I need an evaluation of my system memory sufficiency based on Task
Manager / Performance readings [given] - and advise if some other tool
should be consulted.

Physical memory in excess of [ WHAT AMOUNT? ] is essentially useless
for many windows and many office type applications - but not typically
including multimedia, modeling, or gaming.  Dell D505 laptop 1.5G
P4Mobile processor.

In other words ... 
should I RETURN the 1 GIG PC2700 module I just bought because it's not needed?
[ It took me from 512+256K in 2 slots to 1G+52K in two slots ].

From Task Manager /Performance Tab
- typical readings:

Totals
handles           15036
threads           592
processes         58

Commit Charge (bytes)
Total             511M
Limit             3.98G
Peak              565M

Physical Memory (bytes)
Total             1.5G
Available         875M
System Cache      684M

Kernal Memory (bytes)
Total             79M
Paged             65M
Non Paged         14M

---

Clarification of Question by rfh-ga on 06 Jan 2005 11:56 PST

The given task manager readings/metrics are observed with all my
commonly used applications running and hooked up to a network.

My hypothesis is that 

    given the complete Task Manager "performance" metrics/readings
[given] while most everything is running,  a near deterministic case
can be made built from 'metric by metric' interpretations for NOT
needing more than 3/4 G in my machine.

Such interpretations and conclusions are will be an education for me. 
I want to know Y/N and I want to know why.

Thanks!

I will try to answer your question the best I can through my own
personall knowledge. To run windows xp you need at least 256 where as
some come standered with only 128 which is insufficient if you want to
run anything besides what comes with windows. Now for office work and
multimedia you should have at least 512 if you multitask alot. As it
will get drained fairly quickly. And you dont really want your
computer using virtual memory as it runs slower and has a bad habit of
crashing. Now if you are into high end games i would suggest 1 gig as
you can always use the extra memory. I say this becuse of everything
you will be running sucks up the memory. And you will get memory leaks
after running some application which means that even though the
program is closed it will still consume some memory. Not to mention if
you are connected to the internet you will need a firewall and a
antivirus constently running. As you stated you said you are into
modeling which I will assume would be something like Maya or even
poser than you must have at least 512 If you are working on more than
one project at a time or working between multiple programs to create
the design, effect, motion and everything else than I would say stick
with the 1gig. Easist way for you to tell is turn everything on that
you useually use on your computer in a setting. After you have all of
the programs you have up and have been working on something
crtl+alt+delete and see how much memory you are using at the time. And
go from there.

This is a little above what most computer manufactures say is the
minimum amount of Ram to have in your computer. I believe that you can
never have to much RAM. Especially since RAM is one of the least
expensive components in the computer why would you want to skimp on
one of the most important performance enhancing pieces of hardware in
the computer?  Besides, you already got one.

Just looking your number i realized your amount of free memory is
bigger the half of the total capacity of the RAM module (875M FREE) so
you still have a lot of room for all your incoming apps and no need to
worry about that.

If you are a gamer or are involved in multimedia this is just enough
for all your necesities.

I hope it helps.
Phossil.

That much RAM is overkill in today's computers, however you also want
to think about future applications you will be running on your laptop.
 Do you plan on doing any video, sound, or multimedia work?  Even
playing some games in the near future will require more RAM.  Not to
mention, if you want to use productivity software (such as the new
Office).

The more the better.  Just because you don't use it now doesn't mean
you will not want/need it later.  It's better to get it now then to be
without later.

I would disgree completely with johnoconnor-ga and agree with phossil-ga.
The more RAM you have, the less time the system has to spend swapping
out memory to disk and back between applications.
Some applications will use what you have for temporary buffering, so
the more you have the better.
Doing your normal work and not having to close this, close that etc is
always a good thing.
As someone said, memory is one of the cheapest components out there. 
Increasing your memory can be better than increasing CPU speed.
Unless you one run application and only ever one application at a
time, stick with it. (And you can't run one application if you have
firewalls, anti-virus etc).  Just for the gaming side alone it would
be worth it.  Games are known to make use of whatever they can when
they run. (Caching of maps into memory, rather than disk access is a
lot quicker).