Author Topic: Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod  (Read 167965 times)

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Offline msiegel

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« on: Sat, 10 October 2009, 14:04:26 »
cool ripster! it's a great day for keyboard hacking :D

the matrix looks nice and clean, so i'd say go for the spaghetti. remember, wire wrap got our astronauts to the moon :)

can you just friction-fit wires into the existing edge connector?

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Offline AndrewZorn

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #1 on: Sat, 10 October 2009, 14:12:02 »
and i thought this idea had already materialized...

EDIT and i give up searching, and have to ask again... is the ebay pad itself (>2)KRO by itself?  i think i would be happy JUST using it, unmodified, if is could handle a couple keys at once.
would fit perfect on the left side of my hhkb, where there is plenty of wrist-rest space but nothing else to balance out with the mouse on the right.
« Last Edit: Sat, 10 October 2009, 14:15:46 by AndrewZorn »

Offline msiegel

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #2 on: Sat, 10 October 2009, 14:15:32 »
every time you post a comment, i feel like i'm being watched

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Offline AndrewZorn

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #3 on: Sat, 10 October 2009, 14:17:42 »
i am very bored, and pretty much check the main page for "Last Post" updates every couple minutes.

it has been this way for a while.

see, just like this.

EDIT or you are referring to the cat.
yeah, i know what you mean now.  disregard the previous info about having nothing better to do with my time...

Offline msiegel

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #4 on: Sat, 10 October 2009, 14:18:48 »
i'm talking about the avatar, o great ceiling cat.

it's actually nice to have people around here at all hours... even if cats sometimes stare at my edit field ;)

btw, i've been leaving Forum Spy open in a tab, for when my brain needs a break from programming XD
« Last Edit: Sat, 10 October 2009, 14:37:06 by msiegel »

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Offline nanu

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #5 on: Sat, 10 October 2009, 19:33:01 »
I would go the spaghetti wiring route.  The problem is interfacing to the header or PCB in a sane way.

Years ago, I bought an n52, but its keys were just that balky and no good that I had to kill the thing.  So then I made my own interconnect for the keys, using straight pins.  I can only guess they're zinc-plated steel, from a fabrics store.

I used some blister packaging, made three rows of holes for the ~17 leads, and carefully aligned the bent pins.  It was very tedious, I must say, to evenly friction-fit all pins at the same time.  Of course, prior to doing that I had to grind them into flat wedges with the Dremel, IIRC, so they would fit.  To keep it in place I slathered it all with epoxy.



I guess I would try the same thing even today because I dread soldering, but would use some sort of non-corrosive resin rather than plain old 5-minute epoxy.  Surprisingly, even with the clear epoxy turned yellow, I just plugged this custom arcade stick in and it seemingly works.

Offline nanu

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #6 on: Sat, 10 October 2009, 19:42:09 »
However, would the original housing even accommodate this and a tangle of wires?

Oh, I recall also that I had pre-attached leads on all of the pins and the heatshrink tubing, before mounting it on the scrap blister packaging.  To keep each the pins isolated and evenly spaced I wrapped the even ones with tape.  The fabricated connector was then given ample epoxy before I finalized it with the Dremel, for interfacing.

This is easily more work than anyone would dare try, I imagine.
« Last Edit: Sat, 10 October 2009, 19:56:12 by nanu »

Offline sixty

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #7 on: Sun, 11 October 2009, 02:14:39 »
I was actually shocked to see this as a rubber dome now. I was always under the impression that the n52 used cherry switches already - because I had seen several Koreans use the Filco WSAD on them.

