Should I upgrade my CPU or my RAM?

[karellen]

RAM, obviously

[Dark Star]

I would bet people will say a higher ghz processor but I am thinking you are having Core 2 Duo E4300 isn't it ? Its a hrll of a processor Dude believe me Its way better than AMD X2 and all .Ghz race is now gone.. Update yourself now a days the thing that matters is core architecture.. not the speed Intel Core are awesome and even AMD unable to find sloution for C2D .. till date .. Add 1 Gb ram stick

[ruibernardo]

No, I'm talking about booting an installed system from grub menu to a desktop in 27 seconds on less than 34Mb RAM. That's a 1Ghz Pentium III laptop with 2x256Mb PC133 and a 7200rpm 60Gb IDE drive.

I had a 300Mhz Pentium II (1x256 PC133, 20Gb 5400rpm) that did the same trick in 36 seconds and only needed 17mb for the entire system. After browsing, watching movies, listening to music, etc., memory usage peaked around 96Mb.

I just don't encourage people to spend more money on their computers unless they actually need the hardware.

Yes K.Mandla,

512 MB is more than enough to use Ubuntu. But if you're kind of a "heavy" user like me, swap is used if you open some applications, reducing the speed of the computer, and there is no processor that can fight swap.

In this case, if I had to choose between upgrading RAM or the processor, I'd choose RAM.

[mips]

I would buy RAM.

Make sure the stick you are buying is identical (timings etc) to your existing and use the dual channel setup if your board supports it which it probably does from the age you mentioned.

[salsafyren]

No, I'm talking about booting an installed system from grub menu to a desktop in 27 seconds on less than 34Mb RAM. That's a 1Ghz Pentium III laptop with 2x256Mb PC133 and a 7200rpm 60Gb IDE drive.

I had a 300Mhz Pentium II (1x256 PC133, 20Gb 5400rpm) that did the same trick in 36 seconds and only needed 17mb for the entire system. After browsing, watching movies, listening to music, etc., memory usage peaked around 96Mb.

I just don't encourage people to spend more money on their computers unless they actually need the hardware.

Sorry, but I have a really hard time believing you, since I have a laptop with 256 MB RAM and after boot about 120-130 MB is used. This is Ubuntu edgy with gnome.

34 MB? Come on!

[mips]

Sorry, but I have a really hard time believing you, since I have a laptop with 256 MB RAM and after boot about 120-130 MB is used. This is Ubuntu edgy with gnome.

34 MB? Come on!

He never said what OS he is using but I'm assuming it is something like DSL, Puppy etc.

K.Mandla likes getting old useless (considered by others) hardware functional again.

[tomcat-55]

Been said many a time but go for Ram every time. don't stop to you max it out Got 3 gig in mine just need to get 2 new gig sticks and IM maxed out.

[K.Mandla]

K.Mandla likes getting old useless (considered by others) hardware functional again.

He never said what OS he is using but I'm assuming it is something like DSL, Puppy etc.

True, but I'm not trying to trick anybody, either: It's Ubuntu. I don't want to steer the thread off course, but I have this link that explains how I set it up. It's a little old, and it doesn't have all the information we've been talking about, but the rest is elsewhere on the blog.

Now no more about that. The OPer wants to know if he should buy RAM or a processor.

[Fonon]

Well, my Dad just bought me 512 mb RAM stick that seems to match the one in my motherboard, so..thanks! I'm trying to be a Linux gamer, so it appears I made the right choice. Thanks again!

[ruibernardo]

K.Mandla, I knew there was a catch . Ubuntu-Gnome+openbox+tweaking=a_great_hack! Very nice indeed. I use XFS too. It's a very good filesystem with the greatest performance, far better than ext3.

Fonon, enjoy it. You will notice that swapping will be reduced, if any.