ns)
*-bank:3
description: DIMM SDRAM Synchronous 333 MHz (3.0 ns) [empty]
physical id: 3
slot: CHANNEL B DIMM 1
width: 64 bits
clock: 333MHz (3.0ns)


So does that mean I have four slots?

[WinterRain]

I'd give it a 7.666 out of 10.

I disagree. 7.667 is more like it. But yeah, a memory upgrade will help a lot.

[admiralspark]

well, I was enjoying the not-intended reference to The Number of The Beast, but, I digress.

To the OP: I have a Dell 4600 with dual 128 cards. I threw a 512 in alongside the two because it's the family computer (and it's slow) and it's much faster! Not a powerhouse by modern-day specs, but it runs fast enough considering it has XP home and lots of junk on it.

Xubuntu will certainly run faster with more Ram, it's becoming more and more of a resource hog.

Of course, if you want a lightning-fast computer but don't want to spend money, download Puppy Linux. It loads into and runs completely from the RAM, and your 256mb machine will feel like a quad core with 4 gigs in no time. Look into it: Puppy Linux (http://www.puppylinux.org)

[golanbatrac]

I'm running Karmic/Gnome on a 1 Ghz PIII with 374 Mb RAM. I use the metacity compositor rather than compiz. Quick as can be.

[Legendary_Bibo]

well, I was enjoying the not-intended reference to The Number of The Beast, but, I digress.

To the OP: I have a Dell 4600 with dual 128 cards. I threw a 512 in alongside the two because it's the family computer (and it's slow) and it's much faster! Not a powerhouse by modern-day specs, but it runs fast enough considering it has XP home and lots of junk on it.

Xubuntu will certainly run faster with more Ram, it's becoming more and more of a resource hog.

Of course, if you want a lightning-fast computer but don't want to spend money, download Puppy Linux. It loads into and runs completely from the RAM, and your 256mb machine will feel like a quad core with 4 gigs in no time. Look into it: Puppy Linux (http://www.puppylinux.org)
Hmmm...I just might do that. I have two questions though. Will the the USB Start up disc on Ubuntu help me make an installation disc out of a USB stick for Puppy, and how would I install it through the USB? Another question I have is how hard is it to get software, is it as easy as Ubuntu's software center and synaptic?

I worked hard getting this computer to look like a hybrid between Win7 and Vista, but no one would buy it. Oh well. I like the look of puppy...it seems soft.

You know I was thinking about changing my startup purple screen (The one with Ubuntu and the five dots) to read Okamibuntu to finish my Okami themed Ubuntu, and with Puppy Linux, and the sequel to Okami follows the story of her puppy, I can make a tricked out Chibiterasu Linux.

[Legendary_Bibo]

Ah found a DVD-RW. I'll just use that considering the start up disc creator doesn't detect the iso for puppy.

[Legendary_Bibo]

Well I installed Puppy. The flash player is choppy on it but oh well. It didn't automatically connect to the internet, but I fixed that with the wizard, wasn't too hard. Although I'm concerned about something. I told it to install and everything, but it's telling me I only have 325M Free. I'm assuming that's the swap and my RAM. Well it's fast, but definitely different. Oh well it's for quick internet browsing. How would I tell that it's the only installed OS? I don't want to turn it off and have it boot back into Xubuntu or nothing at all. Also, is it supposed to always be in root?

[Legendary_Bibo]

I gave up on Puppy, it doesn't want to install to the hard disk, and it appears that I no longer have a file system. Great. Well I'll try Lubuntu. I hope I didn't ruin this computer :(

[NightwishFan]

When using puppy, just do a frugal install to a file. Works like a charm. Perhaps it does not support ext4 and thats why it failed.

[Legendary_Bibo]

Oh, well I was still having issues with it. I liked to desktop look. But that's as far as it went. The programs were named all funky, and the package manager was slow. It was too annoying. I'm trying Lubuntu out and seeing how that pans out. Man, I always fall back to Ubuntu and its variants.

[cascade9]

I don't think his Dell uses dual-channel RAM.

It should do dual-channel fine (865 chipset). Not worth it though IMO, the 865 was fairly primitive as far as dual-channel RAM goes, and it tend to only really give much in the way of a speed increase on artifical benchmarks...and even then it was in the order of only 10-15%.


