Time to dispel some rumors! I just built a new system and I've got 2GB of PC3200 RAM installed -- plenty o' RAM to go around (It's an ASUS A8N-SLI Premium w/ AMD Athlon 64 4000+, 320GB Seagate SATA). After getting everything to function (drivers, etc. etc.) I'm left with naught but the page file. Now, I've heard some dirty rumors in the past about definitely setting the page file (1.5 times the amount of RAM, etc. etc.) but don't put much stock in it so far.

Currently I've got it set to automatic page file settings (i.e. windows selects the appropriate page file size) -- is this an optimum memory setting? Should I set it to something manual or just leave it at system settings?

I've never noticed much difference no matter where I have it. If I were you I'd disable it entirely and see if you run into any problems, if not there you go, thats about as optimal as it will ever get.

Yeah, that's generally what I figured. But I keep getting tons of differing opinions on the matter (1.5 RAM size, 2 RAM size, turn off completely, yada yada yada) and I, for one, want to get to the bottom of the issue!

Generally my opinion is "if it ain't broke don't fix it" in regards to this issue. I've never seen performance issues related to changing the size, so I usually just leave it at system select.

I ran a system with 1 gig of ram for quite some time with it disabled. Never had any problems. On my current system I have 2 gigs of ram and have a 1.5gig size fixed pagefile on a small partition on a seperate drive. I originally didn't change anything and had it on C and was letting windows manage it, when I switched I didn't see any difference. Maybe I'll kill it off completely now just to prove to myself again that it doesn't seem to matter what you do with it if you've got a decent amount of physical ram.

Hehe, well hopefully we don't see a day or so of "no posting" from you thanks to windows throwing temper tantrums.

Mostly I'm just interested in other people's experiences, I'm not having any problems with it. My group of techie friends keep telling me 8 different stories, and I'd just like to hear what other people think!

I've got 2 OS X machines and a Ubuntu machine, so I could always post from them

You'll probably hear several different stories when other members see this thread too.