[MiniMee]

Hi... first poster here... just purchased a Mini 9 with XP, 8GB SSD and 512Mb RAM at the outlet with the current 15% off coupon... mainly because it seemed so easy-breezy, cheap and lightweight with reasonable specs and, important for me--a reputation for absolute silence (or so I hear--heh!). At the seemingly reasonable price of $177 after tax and shipping, I figured how can I go wrong? What I'm getting to in a round about way, is that after stumbling upon this excellent forum and the many well expressed points of view, and keeping in mind that I'd like to keep any investments I make in this puppy a relatively small fraction of its purchase price, would I be better off:

(a) Picking up a 1GB stick of ram (about $13 at Newegg, free shipping) or...
(b) a 2GB stick (about $20, same place, free shipping)

I know on the surface, the $7 difference seems ludicrously negligible, but given that I have but an eensy 8GB drive, and that many posts here seem to indicate that to maintain one's hibernation capability (a necessity for me), most of my drive would apparently be consumed with just the OS and the perforce quadrupled hibernation (and expanded swap) files... (deep breath) Therefore, does the extra 7 bucks actually force me to purchase a new, minimum 16GB SSD, thereby negating the 'great deal' advantage of my initial $177 purchase? Should I stick with just the 1GB upgrade...or to put it another way, would '2' be byting off more than I can eschew? (feel free to groan!) I've never been mistaken for Mr. Spock and am prone to logic errors up the kazoo (substitute wind instrument of choice)! For background, at home I use a Dell 8400 desktop running XP Pro on a 3.0GHz Pentium with just 1GB and it seems fine, even with Photoshop (though I haven't tried video editing or other infamous memory/processor intensive programs).

BTY, I don't think I'm quite up to reinstalling the OS with 'Tiny XP' or any of the other oft mentioned XP trimmers, but a bit o' reading at XP tweeks, etc. leads me to believe many services-n-features can be at least turned off to improve performance, though not necessarily trimming the actual OS's size as installed by the outlet (if I understood the 18 page 'tweek guide' correctly, that is(?)).

Would appreciate any input, especially from those who share my 'high bang-for-the-buck' bent--and/or love of egregiously lame puns... Thanks in advance!

[FCrescioni]

Congrats on your purchase. IMO the best bang for you minibuck would be the 2GB RAM upgrade. With this upgrade you can turn off the pagefile. BTW since you can't go any higher on RAM once you install the 2GB you are done <g> at least with upgrading the RAM. Next purchase I would recommend would be a SDHC for your data -16G seems to be the sweet spot right now for value. If you need/want Bluetooth, the dongle from dealextreme s inexpensive <$3 shipped. A cover/sleeve would be useful and dealexreme has some inexpensive options; neoprene sleeve or a zpper case.
Cheers,
-frank

[MiniMee]

Thanks for the prompt reply, Frank!
Do you have any thoughts about the size of the 'hibernation file' having to expand with the 2GB stick on board, and how much space might be left on an 8GB drive after that upgrade on my XP model?

[hydrogenatom]

Originally Posted by MiniMee

Thanks for the prompt reply, Frank!
Do you have any thoughts about the size of the 'hibernation file' having to expand with the 2GB stick on board, and how much space might be left on an 8GB drive after that upgrade on my XP model?

Do you use hibernation? If not, you can disable the hibernation file. Just go to Control Panel|Power Options|Hibernation tab|uncheck "Enable Hibernation".

[MiniMee]

Do you use hibernation? If not, you can disable the hibernation file. Just go to Control Panel|Power Options|Hibernation tab|uncheck "Enable Hibernation".

I definitely use it... standby too.
Thanks

[holmes4]

Standby does not take disk space. Note that the disk will also be "compressed" and this will hurt performance. An 8GB Windows system is a compromise, especially with a 2GB hibernation file. You can, though, set the pagefile to 0 with 2GB RAM and this will help.

[MiniMee]

Standby does not take disk space. Note that the disk will also be "compressed" and this will hurt performance. An 8GB Windows system is a compromise, especially with a 2GB hibernation file. You can, though, set the pagefile to 0 with 2GB RAM and this will help.

Thanks Steve!

So, to clarify (for my pea brain!)--which of these statements (phrased Jeopardy-like in the form of a question) are true and where have I messed up:

(1.) For all of us with XP and 8GB systems, and not quite up to reinstallations with nLite, we are stuck with compressed and therefore slower drives?

(2.) If I can live without hibernation (but keep 'standby'), can I free up enough space to 'uncompress' the drive resulting in improved performance?

(3.) Are there files I can safely delete (without a fresh nLite install) to free up space (like Messenger or maybe language packs)? Is there a guide, perhaps that can lead one through the process?

(4.) Am I better off with 1 or 2GB of RAM given my limited disk space and desire to have an uncompressed drive?

(Sorry for the run-on, compound question!)

[holmes4]

If you install 2GB of RAM and set the pagefile to 0 (and disable hibernation), you'll gain a gig or more of space. You can selectively decompress folders (such as the Windows folder) to get some speed advantage without decompressing everything. I suggest that you try one thing at a time.

When I got my initial XP system with a 16GB SSD, there was just over 8GB free. You can look at the sizes of programs in Add/Remove Programs (not always accurate) and make some decisions.

[MiniMee]

Steve,

Thanks... just the info I was looking for... will try your suggestions (when it arrives) and post my experiences.