Seems its all a mod too after all:

http://blog.daum.net/skycs/12846480

Offline Rajagra

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #8 on: Sun, 11 October 2009, 05:00:45 »
Quote from: msiegel;124340
every time you post a comment, i feel like i'm being watched



Offline AndrewZorn

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #9 on: Sun, 11 October 2009, 10:51:28 »
i like the topre switch a lot more than brown for games, myself
and havent even tried the hailed "gaming switches"
so i dont see brown being a good gaming-only switch
could be wrong
and it hasnt been long either

Offline AndrewZorn

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #10 on: Sun, 11 October 2009, 12:42:23 »

Offline AndrewZorn

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #11 on: Sun, 11 October 2009, 13:14:45 »
i was going to link straight to that image (for the DIP, of course)... but i thought if you hovered over the link for even a second it would be MORE obvious what you were about to get

and there are 6, not 8 switches
MODE0 MODE1 BACKSPACE LEFTFN FNALT POWER

should be able to recite them with minimal effort
i was

Offline AndrewZorn

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #12 on: Sun, 11 October 2009, 14:02:06 »
i have no idea what you are talking about i repeatedly referred to pfu's documentation and found no note of said switch and i dont think they would lie to me so i simply disregard your post as erroneous the end

Offline msiegel

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #13 on: Sun, 11 October 2009, 14:13:29 »
Quote from: Rajagra;124451
Show Image


:O gaaah!

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Offline itlnstln

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #14 on: Tue, 13 October 2009, 13:00:37 »
Nice.  You could use the caps from the numpad, too, to keep the markings consistent with the originals from the Nostromo.  Well, except for the other four keys.  Hell, just get some blanks from elitekeyboards.  Go Otaku.


Offline ak_nala

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #15 on: Fri, 16 October 2009, 01:54:55 »
Quote from: ripster;124387
I am going to try that glue first since there's plenty of surface area on the membrane to glue to.  Gotta wait for the glue to come into stock.

Well, looks like there are other sources for the "Wire Glue", like here and here.

More interestingly, I found this little article on DIY conductive glue.

As it appears to be more flexible than the Wire Glue, it sounds ideal for those Model M mods I've been contemplating. Now were was that hack saw? ;)
« Last Edit: Fri, 16 October 2009, 02:01:26 by ak_nala »
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Offline Rajagra

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #16 on: Fri, 16 October 2009, 07:21:06 »
Quote from: ak_nala;125932
More interestingly, I found this little article on DIY conductive glue.

As it appears to be more flexible than the Wire Glue, it sounds ideal for those Model M mods I've been contemplating. Now were was that hack saw? ;)


The conductive thread mentioned there looks useful too.

Offline itlnstln

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #17 on: Mon, 19 October 2009, 08:22:18 »
That's interesting to hear about the Cherry clears.  How were they compared to browns and blues in terms of stiffness?


Offline timw4mail

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« Reply #18 on: Mon, 19 October 2009, 09:44:23 »
Quote from: itlnstln;126821
That's interesting to hear about the Cherry clears.  How were they compared to browns and blues in terms of stiffness?

They're a bit stiffer than the blues. Its closer to a Cherry brown with a black spring.
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Offline JBert

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #19 on: Mon, 19 October 2009, 09:49:44 »
I guess this also means they are harder to bottom out on?
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Offline timw4mail

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« Reply #20 on: Mon, 19 October 2009, 09:50:50 »
Quote from: JBert;126845
I guess this also means they are harder to bottom out on?

Yeah, I think they are probably the hardest to bottom out on of the most common switches.
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Offline ak_nala

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #21 on: Wed, 21 October 2009, 02:58:09 »
Yikes. What a mess.
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Offline lowpoly

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #22 on: Wed, 21 October 2009, 17:24:03 »
Quote from: ripster;127297
A little overpackaged.
LOL. Last time I bought some Microsoft licenses they were packed like this. A simple envelope would have been enough.

Too bad the glue doesn't work. Cutting the membrane and attaching some sort of clip should work. Like the clip found in a membrane connector.

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Offline itlnstln

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #23 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 08:10:56 »
Could you use the conductive glue to attach the wires then use a little epoxy to shore up the hold?


Offline timw4mail

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« Reply #24 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 11:37:01 »
The one with the blue stem won't click unless its with a clicky leaf. Blues are kind of an oddity.
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Offline JBert

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #25 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 12:02:41 »
You mean the stiff spring will make the "clicker" stick to the keytop? Interesting...
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Offline timw4mail

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #26 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 12:13:11 »
Quote from: JBert;127619
You mean the stiff spring will make the "clicker" stick to the keytop? Interesting...

