Is it my RAM or my processor speed? Help.

erichkopp · Post by **erichkopp** » Fri May 12, 2006 4:47 am

My computer while running Live tends to lag quite a bit and is fairly sluggish. Even while browsing webpages it'll lag a bit from time to time. I have a 1.4 GHz Celeron M processor and 256 Mb of RAM. Neither one is up to par at all, but if I were to add a gig of RAM, would that solve a lot of my problem? I'm eventually going to upgrade to a much more capable computer, but I'd just like to make my computer faster if at all possible until then.

MrYellow · Post by **MrYellow** » Fri May 12, 2006 5:50 am

Celeron suck....

RAM would do u some good tho, even if it's dodgy cheap ram you'll notice
a big difference from 256.

-Ben

erichkopp · Post by **erichkopp** » Fri May 12, 2006 3:08 pm

I think that I'm going to get a gig chip of RAM and see how it works. My computer is far from great, but I'm hoping that will speed it up a bit to hold me over.

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Fri May 12, 2006 3:54 pm

If I were you, i would dump the mobo/prosucker... since you're getting a gig of ram, drop the money to get a mobo/processor/memory combination.. go some place that has competitive pricing (http://www.pricewatch.com) so you get the best value for your money... don't buy the top of the line shebang, since ANYTHING is better then 1.4ghz celeron.... there's only so much that memory is going to do for you with a system like that... a celeron is about the worst system you could making music with, with the main reason being cache... music programs need it, and celerons don't have enough of it... do yourself a favor... upgrade you machine.. you'll thank yourself in the longrun, for not having to put up with latency, slowdowns, crashes, etc, etc..

erichkopp · Post by **erichkopp** » Fri May 12, 2006 4:03 pm

Thanks stinky. I probably should have mentioned that my computer is a laptop. Looks like I'll just deal with it for now and put that money towards getting a new computer. I didn't know about the whole cache thing. I really don't know too much about processors and what makes one better than the other.

unusable · Post by **unusable** » Fri May 12, 2006 4:33 pm

both

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Fri May 12, 2006 4:42 pm

If it's a laptop, it's even worse, because you'll spend a fortune on upgrading the memory.. better to save pennies in the piggy bank towards a new puter.. i dare say you can get a better puter than that for $500, and a decent computer with a buttload more ram for less than a $1000...

gomi · Post by **gomi** » Fri May 12, 2006 9:31 pm

erichkopp wrote:I think that I'm going to get a gig chip of RAM and see how it works. My computer is far from great, but I'm hoping that will speed it up a bit to hold me over.

oh yah windows needs 1 GB of ram just to run properly.
put 1GB in and you'll be much better.

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Fri May 12, 2006 9:47 pm

oh yah windows needs 1 GB of ram just to run properly.

that's definitely incorrect (I have 4 machines, 2 run windowsXP on 256 and less), but for Vista it probably will be...

gomi · Post by **gomi** » Fri May 12, 2006 10:27 pm

stinky wrote:
oh yah windows needs 1 GB of ram just to run properly.
that's definitely incorrect (I have 4 machines, 2 run windowsXP on 256 and less), but for Vista it probably will be...

whatever.
windows will load.
but you'll need 1GB for it to be nice.

jamesp · Post by **jamesp** » Fri May 12, 2006 10:53 pm

If I were you I'd maybe try a fast external drive. Dump everything you can on the new drive - Live's clip library, the cache, your massive collection of downloaded mp3s and porn. The thing is, while more RAM would help, it's money you won't ever get back. A nice external drive, otoh, will always be handy. Try getting both if you can spring it.

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Sat May 13, 2006 3:46 am

whatever.
windows will load.
but you'll need 1GB for it to be nice.

uh, yeah, whatever... that's a far cry from just running properly... before you go off the deep end, just think about what it was like when WinXP came out in 2001.. happen to remember how much 1GB was then? I didn't think so... 512 would do more than plenty.. i've got a laptop with 768 that screams.. but yeah, 1GB is definitely nice to have, and smokes just running properly...