Win98/se Memory Tweaking

Win98/se Memory Tweaking

=Cacheman 5 Tweaking=

Although this tweaking guide will help you figure out the (IMO) 'proper' settings for cacheman, it's still possible that it is still not the optimal settings for your system. You will still need to experiment with your own cache settings to achieve the best setting for your machine.

Just always bear in mind that the lesser the value you put in your "disk cache" the more RAM will be available for your programs/games, and will in turn improve their performance. But setting the "disk cache" too low, will degrade your harddisk performance. So 'balance' is the key in achieving the best setting for cacheman.

For the "chunk size", I recommend setting it at either the default 512kb OR 1mb (1024). 1mb is recommended for folks who engages heavily with games, while 512kb is recommended for most folks and is used by default by windows.

VFAT Contiguous File Allocation Size: Fragmentation of harddrive differs from comps-to-comps, depending on how much or often the user uses his comp. And for that reason, I cannot give u any specific value for this tweak. Although IMO 1024kb is a good starting point if u would like to experiment. For users who uses their comp like maniacs, higher values 'might' give u better results.

Read-ahead Treshold: If u only have 32mb or less RAM and/or engage in multitasking, I highly recommend setting this to zero (slider all the way to the left). If u don't multitask (which i really doubt), set this to its max setting.

IO Page Buffers: Systems who have a permanent VM size and 32BitDiskAccess enabled should set this to "32". Otherwise this tweak is not going to work.

Conservative Swap File Usage: enable only when you have 128mb or more RAM (lessens the use of VM).

Unload Dll's from memory: enable to free up memory faster after closing programs. If ur system becomes unstable after enabling this setting, simply disable it again.

** The ff Cacheman settings are balanced for both apps and gaming performance. If u want to know what setting/s works best for a gaming only Win98 rig ... check out my Dual Boot Win98/XP section.

Set both the minimum and maximum 'disk cache' to: 12mb (12288kb)

Set the 'chunk size' to: 512/1024
<read my explanation above for more info>

Set both the minimum and maximum 'disk cache' to: 17mb (17408kb)

Set the 'chunk size' to: 512/1024
<read my explanation above for more info>

Set both the minimum and maximum 'disk cache' to: 24mb (24576kb)

Set the 'chunk size' to: 512/1024
<read my explanation above for more info>

Minimum and maximum 'disk cache':
-For 320mb RAM machines use 32mb (32768kb) min/max
-For 448mb RAM machines use 48mb (49152kb) min/max
-For 512mb RAM machines use 64mb (65536kb) min/max

Set the 'chunk size' to: 512/1024
<read my explanation above for more info>

-Additional Caches-

=64mb Systems=

***leave the "enable user defined settings" box blank (disabled)

=128mb Systems=

Name Cache: 1354

Path Cache: 64

=192mb Systems=

Name Cache: 1692

Path Cache: 80

=256mb Systems=

Name Cache: 3,000

Path Cache: 96

=320mb and Above Systems=

Name Cache: 3,677

Path Cache: 128

** Only increase if u have a huge HD and have more than 320mb RAM. Add 677 and 32 for Name and Path cache respectively per 64mb RAM increase.

=Disk Cache Tweaking=

***This tweaking procedures are only recommended to be followed by folks who have at least 192mb RAM.

***128mb or lower machines may still try following the procedures below if ur playing older games, be informed though that the results may only do more harm than good.

**This guide is meant to make ur system use all of ur available RAM for Disk Cache and for ur games/apps. If properly configured ... ur games can have all the memory it wants to use ... the rest of the unused RAM will be used for Disk Cache. And make the use of Swapfile a thing of the past! That is if we can avoid it hehe!

*You may not see this kind of procedures or tricks elsewhere since I only made this one up by myself and I am confident that it will also work with other systems as long as you follow my simple instructions accurately.

Follow my instructions on how to configure Cacheman and apply it to ur system. (instructions above)

Grab a game (PC game) that performs the slowest with ur system. Slow not b'coz ur videocard or processor can't handle it. But it chokes b'coz it eats too much RAM and it slows down everytime it tries to access ur HD.

Open "System Monitor" and configure it to measure the amount of swapfile being used (instructions below). Start Logging.

Run the game that fits my description in "step two". Play for at least an hour.

After playing the game. Calculate the maximum amount of swapfile that was used.

***If the amount of swapfile used is 8mb or lower. Then ur Disk Cache is optimally configured IMHO.

***If the amount of swapfile used is above 8mb. Deduct the excess amount in ur Cacheman Disk Cache setting. For example: the maximum swapfile that was used is 15mb ... subtract 8 from it ... the equivalent value (w/c is 7) should be deducted to ur current min/max Disk Cache setting.

***If the amount of swapfile used is zero. Increase ur min/max Disk Cache setting 4 or 8 increments at a time. Pump ur value up to the time that ur system is already using 8mb (or lower) for swapfile while ur playing games.

