Extend memory or not?

Hi

Currently I have an IDE hard disk and 16gb RAM. As part of testing not using the pagefile, the following applications were opened and worked with no problem:
Firefox
Delphi XE10.2
Android Studio + emulator
Eclipse
Java (my tomcat server was running).

The memory consumption was closed to 16gb but they all worked smooth. The computer did crash eventually because as time went by, the apps required more memory until it reached the end of it. Makes sense.

I'm now thinking of upgrading my HD to SSD but regardless, I was thinking of upgrading the memory to 32gb and avoid using the pagefile at all. Eventually the memory might reach that new "limit" but if 5 heavy applications worked ok with 16GB, it will take them a very long time to reach 32gb and up to this point, I might restart the computer for other reasons.

I read articles saying that some apps require the existence of the pagefile but it seems that the application I'm using, don't. Am I missing something here?
Thanks

With a SSD and the 16 gig you shouldnt need any more ram if you use the swapfile as an SSD is nearley as fast as ram

I understood that the weakness of SSD is the writing part.
Relatively, writing to the pagefile is a massive operation, so basically it will make the SSD last longer, no?

The 500gb 2.5” Platter drive that I had pulled from my NVIDIA shield showed over 6TB of data transfer and over 1800 hours. It was from using the Shield to just stream video and while in Sleep mode, the drive was still spinning. It finally gave out. I replaced with a EVO drive that has been able to run faster than the old platter that is the same model as a 3.5” drive I have.

Point being is that a Platter drive will die way before a SSD will with a Page and Swap file. You are causing the drive to work more if you do mot use a Swap or Pagefile.

Thank you for your replies.

Can I expect the same math with a 500gb SSD?

Last question: "You are causing the drive to work more if you do mot use a Swap or Pagefile" - how come?

"Because the system has to keep loading data", right but the problem with SSD is with writing and when you have a pagefile, there's a lot of writing... Moreover, because there is no pagefile, the memory holds the data it already has and just load more of it when needed. That was the reason that eventually the computer did crash.

amos said:

I understood that the weakness of SSD is the writing part.
Relatively, writing to the pagefile is a massive operation, so basically it will make the SSD last longer, no?

Hi there
writing to the pagefile isn't a massive overhead -- only pageframes get written -- usually in 2K or 4K chunks --these are memory areas that are acquired from a running process that are temporarily released by that process (i.e not being used) while another higher priority application needs the memory.

My serious advice to you is always to update the HDD's to the FASTEST POSSIBLE with the largest cache size before updating RAM --especially if you have 16GB already. The faster HDD's (or better SSD's) will yield far more performance than the RAM or even a CPU upgrade.

Memory upgrade is fine but for real performance if you have old slow disks is to upgrade those first.

Don't worry about writes to SSD's -- that might have been true YEARS ago when the original (prototype / experimental) SSD's appeared --that issue has long since gone away -- today's SSD's would probably outlast both your current machine and your GRANDKIDS (if you have any !!) .

Slow I/O will kill any system --even those with latest 9th gen processors !!!

Cheers
jimbo