At least in my experience, without keeping the blue stem with its leaf, it will not click nearly as clearly or prominently.

But I could have a defective single blue switch or something.
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Offline itlnstln

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #27 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 12:34:25 »
The casing and leaves should be the same for all Cherry switches.  Only the stems and springs should differ.  It helps keep costs down (and makes creating "custom" switches by modders a lot easier).


Offline timw4mail

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« Reply #28 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 13:01:21 »
Quote from: itlnstln;127628
The casing and leaves should be the same for all Cherry switches.  Only the stems and springs should differ.  It helps keep costs down (and makes creating "custom" switches by modders a lot easier).

I don't know, but the blue switch I have only properly clicks with it's leaf.
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Offline mike2h

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #29 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 13:39:16 »
love the project!
as i dont have any reference to the sound of other keys other than my wifes simp black alps(wich are louder), can you please tell me if you think the whites are louder/quieter than the blues?
 will you please define 'Clicks like a locust swarm.' for me? :)
and most importantly- do you have whites or clears....? ;)

Offline mike2h

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #30 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 14:25:23 »
lmao.
 do your kid(s) get pissed because you have their legos tied up all the time? & did you make the little keyboards?
the white/clear thing is to easy to do... because they look white!
thx for info. got another one- do u think alps simp blacks are louder/quieter than blues?

Offline timw4mail

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« Reply #31 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 14:41:09 »
Quote from: mike2h;127661
lmao.
 do your kid(s) get pissed because you have their legos tied up all the time? & did you make the little keyboards?
the white/clear thing is to easy to do... because they look white!
thx for info. got another one- do u think alps simp blacks are louder/quieter than blues?

Black ALPS are a tactile, non-clicky switch.
Blue Cherry's are tactile, clicky switches.

Clicky switches are louder than non-clicky switches.
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Offline mike2h

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« Reply #32 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 14:52:02 »
then why are my wifes black alps as loud/louder than my clears(whites:))? not diputing what you are saying, just that i know im hearing something.
it is true of either of us typing on both kb. maybe it is because the blacks have higher pitched sound, but they definetly have a sound going down & a louder sound coming up.

Offline timw4mail

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« Reply #33 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 15:16:27 »
Quote from: mike2h;127665
then why are my wifes black alps as loud/louder than my clears(whites:))? not diputing what you are saying, just that i know im hearing something.
it is true of either of us typing on both kb. maybe it is because the blacks have higher pitched sound, but they definetly have a sound going down & a louder sound coming up.

Most of the difference in sound level there is actually the design of the keyboard, not just the switches. Each keyboard sounds different. Among other things, keycaps can make a difference.

Really, tactile, non-clicky switches are generally very nearly silent. Bottoming out, the keycaps, and the keyboard make most of the difference in sound.
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Offline mike2h

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #34 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 15:29:00 »
so, from what you are saying the blues must be really loud. my clears vary in noise depending on how hard you hit them(obviously). they vary from virtually silent- fingers resting on the lightly& depressing to actuation, to fairly loud(as in can hear very clearly in my comp room & about 10ft down the hall) if i am gaming/ making feeble attempts to type fast like i am now. lol.
my wifes abs always makes some sort of noise, the variation of course depending on key hits. at loudest you can hear them all the way down the haal, about 20ft. as i said above i think this is probably more a function of the actual frequency of the noise than actuall db level.
anyway, the tihng im trying to get to is how much louder(assuming it is) that blue filco tenkeyless is going to be.

and ty for the info!

Offline itlnstln

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #35 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 15:40:47 »
ALPS are generally noisy switches.  Black ALPS don't click by design, but due to the overall design, the do make some "rattling" noise and the slider has a "striker" pad designed to make more noise when you bottom out (which is easy to do with ALPS).  Cherry switches' sliders are in the switch, so they don't rattle like ALPS, and they are a lot easier to not bottom out on (especially blacks since they are so heavy), so you get a lot less noise than ALPS.
 
