page file

After reading several "things" about the page file, I am at my wits end, so thus this post.
I am running 1gig of RAM, with 2 80gig hard drives, and P4 2.4c.
One hard drive has 2 partitions, the other, just the one.

Is it possible to get a consensus as to the best setting for my page file?

I'd say your page file would be best at 1GB.

I agree either @ 1gb or off completely. the max should also be set @1.5 gb. I've run for years with no page file. (other than the small hdden pagefile windows won't let you change) Recently I had to switch bac to using a page file cause far cry and ut 2k4 use more than the gig with anything else runnign in the background. Personally In your situation I would create a seperate partition on the drive not used by the system files and specify that the page file be 1gb.

I would suggest setting it to 500min-500max on a non-os drive. you get much much faster results this way as the file doesn't have to change, and since its on another dirve (preferabley another channel) it's faster access.

Thats what I've done and it works great. It's not so big that it slows stuff, but with a gig of ram, it's just big enough to help on games and such

i have Windows XP Pro w/ 192MB of RAM what should i set my page file to

Sophisticated in your case I would strongly reccomend you get more ram. Xp is too memory intensive to get by on anything less than 256. As far as pagefile goes, you should set minimum on 384 and max as 568. It would help if you had the pagefile on a seperate partition. In your case though, you really need more ram, the min requirement is 128 mb and thats a real low requirment, windows crawls at that point and i couldn't imagine yours is much better.

What about me please? lol its like a kiddy line

Windows XP Pro SP1 with all patches
2x256mb(512mb) of Adata PC-4200 DDRAM
Intel 2.4C @ 3.3-3.5ghz

Thanks

Oh, and HOW do I set my pagefile lol?
I forgot also, I have 1 x WD 60gb for OS 1 partrition, and 1 x Maxtor 250gb for storage also 1 partrition.

Total 310gb of HDD space

Right click on My Computer
Go to Properties
Click the Advanced tab
Under Performance, click the Settings button
Click the Advanced tab
Under Virtual Memory, click the Change button

Now in that area you can set up how your page file is accessed and stored. On my workstation computer, I have it set to twice the recommended size (so about 1.5GB), and I set my initial value and maximum value equal to each other. That's the way the computer distribution guys downstairs set it up for me, so that's the way I run it.

From what I understand, a good paging guideline is

Less than 512 - Physical page should be equal to memory or around 512-768

512-768 - Equal to memory

768+ - 500~ish for min and Max

For all the above it is preferable to put it on another, less frequently used drive if possible. And making min-max numbers the same is very benificial.

I had read somewhere that if you put the page file on another hd, other than os, that there should be a min. page file amount on the os drive....something like 128mb.
Ever hear of that???

There will always be a minimum page file on the system drive(where the operating system is) but it is like 12mb. There is no way you can change that or eliminate it entirely.

The best setting for your pagefile is to make it the size of your ram, or 1 1/2 times larger depending on your personal demands. Either way, you should set the min and the max to the same size to eliminate any fragmentation caused by automatic size adjustments. Setting the size to atleast equal your ram allows you to perform a complete memory dump to the pagefile when there is an error and you wish to trouble shoot it.

For best pageing performance, you should use a hard drive that is on a different channel than the primary hard drive - this way the OS and the page file can be accessed concurrently which will speed things up.

This explains details on how to even further improve your pageing performance... But the bottom line comes down to the fact that if you are doing much pageing, a RAM upgrade would greatly improve your computing experience.