November 19, 2009

Adding New Ram? Check the Numbers

RAM stands for Random-Access-Memory and it is what your computer uses to perform most operations. A lot of programs will “live in memory” that means while the program is running it will be utilizing your RAM. The more programs you have running concurrently, generally the more RAM you will need.

However, picking the right ram is a hassle. The first step is pop open your computer and find the RAM you have, making sure that the power is off and the machine is completely unplugged from external power sources. You can also flip the power switch on the back of the power supply unit to ensure that the power really is off.

Your RAM will most likely be DDR2. This is currently the most common RAM out there. Prices for it are relatively cheap and you can find any speed you want (more on speeds further down) pretty much anywhere. If you have DDR1 RAM you’re a bit out of luck. DDR1 is quite old now and upgrading or replacing faulty RAM sticks is a bit of a hassle. A lot of stores won’t carry it since it doesn’t sell very easily and if they do carry it you’ll find it is often double the price of the DDR2 sticks. Sadly you can’t just swap different types of RAM so if you have a certain type of DDR1 RAM you either have to find that exact RAM elsewhere or just upgrade your system.

Generally when you call or show up at a computer store looking for RAM the sales person will just ask you what speed your RAM is. This tends to be a confusing question for people who don’t really open up their computer. The easiest way around this is to just remove the RAM from your machine and take it in to the store, but if you want to know what the sales person is actually checking, it’s below.

Type Module Speed
DDR1 PC-2100 266 mHz
DDR1 PC-2700 333 mHz
DDR1 PC-3200 400 mHz
DDR2 PC2-3200 400 mHz
DDR2 PC2-4200 533 mHz
DDR2 PC2-5300 667 mHz
DDR2 PC2-6400 800 mHz
DDR2 PC2-8500 1066 mHz

Just remember that DDR1 and DDR2 RAM looks physically different, so there is no way to switch the two. Also, your motherboard will dictate the maximum speed of RAM that you can use, so be sure to consult your motherboard manual before upgrading or changing your RAM.

November 18, 2009

32bit vs 64bit

Inspired by a friend who isn’t as big of a computer geek as I am, I decided to do a post explaining the differences between 32bit and 64bit when it comes to operating systems.

The 32 and 64 bit numbers actually refer to the maximum accessible address space that the OS and CPU can handle. In laymen terms, with a 32bit processor/Operating System you are limited to about 4294967296 bytes of space (232). If you convert that to Gigabytes you’re left with about 4gb (in reality that number is bit less). So in a 32 bit system the maximum amount of memory that your computer can successfully utilize is about 3.75GB. This means that even if you have 8GB of RAM in your machine, it will only be able to utilize 3.75GB. This is definitely something to keep in mind when you are picking up your next computer or looking to upgrade your current machine.

In a 64bit world (CPU/OS) you’re looking at significantly more address space. Since our number is actually growing exponentially instead of linearly (this isn’t really a math blog, but exponents grow exponentially whereas basic math modifiers (+ – / *) all grow linearly in repetitively applied) we are given about 17179869184GB of space. That is not a typo, it actually is 17 Billion Gigabytes. This means that your computer will read the full 8GB of RAM that you have in your machine.

The key when upgrading is to ensure that both your OS, CPU and Motherboard support 64bit processing. That isn’t really a problem now, but if you are dealing with a slightly older computer, it helps to look.

November 11, 2009

Website Profiling with Fiddler

Recently I came upon the task of measuring performance in a corporate website. Generally when profiling I just pop open Google Chrome and run the Web Developer Tools that come pre-installed. It has a built in profiler that works and as a bonus looks really pretty. However, since this is a corporate setting, IE6 is used predominantly and therefore all my tests would have to be done with IE6.

After some research into the best profiling tools that work cross-browser I stumbled across a forum post talking about Fiddler. Fiddler is a complete network profiler, allowing to to monitor all network traffic. But it also gives you the ability to limit it to just browser traffic, which was idea in this case. Simply starting up Fiddler and hitting F12 started the capture process (alternatively, File -> Capture Traffic) and reloading the page captured all traffic. It lists all the items that were loaded on the page and lets you select any number or combination of them to get the total load time for those elements. This feature alone is great because it gives you an overview of all Javascript, or all image files. It even breaks down the distinction between .gif, .jpg and.png files so can see how they rate individually.

As an added bonus, Fiddler even generates charts to compare loading times based on the elements that you selected. This is a great way to provide a quick overview to prospective clients on where their website is slowing down and gives you a leg up in figuring out how to improve this. As a freelance consultant, tools like this really make things a lot easier and provide you with at-a-glance data freeing up your time to look at solutions instead of focusing on the problems.

One thing to note, I thought the Fiddler website looked a little shady, but it is completely legitimate and under active development.

fiddler2

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