How much RAM do I need?

[etecnifibre]

I have a problem when I am burning a DVD, and sometimes during a sound editor program. If I try to start IE or Outlook while I'm doing one of those things, it takes forever. (Actually, not during the burning of the DVD, but during the VOB file creation. It also does this when I am copying info from hard drive to hard drive).
Is this something that is dependant on how the programs are accessed from the hard drive? Is it a problem that RAM can fix? How much? 2 X 256 more? 2 X 512? Thanks.
My current setup:
Gigabyte 8IK1100
2 X 512 Crucial
P4c 3Ghz
yada, yada, yada.
Maybe I am just asking too much of my system. If more RAM won't help this, then I'll just live with it.

[Faustus]

512 is more then enough for almost all uses. 1gig even better. 99% of all users don not need more then that.

I'm running 512 and its great.

VOB creation is a very intensive thing, likely the thinkg that would help most would be to make it create them to a seperate hard drive, even then it might run slow.

If your always bogged down running task then build a second machine for cheap and put it on a KVM switch.

[etecnifibre]

Great, thanks for the response. I actually have 3 machines right now. :>) You saved me some money. On to the video card. 9600AIW or 9700 AIW? >

[Faustus]

Great, thanks for the response. I actually have 3 machines right now. :>) You saved me some money. On to the video card. 9600AIW or 9700 AIW? >

Best let someone else answer that one, I dont like AIW cards. I use a media conversion Box.

[rallynavvie]

Open up the task manager by right-clicking on the task bar and selecting it. Under the "Performance" tab you'll see your processor and memory utilization. If you have HT enabled you'll see two processor graphs. If one or both are going at 100% then opening or pretty much doing anything else is going to be slow since the process has been queued up against whatever is burning the proc at full speed. If you select "Hide when minimized" in the Options menu on the task manager so when you minimize it there will still be a processor utilization graph in the system tray. I always have this running so I know when something may be using system resources when I don't want it to.

I also don't like AIW cards FWIW.

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

Uh... what's a KVM Switch? (sorry.....)

[rallynavvie]

KVM switch allows you to plug a keyboard, monitor, and mouse into it (and sometimes other peripherals) and depending on how big a switch you get connect those to two or more computers. In my case I have a 4-port KVM that I use to switch between my main workstation, my old workstation, an older Linux server box, and the port replicator for my laptop. I can use all of these with one keyboard, mouse, and monitor just by hitting the switch on the KVM to rotate between computers.

[handyguy]

When writing a dvd it uses 100% of your cpu power, this is normal.

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

Thanks!, you learn something new everyday!