Also, a lot of older ALPS-based 'boards are not as inert as the newer ones, so the sound from the switches is amplified to a certain extent due to resonance.


Offline mike2h

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #36 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 16:09:28 »
thx guys. i dont have a dell to calibrate with ripster.. want to send me one? ;)
 &that sound linky was awsome, have no idea why i havent used that resource before. after listening to that, am considering the blues over browns, that little bit of 'tinnyness' will irritate me after a while. kinda like the alps.
i assume the mic levels were the same on all tests? & i agree with your assesment of the sound with the 'clears' vs the browns.
the abs is a nice board with very nice 'feel', especially for getting it for $48 delivered. however that high pitched component gets to me after my wife has been typing for awhile. that doesnt happen to often so no real problem.
since she agreed that she doesnt really need numpad at home i think she will be much better off ergonomically & happier with the cherry switches. not that she is complaining at all, in fact she gives me funny looks when i mention getting yet anothe kb. the thing is i KNOW whats best for her in these matters & im just going to have to make the sacrifice & get her that filco.
for her own good of course...

Offline timw4mail

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« Reply #37 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 16:21:16 »
Quote from: mike2h;127680
thx guys. i dont have a dell to calibrate with ripster.. want to send me one? ;)
 &that sound linky was awsome, have no idea why i havent used that resource before. after listening to that, am considering the blues over browns, that little bit of 'tinnyness' will irritate me after a while. kinda like the alps.
i assume the mic levels were the same on all tests? & i agree with your assesment of the sound with the 'clears' vs the browns.
the abs is a nice board with very nice 'feel', especially for getting it for $48 delivered. however that high pitched component gets to me after my wife has been typing for awhile. that doesnt happen to often so no real problem.
since she agreed that she doesnt really need numpad at home i think she will be much better off ergonomically & happier with the cherry switches. not that she is complaining at all, in fact she gives me funny looks when i mention getting yet anothe kb. the thing is i KNOW whats best for her in these matters & im just going to have to make the sacrifice & get her that filco.
for her own good of course...
Good luck with that. (I mean because Elite Keyboards doesn't have them in stock).
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Offline mike2h

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #38 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 16:32:08 »
cant do anything till after xmas anyway. so np.
 just did a major upgrade to both our comps & built a comp for win hs out of the spare parts. so even hinting at spending any money related to computers would be pretty stupid on my part.
though i am squirreling some $$ away so i can upgrade from 4gig to 8gig on my comp. just got figure a way to order it without her finding out...  lol.

Offline timw4mail

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« Reply #39 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 16:57:49 »
Quote from: mike2h;127683
cant do anything till after xmas anyway. so np.
 just did a major upgrade to both our comps & built a comp for win hs out of the spare parts. so even hinting at spending any money related to computers would be pretty stupid on my part.
though i am squirreling some $$ away so i can upgrade from 4gig to 8gig on my comp. just got figure a way to order it without her finding out...  lol.


Really, what is the point of 8 GB of ram? I say this as a person who likes to run 2GB of ram in Windows without a pagefile.
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Tactile Apple AEKII (Cream damped ALPS), Filco FKBN91M/JB (Japanese Tenkeyless), Cherry G84-5200, Cherry G84-4100LPAUS, Datalux Spacesaver(Cherry ML), Redragon Devarajas K556 RGB, Newmen GM711, Poker II (Cherry MX Clear), Logitech G910 Orion Spark, Logitech K840
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Offline msiegel

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Nostromo N52 Black Cherry Mod
« Reply #40 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 17:54:55 »
Quote from: timw4mail;127694
Really, what is the point of 8 GB of ram? I say this as a person who likes to run 2GB of ram in Windows without a pagefile.


i run server daemons on my main machine which intermittently consume a lot of memory... i could totally use 4GB+, instead of the 1GB i have now XD

