I have found the best number to watch is the amount of swap used. If that grows, then you need more RAM. If you are running slow and not using swap, then adding RAM won't help.

Mark

On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 4:53 PM, Carruth, Rusty <Rusty@smartm.com> wrote:

Unless his problem is LACK of ram.  Yes, I know it said 489M free.  Without a look at top I’m not convinced yet that he won’t see any improvement.

 

Here is ‘top’ from a machine which is pretty un-loaded:

 

top - 16:40:14 up 63 days,  1:12,  3 users,  load average: 0.42, 0.62, 0.67

Tasks: 287 total,   1 running, 282 sleeping,   0 stopped,   4 zombie

Cpu(s):  3.8%us,  0.9%sy,  0.0%ni, 95.3%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st

Mem:   2564652k total,  2053712k used,   510940k free,    91448k buffers

Swap:  6095864k total,   371340k used,  5724524k free,   516624k cached

 

And here’s a top from one of our servers:

 

top - 16:42:03 up 141 days, 19:59,  6 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.02, 0.05

Tasks: 274 total,   1 running, 273 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie

%Cpu(s):  3.1 us,  0.6 sy,  0.0 ni, 96.0 id,  0.3 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st

KiB Mem:  32898652 total, 32469852 used,   428800 free,  2711252 buffers

KiB Swap: 33506300 total,     1224 used, 33505076 free, 22613684 cached

 

(yeah, 32G of ram.  I can edit (using emacs) a 20G file with NO problems.  I know because I have)

 

Again, nice and responsive (but then this machine says:

 

/var/log/dmesg:[    0.000007] Calibrating delay loop (skipped), value calculated using timer frequency.. 4399.98 BogoMIPS (lpj=8799976)

/var/log/dmesg:[    0.121190] smpboot: Total of 4 processors activated (17599.95 BogoMIPS)

 

So I suppose that’s a pretty hot machine.)

 

On the OTHER hand, look at this machine, which runs pretty much as well as everything ELSE here I’ve mentioned:

 

top - 16:45:51 up 51 days, 23:59, 28 users,  load average: 4.79, 4.46, 4.51

Tasks: 335 total,   1 running, 330 sleeping,   0 stopped,   4 zombie

%Cpu(s): 70.4 us,  0.8 sy,  0.0 ni, 28.6 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.1 si,  0.0 st

KiB Mem:   8159892 total,  7781364 used,   378528 free,   290460 buffers

KiB Swap:  2086908 total,        0 used,  2086908 free,  5508492 cached

 

/var/log/dmesg:[    0.000001] Calibrating delay loop (skipped), value calculated using timer frequency.. 5985.88 BogoMIPS (lpj=11971768)

/var/log/dmesg:[    0.074024] smpboot: Total of 2 processors activated (11971.76 BogoMIPS)

 

Again, fast cpu, but then I’ve got 4 processor-bound applications running all the time on it so its at a load average of 4.79.  I’ve remembered that the important numbers come from:

 

%Cpu(s): 70.4 us,  0.8 sy,  0.0 ni, 28.6 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.1 si,  0.0 st

 

If that said:

 

%Cpu(s): 70.4 us,  0.8 sy,  0.0 ni, 0.6 id,  26.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.1 si,  0.0 st

 

You’d have something of a slow machine.  If it said:

 

%Cpu(s): 20.4 us,  0.8 sy,  0.0 ni, 8.6 id,  70.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.1 si,  0.0 st

 

Youd be going to lunch while waiting for it to finish whatever you were doing, if I remember the numbers right.

 

IMHO, YMMV, etc, etc J

 

I look forward to hearing what Mike discovers.

 

From: plug-discuss-bounces@lists.phxlinux.org [mailto:plug-discuss-bounces@lists.phxlinux.org] On Behalf Of Mark Phillips
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2014 4:36 PM
To: Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Re: memory

 

Mike,

On page 91 of the Dell Dimension C521 that I sent to you, you can use memory sticks at 533 MHz, 667 MHz, and 800 MHz. Since the original ones are 800 MHz, you did the right thing by changing your order from 533 MHz to 800 MHz.

