1 GB RAM installed

Guys, you wont believe it. I got a RAM upgrade on 23-Jun-2008, that's a little more than a week back. But owing to sheer my laziness, I didn't update this blog. So, here's the update.

My PC, as you all are familiar now, is a 2004 relic that runs a 2.0 GHz Celeron on an 845-GL. It was bought with only 256 MB RAM. For four long years, I've struggled with this 1-room-kitchen of a memory called 256 MB. For the former part of my PC's life until today, the restrictions weren't as severe. They became obvious when I started using Fedora 6 earlier, and Fedora 8 later. My system was practically living off virtual memory. Every single operation required probably thousands of swaps out of and into the physical memory. The result was a PC slower than a snail, and a wait more frustrating than hearing Atal Behari Vajpayee's slowly progressing speech.

Opening every additional application meant a long-wait...sometimes taking several minutes. Saying that the waits were frustrating would be a gross understatement. To say the least, they were agonising.

Now, the better part. Soon after my vacations started, I decided to look into this issue. I asked Jatin to get me a quote for a 1 GB DDR RAM. Later I realised that the RAM speeds won't match. My motherboard supported a maximum of 267 MHz, while the only ones left in the market were 400 MHz. After discussing the issue out with Jatin, we finally came to the conclusion that a faster RAM would work with a slower board, at the maximum speed that the board supports. With that conclusion firmly in my head, I went to Lamington Road.

Now, a funny thing happened. I decided to check a few shops before buying the memory from the shop recommended by Jatin. So I checked out with not one, not two, but three shops. And all the counter-persons there told me that my conclusion was totally wrong, and that the RAM and board speeds had to match. To my astonishment, they were trying to sell me the slower RAM at double the cost of a faster one !!!

While the 400 MHz variant cost 1,500 bucks, the price quoted for the 267 MHz variant was......2,700 bucks ! Ridiculous! I phoned up Jatin again, and he assured me that our logic was correct and that I should go and purchase the specified RAM from the specified shop. I did as I was told.

Now, both of us has contemplated that the worst case scenario would be that both cards -- the older, slower one; and the faster, newer one -- may not work together. However, I myself had reasoned out that since the speed ceiling of the board coincided with the operating speed of the older RAM, the faster speed of the new one would be neglected, and both woudl operate harmoniously at 267 MHz.

Still unsure if I had blown up 1.5 grand, I reached home, anxious to test the card. First, I removed my old card and plugged in the new one. It worked!! Then, I plugged in my old card as well, and both worked!! I was the happiest creature on the planet alive. My PC's memory had just gone 5x. The machine ran fast. There were no hold-ups. From a time when my HDD access indicator used to flash all the time.....the indicator now acted as if it was off -- the disk being used only for loading programs once, and not for virtual memory swapping every millisecond.

Since then, the Fedora system manager has never shown a RAM utilisation of over 50%, and virtual memory has never been used since that day. Today my PC works really smooth. I'm happy and satisfied that I managed to identify the (performance) problem correctly, find the optimal solution (in terms of cost), and had enough knowledge and skills to rightly implement the solution. Equally important is the fact that, in Jatin, I had the right consultant at hand, and that I didn't hesitate to avail of his expert services.

Now, my PC has 1.25 GB RAM, and is one of the coolest machines in the world....atleast from my point of view.

Earlier, I had contemplated putting in a 512 MB card that would've cost me half as much. But I had turned down the proposal, because it wasn't future proof. Now, my PC can run smoothly for at least another 2 years. Besides, when I join the company, I might be posted out of this city. And it'll mean the PC is left only to be used by my folks for communicating with me via chat/video-chat, and for some internet-browsing and documentation work. So, the current rig should suffice.