Swap Partition

Woden · 10 May 2015 at 13:14

About to go back to a dual boot, I just can't settle and work in Windows really.

So, as title really. I have a 120GB SSD, and a 2TB mechanical. What's best to do with the swap space these days? Last time I did an install (I will be using Gentoo) it was 2x RAM, but I have 16GB now!

segfault · 10 May 2015 at 13:38

The RHEL 6 installation guide suggests >= 4GB or 24GB if you want to use hibernation.

It might make more sense to put the swap partition on the mechanical disk as the SSD will have a finite number of writes, although you shouldn't be writing too much to swap if you've got 16GB and obviously using the SSD for swap will be faster.

On Holiday · 10 May 2015 at 13:43

I usually go 2x RAM or 16GB maximum unless the primary software on the server specifically requires more.

mortals · 10 May 2015 at 15:03

Do you even need a swap partition?

Swap space is generally recommended for users with less than 1 GB of RAM, but becomes more a matter of personal preference on systems with gratuitous amounts of physical RAM (though it is required for suspend-to-disk support).

CEUOTC · 10 May 2015 at 15:48

I only allocated 2048 MB to all my Linux systems as I don't use hybernate. With 16, 16 and 32gb in my kit and as I don't do RAM entesive jobs, swap has never been used.

Woden · 10 May 2015 at 16:57

Thinking about it, I doubt I need a dual boot at all.

I have Win8, so can use Hyper-V. And with a sandy i7 and 16GB ram, I should be able to run a VM no problem. Especially since I wont be doing anything 3d or graphically intensive.

A.N.Other · 10 May 2015 at 22:51

Just make a swap file and then you can play with it more simply.