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Offline mike2h

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« Reply #41 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 17:58:48 »
then you arent doing much on your comp & hopefully you are just kidding.
i assume you are running xp. xp, unless you turn of lots of services & dont have any progs on your system that load with windows- like drivers, virus & malware prot, and any number of other things that can of course be disabled from startup, will take up 30-40% of that ram just being on. now if all your doing is word proccessing & browsing the internet you are probably fine. but if u use any sort of app that requires any mem usage & have your page file turned of-there is absolutely no legit reason to do this- make the size fixed, yes(xp isnt that great at manging pagefile size) but turning it of makes no sense whatsoever- you are getting slowdowns.
i have seen this claim many times & it always turns out the person doesnt do hardly anything on their comp &/or just doesnt know how to recognise slow downs due to win not having enough mem let alone pagefile.
just so im not misunderstood, 2 gig is fine on any comp that isnt doing anything very intensive. having pagefile turned of under any circumstance(even if u got 12 gig ram u still want some sort of pagefile) is ill-advised & has no legit reason whatsoeveri know this post may sound like some sort of personal attack, it isnt. like i said above, i have run into this type of thing many times, & the person doing it is usually mis-informed(98%) or stupid. i know you are definetly not the second:).
bty, if you are happy with your comps perf, no worries.

to answer your question, i game a lot &  do some occasional photo editing. if you are doing anything besides basic tasks you cant have to much ram. you may have more than you really need, but that causes no problems, not having enough does cause problems.
os still being 32 bit is ridiculous, this were most of peoles misunderstanding of ram comes from. 32 bit win can only address around 3.4 gigs(this amount can vary between 3.3-3.6 depending on who u talk to), this also includes any meem on your vid card. so u can see where people going from 2 gig ram to gig ram generally get little perf boost. i stayed with 2gig until i went 64 bit.
the other thing that people get confused on is - if you have a lot of ram windows wont use pagefile- this was never true in 32 bit win(for reasons stated above) & isnt true in vista64 or win7 64. the os will definetly use pagefile a LOT less with more ram(meaning yopu can manualy set your pagefile to a much smaller fixed size), but it will use it sometimes regardless of how much ram you have. & there are programs like photoshop were u HAVE to have pagefile no matter how much ram u have.
bottom line, as long as your os can address it, you can never have to much ram- within the context of what you do with your comp of course;)
« Last Edit: Thu, 22 October 2009, 18:32:01 by mike2h »

Offline msiegel

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« Reply #42 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 18:06:28 »
i'm running mac os x, which has automatic paging. all sorts of apps are used on the machine. much of the time it has about 20% memory free :) but it's brutal if it starts swapping.

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Offline msiegel

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« Reply #43 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 18:19:16 »
Quote from: ripster;127705
Gee, I walk away for a bit and now you guys are posting about how many GBs of memory you use?


err..... sorry, it was a trap
:)

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Offline mike2h

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« Reply #44 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 19:40:52 »
what u get for walking away & leaving us unattended.

Offline timw4mail

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« Reply #45 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 20:46:02 »
For what it's worth, I do a LOT of multitasking and gaming on Windows 7. I currently use 4GB of ram, and I don't see a need for more. I've been running with no pagefile for years. Hasn't hurt me yet.
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Offline mike2h

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« Reply #46 on: Thu, 22 October 2009, 23:04:41 »
lol. is it 4gb of ram or 2gb of ram? u may think running with no pagefile hasnt hurt your performance but you would be wrong.
i dont get why you actually go in and disable it. there is absolutely no reason to & every reason not to.
but whatever makes you happy is cool.

Offline timw4mail

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« Reply #47 on: Fri, 23 October 2009, 06:18:05 »
Quote from: mike2h;127747
lol. is it 4gb of ram or 2gb of ram? u may think running with no pagefile hasnt hurt your performance but you would be wrong.
i dont get why you actually go in and disable it. there is absolutely no reason to & every reason not to.
but whatever makes you happy is cool.

My point has been that I run 4GB of memory without any need for virtual memory.
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Offline timw4mail

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« Reply #48 on: Fri, 23 October 2009, 09:02:26 »
Quote from: ripster;127797
Derailments Are NEVER Pretty!
Show Image

Except when they have double-shot keycaps.
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Offline itlnstln

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« Reply #49 on: Fri, 23 October 2009, 10:18:10 »
Is one of those trains an Amtrak?