bmitchin's Avatar
bmitchin 4
5 Asked
15 Answered
5 Best
0
No one has voted on this question yet :(
3 years, 5 months ago

Should RAM increase with an increase in Drive Space in Windows XP

I need to build a home server with multiple (10?) Terabytes of drive space. I will be using internal drives and USB drive enclosures. Cost is a factor so I will not be getting a prepackaged NAS or SAN. I cannot afford the thousands of dollars a NAS or SAN would cost without drives. The server will only have 1-2 users, will not run applications, and the OS will be XP since I already own the license. Cost per TB is the primary factor.

Does memory need to increase with large combined drive capacity in XP?
Tip for best answer: M$0.00
Separate topics with commas, or by pressing return. Use the delete or backspace key to edit or remove existing topics.

You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.

M$

What is Your Answer?

0
0
0

5 Answers

2
spoon's Avatar
spoon | 3 years, 5 months ago
6
You will likely be able to get away without a major increase in RAM for a home server but with the cost you are putting into getting so many Terabytes of Hard Drive space it seems it would make sense to spend a little on the RAM. You can get away with 4 gigs of RAM for under $100 if you find the right sale.

You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.

M$
spoon's Avatar
spoon | 3 years, 5 months ago Report

I may have to purchase one of those to check it out... I love the size!

bmitchin's Avatar
bmitchin | 3 years, 5 months ago Report

That is a bit expensive per TB. I am looking to get to around $100 per TB over the next two years. The price of HDD is dropping about $10.00 per TB every 2 months right now so I will get space as I need it. I would like the "server" to cost about $500 and I am getting close.

I wasn't aware that 4G of memory was < $100 but if it wont increase performace, why buy it? I would rather put the money toward another hard drive.

williamwaco's Avatar
williamwaco | 3 years, 5 months ago Report

Have you seen the Buffalo LinkStation Mini (1T)

http://reviews.cnet.com/external-hard-drives/buffalo-linkstation-mini-1tb/4505-3190_7-33044322.html

I have on of these. Replaced a server with it. Produces MUCH less heat in the room and cost only about 300$ complete.

This is no more for the complete NAS than I would have paid for the drives alone.

Report Abuse

Post Reply Cancel
0
spectron's Avatar
spectron | 3 years, 5 months ago
0
Its not neccesary to increase memory with drive space. Although it wont hurt, in a server enviroment.

You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.

M$

Report Abuse

Post Reply Cancel
0
hackman2007's Avatar
hackman2007 | 3 years, 5 months ago
4
As long as you don't significantly increase the number of users, you should be fine with 2-4GB of RAM (I recommend 4GB though, even though you won't see all of it because of 32 bit limitations).

It also depends on what processor you are wanting to use. Since you are only having 2 people access at most, you shouldn't need that powerful of a processor. However, if you significantly increase the number of users the processor will have to become more powerful to serve an ever-growing number of users. This in effect will lead to more RAM consumption as people download/upload files.

You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.

M$

Report Abuse

Post Reply Cancel
0
mellowgeorge's Avatar
mellowgeorge | 3 years, 5 months ago
4
The short answer is no. The software that you are running will determine what your memory requirements are, rather than your storage capacity especially If you're only using the massive hard drive space as storage (a la file server).

You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.

M$

Report Abuse

Post Reply Cancel
0
ilaksh's Avatar
ilaksh | 3 years, 5 months ago
4
I don't think it matters how much RAM you have based on the information you gave. I think even 1 or 2 GB might be adequate, but I can't be too sure because I don't know exactly how you are using it. (OK, also I can't remember if I ever tried to open a huge (>1GB?) file over a home network). I mean, I can conceive of a scenario where you might run some kind of multimedia server on that machine which _would_ require large amounts of memory if you had large files.

But I guess you are just going to be browsing to that server in Windows Explorer and double clicking on movie files or something? Probably whatever it is exactly that you are doing there is a technical solution that will stream the data without requiring it all to be loaded into RAM (and if it did, it would still just use the virtual memory which would slow it down but not prevent it unless it ran out of pagefile space or something).

Anyway Kingston has cheap RAM http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US305&q=4+GB+RAM&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=2557576951303257902&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&resnum=1&ct=result#ps-sellers

You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.

M$

Report Abuse

Post Reply Cancel

Learn something new with our FREE educational apps!

Private lessons in the comfort of your own home. Get back in shape or finally pick up a guitar with our great experts guiding you the whole way!
Learn Guitar
Learn Hip Hop
Learn Pilates