swap file

[wereone]

what's a good rule of thumb to use when
setting your swap file? I heard that if you
have a permanent swap file instead of a variable one set by windows your system would run faster.

[wereone]

thanks for all the answers I'm running 128MB
ram I decided to go with 1.5 times installed RAM. I set min/max to 192MB. Brydon where do I change conservative swap file = 1 is that in the reg?

[Brydon]

Add the line as it is exactly in my post into the system.ini (run/sysedit/enter)under [386Enh] and reboot to take effect.
Here is the line

ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1



[This message has been edited by Brydon (edited 05-17-2000).]

[Brydon]

I would recommend a permanent swapfile as it is better than windows constantly resizing one, as to what size...I have a swapfile of 250mb min/max with 192mb ram but there is a lot of debate about what size is best so I would say try it out and see what is best for you. I also use the command ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 which means that the system will use the available ram before it starts using the swapfile so I guess I could get by with a smaller swapfile but some proggies like you to have one so I keep it lke it is.

[hd581]

If you're running NT or the like here's a good writeup. Even if you aren't the tips can still give insight as to how it works.

[tantone]

A good rule of thumb for NT is to make your pagefile.sys minimum size 12MB more thsn the amount of RAM in your system. If you see excessive pages/sec, add more ram.

Also, to optimize performance, put your pagefile on a partition other than the boot or system partitions. Better still, put the pagefile on another disk.

The pagefile cannot shrink below the size you set, but it can grow. If your pagefile grows too much from it's set size, you might experience programs starting slower and a fragmented HDD

[drizzle]

I've read that you should set the minimum & maximum size to like twice the amount of RAM installed on your system. So if you were running with 64MB of RAM it would be set to 128MB. Also, setting the minimum & maximum size the same prevents Windows from resizing the swap file and causing extra disk activity.

...hope that helps