 

Bottom line...unless you were doing a lot of RAM intensive computations on this machine, you won't see a lot of performance improvement for your investment of $50 in the memory.

Mark

 

On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 2:06 PM, Michael Havens <bmike1@gmail.com> wrote:

I emailed the company I bought the ram from and they said they would send the 800 Mhz instead of the chips advertised. If that happens I don't know. If it does not happen should I get the matching 533Mhz ram or can I have the mismatching speeds (will it default the the slower speed)?

:-)~MIKE~(-:

 

On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 12:41 PM, <techlists@phpcoderusa.com> wrote:

I did a search on "CPU family 15 Model 79 Stepping 2" and this is what I found.

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K8/AMD-Sempron%2064%203400%2B%20-%20SDA3400IAA3CN%20%28SDA3400CNBOX%29.html

And here is the benchmark I found  http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Sempron+3400%2B

I would say at least in part the cause of your computer being slow is the CPU.

I'd be interested to hear if more RAM makes a difference.  Of course RAM might effect performance if you are doing something that requires a lot of RAM.  I assume more RAM will effect compile speed.

This is a testament to Linux breathing life into old iron.

On 2014-10-09 14:03, Michael Havens wrote:

bmike1@C521 ~ $ lscpu
Architecture:          x86_64
CPU op-mode(s):        32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order:            Little Endian
CPU(s):                1
On-line CPU(s) list:   0
Thread(s) per core:    1
Core(s) per socket:    1
Socket(s):             1
NUMA node(s):          1
Vendor ID:             AuthenticAMD
CPU family:            15
Model:                 79
Stepping:              2
CPU MHz:               1000.000
BogoMIPS:              2004.24
Virtualization:        AMD-V
L1d cache:             64K
L1i cache:             64K
L2 cache:              512K
NUMA node0 CPU(s):     0

:-)~MIKE~(-:

On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 10:04 AM, <techlists@phpcoderusa.com> wrote:

what CPU does that box have?

On 2014-10-09 09:36, Mark Phillips wrote:
Michael,

It seems the max memory is 4GB for that system - 4 banks of 1 GB
sticks.
RAM memory Capacity - 4 GB
Memory Type - DDR2 SDRAM - DIMM 240-pin
Data Integrity Check - Non-ECC
Speed - 667 MHz ( PC2-5300 )
Features - Dual rank , unbuffered

You already have 2 1GB sticks in the machines - what speed are
they?
You should match the speed for all four sticks.

The second set you mentioned are only 533 MHz, whereas your bus is
667
MHz. If your system is slow, get the fastest memory you can afford.

Mark

On Wed, Oct 8, 2014 at 1:51 PM, Carruth, Rusty <Rusty@smartm.com>
wrote:

Yes, 1024 is one gig, but often some memory is stolen by the
motherboard – for example if you have an on-board graphics card
that uses main memory for its RAM.

 

Personally, if you can afford it and the 4G is less than 2x the 2G
I’d get 4G – but if you could find 2x2G sticks then you could
have 6G total – not bad IMHO.

 

 

FROM: plug-discuss-bounces@lists.phxlinux.org
[mailto:plug-discuss-bounces@lists.phxlinux.org] ON BEHALF OF
Michael Havens
SENT: Wednesday, October 08, 2014 1:43 PM
TO: PLUG
SUBJECT: memory

 

I know this is a stupid question but...

 

I got a Dell dimension c521. It is slow so I figure I should add
memory. There are 4 memory slots with 2 being used. How much memory
is that? Well, the cards that are in there say it they are  two
cards with 1024 mb apiece.  'free -h' reports

 

free -h

                   total       used       free  
 
       shared    buffers   cached

Mem:          1.9G       1.4G       489M        18M
       59M       535M

 

isn't 1024 one gig? Where is the rest?

 

SHould I buy this?

 

NEW 4GB 4X1GB DDR2 PC2-5300 667MHZ RAM MEMORY FOR DELL DIMENSION
C521 [1]

 

or should I get this?

 

2GB (2X1GB) RAM MEMORY CMS COMPATIBLE WITH DELL DIMENSION C521
DESKTOP [2]

:-)~MIKE~(-:
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