For one reason or another (read:ridiculous combo deal) I ended up with 12GB of RAM on my main computer. Is there any way to really take advantage of this for most daily computing tasks?
On a regular basis I doubt if you will use all that ram. If you are into games, multitasking and other high usage programs. It may be used ocassionally. I for one have 6gb and have never come near using all my RAM.
from a tweaking/optimizing standpoint is there anything I can change or enable to take advantage of nearly endless extra RAM which it seems I now have?
There's not much to change...
I have 4GB and rarely ever use more than 2. Right now I am using 0.8.
unless you screwed up superfetch, W7 natively takes advantage of all the RAM. I assume you have 64-bit. with 32-bit obvioulsy it won't use more than 3.2 GB.
I think if you use Revit MEP or os, 8 GB is recommended and 12 GB probably fine. but for everyday user,it won't matter. the HDD is more a bottleneck. an SSD really speeds things up. But with superfetch and 12 GB, it already should be OK.
for new PCs with quadcore (assuming you actually use it) 8 GB is recommended, so 12 GB is not such a waste of money if you got a good deal.
If you can, return 6GB. You will not make use of all 12GB on daily tasks, 6GB is plenty for Windows 7 64-Bit.
Else sell it on eBay or give it to someone that's close to you a good friend, girl friend or good relative.
I've never messed with superfetch or anything, so I'm not sure if I somehow messed it up or what. The computer is insanely fast now, but when I do splurge on an SSD I bet it will be amazing.
I've already separated the OS and programs from the rest of my data. I'm not really sure that made any difference whatsoever except from an organizing standpoint.
Good idea!
Windows 7 as main, Ubuntu on the left, Fedora on the right and XP minimized...
12 GB of ram is overkill for most users however you will benefit from it everyday. your multitasking won't slow the computer nearly as much, and it'll generally be a more responsive machine. of course you probably have a bottle neck elsewhere in your system but if nothing else you've always got a few GB to spare for another PC.
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