From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Thu Oct  2 14:59:04 2008
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 21CE81065693
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Thu,  2 Oct 2008 14:59:04 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from kirk@strauser.com)
Received: from kanga.honeypot.net (kanga.honeypot.net
	[IPv6:2001:470:a80a:1:21f:d0ff:fe22:b8a8])
	by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D2D4F8FC12
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Thu,  2 Oct 2008 14:59:03 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from kirk@strauser.com)
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1])
	by kanga.honeypot.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4C80C944FEE
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Thu,  2 Oct 2008 09:59:03 -0500 (CDT)
X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at honeypot.net
Received: from kanga.honeypot.net ([127.0.0.1])
	by localhost (kanga.honeypot.net [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024)
	with ESMTP id yV1h+7bdsDe9 for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Thu,  2 Oct 2008 09:58:57 -0500 (CDT)
Received: from athena.daycos.com (athena.daycos.com
	[IPv6:2001:470:c054:1:221:9bff:fe00:de3f])
	(using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits))
	(No client certificate requested)
	by kanga.honeypot.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 39939944567
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Thu,  2 Oct 2008 09:58:57 -0500 (CDT)
From: Kirk Strauser <kirk@strauser.com>
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 09:58:54 -0500
User-Agent: KMail/1.9.9
X-Face: T+/_{qmjgbosI0J/e83I~w[&VF'w)!(<bFJWGw=Vx16yEz`z=a^@7)qZ{yc5m;
	#Q"K(=?utf-8?q?S-T=0A=09p1?=<=?utf-8?q?rTK6XRo=3F8kwsj=26g/ze=2ETkdj=24vrJ4rE=5EspYQA3/qUgm=27Ysoy=27D!?=
	=?utf-8?q?05=7CbD*W=5D+F*OPF=25=5E0=0A=09?=>(xEpj///^bA/6?jHHS?nq+T8_+`nh"WnEWCWG,
	\}]Y2$))
	=?utf-8?q?vLVz4ACChrEcb=7DCO=5EtYmMG=5C=0A=09ts=2Em=3F=5B7=5B6OwE*dAJ*9f+m?=
	=?utf-8?q?X=2E7R32qeN=5EDJ=5C?=(k@evW?IRQCy.^
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
  charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline
Message-Id: <200810020958.54563.kirk@strauser.com>
Subject: More RAM for buffers?
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:59:04 -0000

I have an AMD system with 6GB of RAM.  From dmesg:

    usable memory = 6428237824 (6130 MB)
    avail memory  = 6203797504 (5916 MB)

However, most of it is just sitting there when it looks like it could be 
used for buffers or cache:

Mem: 1186M Active, 3902M Inact, 468M Wired, 233M Cache, 214M Buf, 138M Free
Swap: 8192M Total, 900K Used, 8191M Free

Since I've yet to find a great explanation for what the different types of 
memory are, could someone say why all that inactive memory is better than 
using it for cache or buffers?
-- 
Kirk Strauser