4 Megg SIMMs. Should I or shouldn't I?

[Alan Mimms]

In article <121667 at tiger.oxy.edu>, wirehead at oxy.edu (David J. Harr) writes:
|> Ok, I am finally taking the big step and upgrading my Mac II to a IIfx.
|> Since I have to buy all new memory anyway, I am considering getting 4 4Meg
|> SIMMs and 4 1Meg SIMMs instead of 8 1Meg SIMMs. This is a signifigantly more
|> expensive proposition, so I want to ask all the people out there in A/UX
|> land: Is it worth it? Using 20 MBytes of memory, do you see any major
|> improvement while running A/UX as compared to a stock (stock? I remember
|> when I lusted after a machine with a whole *2 Megs* in it. Ah, the good old
|> days...) 8 Meg machine? 

If you run a large Macintosh world or if you run a lot of large processes,
you WILL see a significant improvement.  You cannot get 10 kilos of manure
into a 5 kilo bag. :->  Particularly, X11 client and server take a lot of
space (we're working on this), so if you use X, you might consider going for
the 16MB or more.  I have a 20MB FX here and the difference is like night and
day for my 16MB Macintosh development environment and MacX world and all of
the X11 clients I run all day long.

You also see multiple processes running on the machine (say, a background
compile and the Macintosh world) as "fighting" less, subjectively.  The real
reason is the reduced paging, but the result is that you seem to get more
from your CPU in terms of real work per nanosecond.

|> I don't foresee any really large compiles or
|> anything under A/UX although I might try out my new shiny MPW 3.2 and see
|> if it really will compile in the background under A/UX while running
|> MultiFinder as the front process. Anyway, I would like some guidance on this
|> (Actually, I'm probably really just looking for enough people to say "GO FOR
|> IT" that I will fell justified in maxing out yet *ANOTHER* credit card doing
|> this, but that's another story...) to help me make an informed decision.

I recommend it.  Software only tends to get larger in the long run.

				GO FOR IT!

|> 
|> The preceding opinion was another fine product from the fevered brain of
|> 
|> 			  wirehead at oxy.edu
|> 
|> "When you want wacko opinions, get only the very best."

Mine are about as wacko as you can get.
Luck.

Alan Mimms (alan at apple.com, ...!apple!alan)   | My opinions are generally
A/UX X group                                  | pretty worthless, but
Apple Computer                                | they *are* my own...
"Laugha whila you can, monkey boy..." -- John Whorfin in Buckaroo Bonzai
"Never rub another man's rhubarb" -- The Joker in BatMan