Virtual Memory/Pagefile

OK I understand what Virtual Memory is, but what is Pagefile?

Next, will disabling Virtual Memory and/or Pagefiling be an advantage to a system w/ 1GB RAM? Is it even possible to do this? I hear on WinXP you can set the setting for it, but it won't actually work.

Just looking for some info cause I never really learned about this stuff just yet. thx!

Virtual Memory= Page file
Theres little/no advantage to turning it off. Some programs won't even run without one.

OK thx for the clarification Rbreb

touching on the posted topic about pagefile....

I'm about to put together the system in my sig.
Using a 74gb raptor for OS, drivers and benchmark programs and the 250 maxtor for games, music, porn, storage and all that fun stuff.

I read about putting the pagefile on the other HDD for whatever reason, can anyine elaborate on this ?

If you put the pagefile on a seperate HDD (and channel if IDE interface) from the OS HDD, both drives can be accessed simultaneously, without having to queue unnecessary operations and seek between random parts of the HDD. Cutting down seek times, and simultaneous access has the potential to postively impact performance, and you may want to try both to see what works best for your system. Ideally, this issue should be minimized if you have an appropriate amount of RAM. I have 1.25GB installed, and always install the pagefile on a seperate HDD, I haven't done any testing to see what effect this has though, but it is generally regarded as best practice.

You can refer to here for a very reliable reference about pagefile configuration:

http://faq.storagereview.com/tiki-index.php?page=MultiplePagefiles

This also highlights some considerations you should take into account when setting up partitions, though you will have more than one drive, there is still some wisdom there which might be useful:

http://faq.storagereview.com/tiki-index.php?page=PartitionSingleDrive

Thnx this is exactly what I was wondering

Anything else?

Microsoft article on pagefile you can also read while on the subject.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314482

thx a bunch guys, specially u IMOG, that seperate drived thing is definately interesting.