increase Ram or create swap file ?

[integ]

Hi,
I have been noticing some system lag when opening over 8 tabs on my Chromium browser, using Libre Office Suite and especially when running XP on Vitual Box.

My system details are as below:
Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5200 @ 2.50GHz × 2
Intel® G33 x86/MMX/SSE2
991.1 MiB DDR2 , HDD 300GB (with almost 200GB Free)
Ubuntu 12.04

1) Should I buy additional RAM? If so,how much RAM can I add? Can I add it along with my existing 1GB RAM? And the new RAM should it be same DDR2 as existing or can it be DDR3.

2)Or if I create a swap file, will that help. If so, of what size should it be.

[howefield]

I'd recommend more RAM.

Do you know which motherboard you have ?

[Cheesemill]

Can you post the output of:

sudo dmidecode -t memory

It will tell us how many memory slots you have and what's in each one.

[slickymaster]

If I where you, I would upgrade your RAM memory, clearly 1 GB isn't enough for your needs.

Kingston recently announced the launch of memories Kingston HyperX Red to its product line of high performance, HyperX Blu. Why don't you take a look, they aren't so expensive as one might think.

You can take a look here.

[varunendra]

1) Should I buy additional RAM?

Without any delay..! If it's default 12.04 (with unity 3D), it's an 'Achievement' that you can even start XP in a VM with mere 1GB !

Most of the earlier G33 boards did not support DDR3 (you can check that on your board manufacturer's site for your model). And if yours is already running on DDR2, it almost certainly doesn't have support for DDR3 (IIRC, the few boards that were launched with support for both DDR2 and DDR3 failed miserably in the market, so companies immediately stopped producing them).
If so, you'll have to buy a DDR2, and the same frequency as the existing one, even same brand if you can find it (actually, even the same 'lot' is the recommendation, but obviously that's not possible now )
Please note that while a 'different frequency' RAM may work in parallel, such a combination is most likely to create strange problems on the system.

Any G33 board will have support for at least 4GB memory. As such, you may go with a good brand (entry level Kingston/Transcend would be fine) module of 2GB, same frequency. Or you can opt to go for new 2x2GB modules of same type (would be best !) and discard the current 1GB one.

Even if you have more than two RAM slots available, it doesn't make much sense to get more than 4GB memory for such an old board and CPU combination (unless you are a heavy gamer and have high-end graphics card for that). Especially when DDR2 has become so much costlier compared to DDR3s.

Bottomline for the mentioned combo (with mentioned usage) is-
2 GB --> at least !
2 + 1 GB (same freq.) --> Fine (in fact Good, if you could find same brand/type)
2 + 2 GB (a new pair of same type) --> Great !
Anything above 4 GB --> Useless IMHO, and wouldn't make much performance difference even if has support for DR3 (which I highly doubt it has).

PS :
Regardless of the amount of RAM, I'd recommended to have an exactly 2GB swap partition, if you aren't hibernating. Or equal to RAM if you plan to use hibernation (which is often buggy and thus isn't enabled by default on 12.04).

Hope it helps.

[integ]

Hi Friends ,

Thank you for responding to my query. I will definitively be getting 2GB RAM added on to this system. Just in caseif the details you have asked me helps.

@howefield : Do you know which motherboard you have ?

description: Motherboard
product: G31M-ES2L
vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
version: x.x
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: Award Software International, Inc.
physical id: 0
version: FC
date: 07/02/2009
size: 128KiB
capacity: 448KiB

@Cheesemill : Can you post the output of:
Code: sudo dmidecode -t memory
It will tell us how many memory slots you have and what's in each one.

sudo dmidecode -t memory
# dmidecode 2.11
SMBIOS 2.4 present.

Handle 0x0005, DMI type 5, 20 bytes
Memory Controller Information
Error Detecting Method: 8-bit Parity
Error Correcting Capabilities:
None
Supported Interleave: One-way Interleave
Current Interleave: One-way Interleave
Maximum Memory Module Size: 1024 MB
Maximum Total Memory Size: 2048 MB
Supported Speeds:
Other
Supported Memory Types:
Other
Memory Module Voltage: 5.0 V
Associated Memory Slots: 2
0x0006
0x0007
Enabled Error Correcting Capabilities:
None

Handle 0x0006, DMI type 6, 12 bytes
Memory Module Information
Socket Designation: A0
Bank Connections: 1
Current Speed: Unknown
Type: Unknown
Installed Size: Not Installed
Enabled Size: Not Installed
Error Status: OK

Handle 0x0007, DMI type 6, 12 bytes
Memory Module Information
Socket Designation: A1
Bank Connections: 2
Current Speed: Unknown
Type: Other
Installed Size: 1024 MB (Single-bank Connection)
Enabled Size: 1024 MB (Single-bank Connection)
Error Status: OK

Handle 0x0019, DMI type 16, 15 bytes
Physical Memory Array
Location: System Board Or Motherboard
Use: System Memory
Error Correction Type: None
Maximum Capacity: 16 GB
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Number Of Devices: 2

Handle 0x001A, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x0019
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: Unknown
Data Width: Unknown
Size: No Module Installed
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: A0
Bank Locator: Bank0/1
Type: Unknown
Type Detail: None
Speed: Unknown
Manufacturer:
Serial Number:
Asset Tag:
Part Number:

Handle 0x001B, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x0019
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 1024 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: A1
Bank Locator: Bank2/3
Type: Unknown
Type Detail: None
Speed: 667 MHz
Manufacturer:
Serial Number:
Asset Tag:
Part Number:

@varunendra : Regardless of the amount of RAM, I'd recommended to have an exactly 2GB swap partition, if you aren't hibernating. Or equal to RAM if you plan to use hibernation (which is often buggy and thus isn't enabled by default on 12.04.

Sure i will try increasing swap partition to 2 GB , currently I have 1GB swap partition. Along with increasing swap partition is it advisable to create a swap file. If so of what size.

[integ]

@ using free command result is : ( this report was taken while i was running 5 tabs on chromium, libre , gimp, and xp on virtual box)

total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 1014888 941484 73404 0 1332 185792
-/+ buffers/cache: 754360 260528
Swap: 1543724 736912 806812
this report was taken while i was running 5 tabs on chromium, libre , gimp, and xp on virtual box

[varunendra]

description: Motherboard
product: G31M-ES2L

Exactly that is the board I had in mind while writing whatever I wrote
It doesn't support more than 4GB RAM anyway (no more than 2GB per memory bank - as can be verified by the dmidecode output).
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=3485#sp
It's a really nice MB for its price, but kinda outdated now.

Just get a 667MHz Kingston/Transcend module and you should be good to go.

Along with increasing swap partition is it advisable to create a swap file. If so of what size.

While you can do so, I don't think it'll help in any performance improvement. So I'd suggest to leave the idea of creating a swap file.

[integ]

Thanks again , will do so.
Wish you guys great festival.