**Doing this will make sure that not a single megabyte of ur RAM is wasted. With this ur games can have all the RAM it needs ... the rest is used for Disk Cache ... while trying to minimize the amount of swapfile use.

*This will increase ur HD performance and will cause ur game to perform better. Specially if u hit the bullseye setting of 1mb (or lower) swapfile usage. That is if u have the patience to increase/decrease ur Disk Cache setting 1mb at a time.

*Just remember that our target here is to minimize the amount of Swapfile being used while playing the game ... while trying to maximize the amount of RAM preserved for Disk Cache. A swapfile usage of zero doesn't automatically mean that u hit the jackpot ... b'coz it is possible the a few megs of RAM is just sitting there in ur system unused. This is a trial and error procedure.

*Newer versions of Cacheman can also give u a graph of ur paging file usage. Just enable the paging file usage option inside the Info > History Graph tab.

Last Updated: 040604

=Closed to Future Updates=

=Virtual Memory Tweaking=

***I'm sure you have already heard tons of different opinions on how to properly set ur virtual memory. Some say that u juz have to put a large value juz to make sure that u won't run out of VM. Some say that u have to put a respectable value in your min VM and add zero to ur max setting and so on, blah blah! While there are still some guys who are still stuck with that x2.5 the amount of your RAM! <ROFLMAO> sorry! Let me explain to you guys why you SHOULDN'T follow that so called "rule of thumb". A long long time ago when 32mb was heaven for gamers, that rule of thumb (thumbs down hehe!) was created! That is b'coz if u have either 8, 16, 32mb of RAM and followed that rule, it is not really going to hurt your system b'coz the difference will be very marginal. BUT in the modern world where 128mb is the absolute minimum for 'most' systems, if you follow that x2.5 rule, ur going to waste a lot of HD space and lose performance as well! Juz think about this ... why would a guy with a 256mb machine set his VM at 640mb while a guy with a lesser amount of RAM, let's say 128mb only set his VM at 320mb?!! Always remember that the more RAM u have, the smaller amount of VM u will need to set. That's the reason we are buying more RAM in the first place right? To reduce swapfile access! Now do u believe me?

**This guide is meant for those 'hardcore' tweakers who really wants to figure out the exact amount of VM their system is using so they can set their VM properly for best performance. And also for those who checked out my "tweaking windows 98/SE" guide but didn't have any luck with it.

*This guide will tell u exactly how much VM ur system is eating when u run out of RAM. But of course it will take a li'l bit more work than simply copying my recommended settings inside my "tweaking windows 98/SE" guide.

-Click on file>start logging

*Then select a name for the .txt file that system monitor will create for its log and where to place it, then hit "save"

-After doing that system monitor will start tracing the amount of VM/swapfile that ur system is using. So I highly suggest that u stress ur system to find out the max amount of VM ur system is using. I recommend logging into the internet, and fire up 3 or more browser windows, open winamp and play mp3 musics, open ur photo editing or photo viewer program and open up hundreds of pictures <kidding aside!>.

*Do that for about half an hour or so then go back to "system monitor" click on file>stop logging.

-Now head on to the directory where you selected to save ur "sysmon.txt" (default) file and open it. Search for the highest value listed there and divide it by this number: 1048576 ... the result will be the max amount of VM ur system ate in megabytes.

-I also recommend that u run all of ur currently installed games for about half an hour each and do the same procedure as i have written above.

-Now whatever the highest value u received from any of ur programs/games add an additional 15 to 25mb. That will be ur allowance in case ur system will need a bit more VM than what u have calculated.

-Now use that value for ur min/max swapfile setting and enjoy!

Win98's System Monitor's GUI

Last Updated: 010801

=Closed to Future Updates=


				*Win98/se Memory Tweaking*



	Home \| Windows Tweaking Guides \| Games Tweaking Guides \| NVIDIA Tweaking Guides \| Audio Tweaking Guides \| Computer Jargons \| PC Building Guide \| Tech News \| BIOS Tweaking Part I \| BIOS Tweaking Part II \| Case Mod And Cooling \| Reviews \| Things To Do \| Misc. Stuff \| PC Protection and Maintenance \| Troubleshooting Guide \| Rants \| Help Push \| Pushy's System Specs \| Top Downloads \| FAQ's & STC's \| What's New? \| Sign my Guestbook \| Links


