> >There is also at least one hardware issue connected with Win9x's >use of RAM, and that is what chip set is in use. (I'm a bit late responding >to this thread, so I don't know if this will be an issue.) The intel VX >chipset effectively limits the use of installed RAM to 64 MB, unless >one is electronically savvy enough to install a TAG RAM chip. If this >is a later chip set, this information may not apply. >Paul A. Shippert This isn't a Win98 specific issue, it is a hardware issue. Most of the early...up to but not including HX...Intel chipsets could only cache 64 megs of RAM. I own a VX board on my bench box, and a TX board in my Laptop, and both have this limitation. VIA chipsets have never had these RAM limitations. Keep in mind that in the socket seven Win95,, NT4, days, 64 megs of RAM was considered quite a bit, and 128 was a LOT, even for a NT4 server, or high end workstation. And in 97-98 64 megs of RAM cost many hundreds of dollars. The issue is not that the RAM won't work above 64 megs, but that the CPU can not cache it. It's really only a problem under Win 9x/Me which can suffer a 15 percent performance hit. The cache controller caches 64 MB of RAM from the bottom up. Win 9x loads into RAM from the top down. So if you have more than 64 MB of RAM, the OS will always be in an area of system RAM that isn't cached. Adding an additional 256 TAG ram chip will help you on a HX board because 256KB of TAG ram can only cache 64 megs of RAM, while 512KB TAG ram can cache up to 512 megs of system RAM. However, additional TAG ram will not help you on a VX or TX motherboard. The limitation is in the chipset ...not the amount of installed TAG RAM. For some functions, a VX or TX etc ..machine with more than 64 MB will feel slower than a machine with less than 64 MB. For other functions or applications, you will still benefit from adding more than 64 MB. With Win NT/2000/XP and Linux, the OS loads from the bottom up, so the problem of uncached RAM isn't so noticeable. On my own old 233MMX laptop, I run Windows 2000 with 128 megs of RAM on a TX chipset and I only noticed a performance increase when I went from 64 to 128 megs of RAM. And a considerable performance increase at that! This was also the case on my Bench box which runs a Tekram socket seven board, with a VX chipset, and 96 megs of RAM with Win98SE. I expected a performance hit when I added the additional RAM but antidotally, this was not the case. I experienced quite a performance boost. This is because uncached or not, it is always better to run applications in RAM, rather then swap out to virtual ram on the hard drive. In direct answer to the original posters question.... I dual boot my primary server with 750 megs of ram into Win2000 and Win98 for certain maintenance tasks. I also run a Win98 Server with 500 megs of RAM. I have found that unless you are doing something that requires large amounts of RAM,...for example loading graphic files for editing that are 100 plus megs in size...... you will not notice any difference with Win98X running above 128 megs of RAM. This is even true of games as most games by design are coded to run great on 128 megs or less in Win98. And If you are running such applications that can benefit from large amounts of RAM then you really ought to be in NT4 or above because these operating systems handle RAM so much more efficiently. Rode The NOSPIN Group http://freepctech.com The NOSPIN Group Promotions is now offering Mandrake Linux or Red Hat Linux CD sets along with our NOSPIN Power Linux CD... at a great price!!! http://freepctech.com/goodies/promotions.shtml