(message (Hello 'kony)
(you :wrote :on '(Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:51:03 -0500))
(

k> If there is enough physical memory, enabling a pagefile will
k> ALWAYS, no matter what other variable, be slower.

how do you measure 'enough' or 'not enough' memory?
i've already said you, that RAM is used as cache for files and filesystem
structures.
thus, it's not possible to say if it's enough or not -- just, with more RAM
it would be faster, with less it would be slower.

if i'm doing some intensive file operations, (for example, compilation of
large C++ project), i'd like as much file cache be used as possible. at same
time, i don't care about other applications being in RAM -- i'd prefer them
to be swapped out, to give more RAM to file cache. compilation can go for 10
minutes, in some cases of extra large project for hours. additional file
cache might significantly improve performance.

yes, IDE, firefox and other stuff will need to be swapped back after that,
but i think i won't mind some three-second delay, if that helped to speed up
thing. (i'd say that this delay is inevitable -- windows can 'forget' about
EXEs and DLLs being loaded in favour of file cache).

yes, certainly getting more RAM would help. but if 1 GB RAM + swap will give
me aprox same performace as 2 GB RAM -- why should i pay more?

)
(With-best-regards '(Alex Mizrahi) :aka 'killer_storm)
"People who lust for the Feel of keys on their fingertips (c) Inity")