		=Cacheman 5 Tweaking= Although this tweaking guide will help you figure out the (IMO) 'proper' settings for cacheman, it's still possible that it is still not the optimal settings for your system. You will still need to experiment with your own cache settings to achieve the best setting for your machine. Just always bear in mind that the lesser the value you put in your "disk cache" the more RAM will be available for your programs/games, and will in turn improve their performance. But setting the "disk cache" too low, will degrade your harddisk performance. So 'balance' is the key in achieving the best setting for cacheman. For the "chunk size", I recommend setting it at either the default 512kb OR 1mb (1024). 1mb is recommended for folks who engages heavily with games, while 512kb is recommended for most folks and is used by default by windows. VFAT Contiguous File Allocation Size: Fragmentation of harddrive differs from comps-to-comps, depending on how much or often the user uses his comp. And for that reason, I cannot give u any specific value for this tweak. Although IMO 1024kb is a good starting point if u would like to experiment. For users who uses their comp like maniacs, higher values 'might' give u better results. Read-ahead Treshold: If u only have 32mb or less RAM and/or engage in multitasking, I highly recommend setting this to zero (slider all the way to the left). If u don't multitask (which i really doubt), set this to its max setting. IO Page Buffers: Systems who have a permanent VM size and 32BitDiskAccess enabled should set this to "32". Otherwise this tweak is not going to work. Conservative Swap File Usage: enable only when you have 128mb or more RAM (lessens the use of VM). Unload Dll's from memory: enable to free up memory faster after closing programs. If ur system becomes unstable after enabling this setting, simply disable it again. *CDFS Cache: Better left on the lowest setting (slider all the way to the left) for better performance. Only increase if ur having problems reading discs with ur cd-rom drive.* *Icon Cache: A value of 200 should be more than enough for most systems. Increase if u experience slowdowns after accessing different kinds of icons.* Limit Available RAM to 512 Mbytes: enable if ur using Win98 and have more than 512mb RAM. This will enable Win98 to run w/o stability issues on a system w/ more than 512mb of memory. ** The ff Cacheman settings are balanced for both apps and gaming performance. If u want to know what setting/s works best for a gaming only Win98 rig ... check out my Dual Boot Win98/XP section.