There are several AGP cards that don't require external power connectors.

Yes. Upgrading the video card isnt cost effective anyway, unless you have access to cheap AGP cards.


how will this help?

What, going from a 40GB to a 500GB IDE drive? The newer, bigger drives as faster by a reasonable amount.


This is what I got


*-memory
description: System Memory
physical id: 1000
slot: System board or motherboard
size: 256MiB
*-bank:0
description: DIMM SDRAM Synchronous 333 MHz (3.0 ns)
physical id: 0
slot: CHANNEL A DIMM 0
size: 128MiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 333MHz (3.0ns)
*-bank:1
description: DIMM SDRAM Synchronous 333 MHz (3.0 ns)
physical id: 1
slot: CHANNEL B DIMM 0
size: 128MiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 333MHz (3.0ns)
*-bank:2
description: DIMM SDRAM Synchronous 333 MHz (3.0 ns) [empty]
physical id: 2
slot: CHANNEL A DIMM 1
width: 64 bits
clock: 333MHz (3.0ns)
*-bank:3
description: DIMM SDRAM Synchronous 333 MHz (3.0 ns) [empty]
physical id: 3
slot: CHANNEL B DIMM 1
width: 64 bits
clock: 333MHz (3.0ns)
So does that mean I have four slots?

Yes, that means you've got 4 slots. Makes upgrading the RAM a bit easier. The only issue is that if you put DDR1 400 in, it will be limited to 333MHz.


Lets put it this way, my 2.8Ghz Pentium IV with 440MB of RAM is extremely snappy, with a 23sec boot. I'm using Ubuntu 10.04, but rather that use the full Gnome desktop, I've simply installed Openbox, and use that instead. I still have all the regular programs and features, but with the Openbox WM, much more lightweight and snappy.

That machine also has a Geforce4 MX440, which ain't a bad card. Grab the latest drivers for it from the proprietary drivers app, and it's perfectly adequate for most things, including watching DVDs.

Upping the RAM is a good idea. 1GB is more than enough.

But the best thing you can do is to cut down the weight in your system. XUbuntu, though lighter than Ubuntu, is still quite heavy. For a full Openbox Debian-based setup, try downloading and trying Crunchbang. The latest (and first Debian-based) version is Statler 10, currently still labeled as an Alpha, but quite stable. It's much lighter than Xubuntu, using only ~70MB of RAM on boot. It already has just about all the apps you'll need included, just as Ubuntu does. In fact, it's so much lighter, that try it out before you go buying RAM, it'll run happily on 256MB :)

Openbox isnt a bad choice for *buntu, but its not really that much lighter than ubuntu minimal with Xfce, or debian Xfce variants.

My piece of junk media box (P3-866, 256MB now that RAM slot 3 burnt out :S) runs Xfce sidux, no mods at all, and uses a touch under 70MB of RAM at boot.

[Legendary_Bibo]

It should do dual-channel fine (865 chipset). Not worth it though IMO, the 865 was fairly primitive as far as dual-channel RAM goes, and it tend to only really give much in the way of a speed increase on artifical benchmarks...and even then it was in the order of only 10-15%.



Yes. Upgrading the video card isnt cost effective anyway, unless you have access to cheap AGP cards.



What, going from a 40GB to a 500GB IDE drive? The newer, bigger drives as faster by a reasonable amount.



Yes, that means you've got 4 slots. Makes upgrading the RAM a bit easier. The only issue is that if you put DDR1 400 in, it will be limited to 333MHz.



Openbox isnt a bad choice for *buntu, but its not really that much lighter than ubuntu minimal with Xfce, or debian Xfce variants.

My piece of junk media box (P3-866, 256MB now that RAM slot 3 burnt out :S) runs Xfce sidux, no mods at all, and uses a touch under 70MB of RAM at boot.
Yeah I put Lubuntu on it, and to me it feels a tad slower than Xubuntu, or pretty much the same. Ubuntu is my comfort zone, so I guess I'll just have to upgrade the ram. I shouldn't need too much, but 1gb will probably make it fly.

[Khakilang]

I am using an old Pentium 3 computer with 384MB RAM and a VGA graphics with 64MB RAM and run Lubuntu and its work perfectly fine. But of course with higher RAM and CPU, it will simply fly.