Minimum paging file please?

[sirtex]

Greets!

I'm buying laptops for 2 ladies to help them write their books. They will run at same time:

+ anti-virus

+ web browser with Facebook & video

+ word processor (likely Libre Office, unless I can find something free & lighter that allows offline editing...)

The models are Aspire AS5349-2899 15.6" Laptop Computer, specs:

Intel® Celeron® Processor B815 (lowest end Sandy CPU, about a C2D T5870 or AMD Turion X2 ZM-86)

4Mb DDR 1333MHz

320GB 5,400RPM Hard Drive (which I'm trying to avoid to use)

What I want to do is make a RAM Drive for a small paging file & browser cache.

What is the smallest paging file I can use?

I'm trying to resist buying more RAM for them (systems come with a single 2Gb stick, & I plan to give a hand-me-down 2nd 2Gb), but if I have to splurge $40 for to bring total RAM to 6Gb, I will. I'd prefer to tell them don't use many tabs & don't run anything in background except anti-virus.

cheers!

[gizmo198128]

Afaik the page file is usually double whatever the Size of the ram is.

You could try lowering it so it matches the amount of ram in a system.

so instead of *2GB Ram = 4GB Page file* you could try *2GB Ram = 2GB Page File* and see if it performs just as well.

Considering that the laptops will be doing the most minimum processing I'd say you could halve the page file or even lower it to a quarter of the total ram size and not get too much of a performance hit.

Only thing I can suggest IMO is to just play with it, Gradually reduce the page file until you start seeing a severe enough performance hit, The page file size just before you got the hit would be the "Sweet Spot"

Just remember though that as more windows and programs get opened, The more likely the system will lag

( and thus require a larger page file )

Good luck!

[ChiefZeke]

It is not advisable to put the page file on a RAM drive - defeats the purpose of each. Usual procedure is to put the page file on a different hard drive than the one Windows is on.

[NIM]

It is not advisable to put the page file on a RAM drive - defeats the purpose of each. Usual procedure is to put the page file on a different hard drive than the one Windows is on.

If you move the page file from a system drive, system won't be able to create crash dumps in case of a system failure ex. blue screen.

I would use at least minimum page file on the system drive and use the 1.5X of RAM size on the second drive.

[Kelsenellenelvian]

Well ACTUALLY with

4Mb DDR 1333MHz

4 MEGS of ram you are going to need a extremly HUGE pagefile....

Seriously though, once i got above 4 GIGS I started setting mine to a static 1024min, 1024max and haven't ever looked back....

[ChiefZeke]

A Google search provides more technical information: http://tweakhound.com/windows7/tweaking/7.html

[EB1000]

I'm running 64bit win7 with 8GB ram with pagefile disabled. Never had a problem, on any program (office 2010, Matlab, Maple15, PSPICE, 3D games, video editing with Adobe Premier...). The pagrfile is on;y usable if you get a BSOD and want to debug it...