		=Settings= -Disk Cache- =For systems with 64mb RAM= Set both the minimum and maximum 'disk cache' to: 6mb (6144kb) Set your 'chunk size' to: 512/1024 <read my explanation above for more info> =For systems with 128mb RAM= Set both the minimum and maximum 'disk cache' to: 12mb (12288kb) Set the 'chunk size' to: 512/1024 <read my explanation above for more info> =For systems with 192mb RAM= Set both the minimum and maximum 'disk cache' to: 17mb (17408kb) Set the 'chunk size' to: 512/1024 <read my explanation above for more info> =For systems with 256mb RAM= Set both the minimum and maximum 'disk cache' to: 24mb (24576kb) Set the 'chunk size' to: 512/1024 <read my explanation above for more info> =For systems with 320mb or more RAM= Minimum and maximum 'disk cache': -For 320mb RAM machines use 32mb (32768kb) min/max -For 448mb RAM machines use 48mb (49152kb) min/max -For 512mb RAM machines use 64mb (65536kb) min/max Set the 'chunk size' to: 512/1024 <read my explanation above for more info> -Additional Caches- =64mb Systems= *leave the "enable user defined settings" box blank (disabled) =128mb Systems= Name Cache: 1354 Path Cache: 64 =192mb Systems= Name Cache: 1692 Path Cache: 80 =256mb Systems= Name Cache: 3,000 Path Cache: 96 =320mb and Above Systems= Name Cache: 3,677 Path Cache: 128 Only increase if u have a huge HD and have more than 320mb RAM. Add 677 and 32 for Name and Path cache respectively per 64mb RAM increase. =Disk Cache Tweaking= *This tweaking procedures are only recommended to be followed by folks who have at least 192mb RAM. 128mb or lower machines may still try following the procedures below if ur playing older games, be informed though that the results may only do more harm than good. This guide is meant to make ur system use all of ur available RAM for Disk Cache and for ur games/apps. If properly configured ... ur games can have all the memory it wants to use ... the rest of the unused RAM will be used for Disk Cache. And make the use of Swapfile a thing of the past! That is if we can avoid it hehe! You may not see this kind of procedures or tricks elsewhere since I only made this one up by myself and I am confident that it will also work with other systems as long as you follow my simple instructions accurately. =STEP ONE= Follow my instructions on how to configure Cacheman and apply it to ur system. (instructions above) =STEP TWO= Grab a game (PC game) that performs the slowest with ur system. Slow not b'coz ur videocard or processor can't handle it. But it chokes b'coz it eats too much RAM and it slows down everytime it tries to access ur HD. =STEP THREE= Open "System Monitor" and configure it to measure the amount of swapfile being used (instructions below). Start Logging. =STEP FOUR= Run the game that fits my description in "step two". Play for at least an hour. =STEP FIVE= After playing the game. Calculate the maximum amount of swapfile that was used. *If the amount of swapfile used is 8mb or lower. Then ur Disk Cache is optimally configured IMHO. If the amount of swapfile used is above 8mb. Deduct the excess amount in ur Cacheman Disk Cache setting. For example: the maximum swapfile that was used is 15mb ... subtract 8 from it ... the equivalent value (w/c is 7) should be deducted to ur current min/max Disk Cache setting. If the amount of swapfile used is zero. Increase ur min/max Disk Cache setting 4 or 8 increments at a time. Pump ur value up to the time that ur system is already using 8mb (or lower) for swapfile while ur playing games. Doing this will make sure that not a single megabyte of ur RAM is wasted. With this ur games can have all the RAM it needs ... the rest is used for Disk Cache ... while trying to minimize the amount of swapfile use. This will increase ur HD performance and will cause ur game to perform better. Specially if u hit the bullseye setting of 1mb (or lower) swapfile usage. That is if u have the patience to increase/decrease ur Disk Cache setting 1mb at a time. Just remember that our target here is to minimize the amount of Swapfile being used while playing the game ... while trying to maximize the amount of RAM preserved for Disk Cache. A swapfile usage of zero doesn't automatically mean that u hit the jackpot ... b'coz it is possible the a few megs of RAM is just sitting there in ur system unused. This is a trial and error procedure. Newer versions of Cacheman can also give u a graph of ur paging file usage. Just enable the paging file usage option inside the Info > History Graph tab. Last Updated: 040604* *=Closed to Future Updates=* =Virtual Memory Tweaking= *I'm sure you have already heard tons of different opinions on how to properly set ur virtual memory. Some say that u juz have to put a large value juz to make sure that u won't run out of VM. Some say that u have to put a respectable value in your min VM and add zero to ur max setting and so on, blah blah! While there are still some guys who are still stuck with that x2.5 the amount of your RAM! <ROFLMAO> sorry! Let me explain to you guys why you SHOULDN'T follow that so called "rule of thumb". A long long time ago when 32mb was heaven for gamers, that rule of thumb (thumbs down hehe!) was created! That is b'coz if u have either 8, 16, 32mb of RAM and followed that rule, it is not really going to hurt your system b'coz the difference will be very marginal. BUT in the modern world where 128mb is the absolute minimum for 'most' systems, if you follow that x2.5 rule, ur going to waste a lot of HD space and lose performance as well! Juz think about this ... why would a guy with a 256mb machine set his VM at 640mb while a guy with a lesser amount of RAM, let's say 128mb only set his VM at 320mb?!! Always remember that the more RAM u have, the smaller amount of VM u will need to set. That's the reason we are buying more RAM in the first place right? To reduce swapfile access! Now do u believe me? This guide is meant for those 'hardcore' tweakers who really wants to figure out the exact amount of VM their system is using so they can set their VM properly for best performance. And also for those who checked out my "tweaking windows 98/SE" guide but didn't have any luck with it. This guide will tell u exactly how much VM ur system is eating when u run out of RAM. But of course it will take a li'l bit more work than simply copying my recommended settings inside my "tweaking windows 98/SE" guide. =Step One=* -Proceed to start>programs>accessories>system tools and open "system monitor" If u don't have system monitor installed then go to control panel>add/remove programs>go to "windows setup" tab>double click "system tools">and put a check mark besides the "system monitor" icon. =Next=* -Click edit>add item -Once inside click memory manager, and on the right hand side select "swapfile in use" and hit "ok". -Click on edit>remove item and remove "kernel" -Then click on options>chart and set the update interval to either 30seconds or 1min =Start Logging= -Click on file>start logging Then select a name for the .txt file that system monitor will create for its log and where to place it, then hit "save" -After doing that system monitor will start tracing the amount of VM/swapfile that ur system is using. So I highly suggest that u stress ur system to find out the max amount of VM ur system is using. I recommend logging into the internet, and fire up 3 or more browser windows, open winamp and play mp3 musics, open ur photo editing or photo viewer program and open up hundreds of pictures <kidding aside!>. Do that for about half an hour or so then go back to "system monitor" click on file>stop logging. -Now head on to the directory where you selected to save ur "sysmon.txt" (default) file and open it. Search for the highest value listed there and divide it by this number: 1048576 ... the result will be the max amount of VM ur system ate in megabytes. -I also recommend that u run all of ur currently installed games for about half an hour each and do the same procedure as i have written above. -Now whatever the highest value u received from any of ur programs/games add an additional 15 to 25mb. That will be ur allowance in case ur system will need a bit more VM than what u have calculated. -Now use that value for ur min/max swapfile setting and enjoy! Win98's System Monitor's GUI *Last Updated: 010801* *=Closed to Future Updates=*



		IMPORTANT: *What do you think about my Memory Tweaking Guide? Please sign my guestbook before leaving, it's the least you can do to thank me, and the only way for me to know that someone did visit my site! cacheman and memturbo are both available for download inside my "top downloads" section.