If you find that processes running in SQL Server tend to make it peg out your system's available RAM it is likely because the default settings for SQL Server say "use all available RAM". While that is nice it is like having 5 children in the house and 4 pieces of candy and telling one of the children they can have all they want. Somebody in this…

Set-Max-Memory-SQL-Server.sql

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/* http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/glennberry/2009/10/29/suggested-max-memory-settings-for-sql-server-2005_2F00_2008/ */
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-- Turn on advanced options
EXEC  sp_configure'Show Advanced Options',1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO

-- Current Server has 8GB of RAM allocated
-- Set max server memory = 6400MB for the server
EXEC  sp_configure'max server memory (MB)',6400;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO

-- See what the current values are
EXEC sp_configure;