How do you set YOUR page file?

[BoomAM]

Hi,
I was wondering, what do you set your page files to?
I have mine set to 768mb(same size as main memory)min and max, on my Z:, windows is on C:
How do you set yours, and what is the best way to set it.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I set it at 384-1024MB on my dual 120GB IDE Raid0
Then I make it 128-384MB on each of my non raided 120GB drives
Then I made it 128-256MB on my 80GB drive

 

[HypNoTic]

Basic rules :
- general desktop usage : 1.5 x installed RAM
- general purpose server with medium load : 2x installed RAM
- minimum and maximum the same size to avoid file fragmentation
- if you set up a server, the memory dump in case of crash is sent to the pagefile, so make sure your PF is large enough
- if you set up a "huge" OS/software on a small PC, add a little extra swap

Personnal usage :
512 ram on workstation (photoshop and gaming) : 1Gb of swap
768 ram on home server : 1.5Gb cause i dont need any more
192 ram on laptop : 384Mb

 

[Nothinman]

- if you set up a server, the memory dump in case of crash is sent to the pagefile, so make sure your PF is large enough

Unless you have the debug tools to read those dmp files, it's pointless to enable them.

On my main machine I have 1.2G memory and ~1G of swap, I rarely swap so there's no real reason to make it any larger. Space isn't really an issue because I have 256M swap partitions on each drive.

 

[BoomAM]

Would anyone here reccommend setting up a seperate partition, just for the swap file?
How big should the partition/swap file be for:
a) 768mb memory
b) 1gb of memory.

Thanks.

 

[Nothinman]

It depends on your usage. If you never use more than 512M of memory at once then using 1.5x swap is a waste. Since disk space is cheap I would probably just set both to be 1G swap and leave it at that unless you have problems.

Would anyone here reccommend setting up a seperate partition, just for the swap file?

I always use swap partitions on Linux instead of files, but for Windows I doubt it makes much of a difference.

 

[PuterDoctor]

512 MB on my laptop(512 MB RAM),on my desktop(512 MB RAM) I have it set to 1GB(or disabled when capturing video).
seems to work good on these settings although there are a few games that will crash if I have it disabled,also ASUS monitoring utility will get floating point errors when I disable it.

 

[woodie1]

I used a separate partition for my swap file for years. However, testing with XP-Pro, it didn't seem to matter so I keep it on the same partition as the OS.

 

[spyordie007]

A seperate physical drive would be worth your while, however a seperate partition isnt going to make a signifigant differance.
Box at work has 512MB RAM, pagefile set to initial size of 768MB max size of 1024MB on the same partition as the OS. If storage were an Issue I would drop both the initial and max by 256 but it's not much of a concern so this works well.

-Spy

 

[dougtran]

Does anyone know why there is guideline for having your swap file 1.5xRAM for a "normal user" ? If I had a PC with 1GB of memory, why would I want to set it at 1.5GB? Even my main Backoffice server at work rarelys reaches above 1GB of physical+virtual memory (about 50 nodes running SQL and Exchange).

For myself, I just look at the task manager to see how much memory I'm using under a heavy load and set my pagefile accordingly. A

 

[BoomAM]

So for me, what and where should my page file be set?
At the moment, its set 768mb on Z:, which is on a separate physical drive to windows.(C:/D: are on the same physical drive)
Is this OK? Or should i set it to something else?
Thanks in advance

 

[Nothinman]

At the moment, its set 768mb on Z:, which is on a separate physical drive to windows.(C:/D: are on the same physical drive)
Is this OK? Or should i set it to something else?
Thanks in advance

If you're not getting Out of Virtual memory errors you're probably fine.

 

[Budman]

I have 1 gig of ram so I set mine MIN/MAX 200megs.

Never had any problems with it setup this way.

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: BoomAM
So for me, what and where should my page file be set?
At the moment, its set 768mb on Z:, which is on a separate physical drive to windows.(C:/D: are on the same physical drive)
Is this OK? Or should i set it to something else?
Thanks in advance

Sounds just fine to me, if you run out Windows will let you know.

-Spy

 

[BoomAM]

Thanks guys.
I used to have it set too 256mb, but every unreal engine baced game that i ran, gave me an error saying insufficiant memory!!!
So i upped it to 768mb and everythings ran fine ever since.

 

[dudleydocker]

A seperate physical drive would be worth your while

How do I go about doing this? Thinking of a dual drive SCSI system.


Thanks.

 

[Jeff7181]

I have mine on it's own 2 GB partition, and I have the min size at 768, and max at 2 GB. I put it on it's own partition so it doesn't get fragmented.

 

[dudleydocker]

I put it on it's own partition so it doesn't get fragmented.

So how do I actually go about doing this??

 

[BoomAM]

You can either use a program like partition magic to make and resize existing partitions, or if your starting afresh, use fdisk to make an extra extended partition.

 

[Nothinman]

I put it on it's own partition so it doesn't get fragmented.

Which generally just causes extra seeking to get to the pagefile. Pagefile access is random no matter how contiguous the file is because the pages stored there aren't sorted in any order, defragmenting the pagefile has no real affect on performance.

 

[Baileybbk]

If your using WinXP it doesn't really matter. It gets increased if needed anyway. And WinXP does a pretty good job managing it compared to prior versions.
Only way to really make a difference is if you place it on a separate drive and channel from everything else (even then it probably won't be a noticable difference if you are on a fast system).

 

[Buddha Bart]

so not worth the effort

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I put it on it's own partition so it doesn't get fragmented.

Which generally just causes extra seeking to get to the pagefile. Pagefile access is random no matter how contiguous the file is because the pages stored there aren't sorted in any order, defragmenting the pagefile has no real affect on performance.

The fragmentation of the page file is not really an issue. It gets re-created periodically. But, the real advantage in placing the page file in a separate partition is to prevent IT from fragging the C:\ OS drive. The pagefile since Win95 is dynamic, and the constant changes cause mucho fragging in the C drive.

With a lot of RAM, the old rules for a fixed size don't make a lot of sense. I have 1 gig of RAM, and tests show that the pagefile is rarely used if at all.

 

[Nothinman]

The fragmentation of the page file is not really an issue. It gets re-created periodically.

The pagefile never gets recreated unless you delete it. If necessary it will expand, but it never shrinks until a reboot and that's only back to the min size set for it.

But, the real advantage in placing the page file in a separate partition is to prevent IT from fragging the C:\ OS drive

If you have enough memory that it won't grow you don't have to worry about that, also if you set the min/max size the same it won't grow either.

 

[toant103]

3GB swap file on another drive.

I have a GB of ram