(forget about root login it's not-good-practice)
Swap space rule is really simple.
1. How much memory your PROGRAMS use?
a. if the response is close to your RAM then add 100 - 200Mb for swap. They are leaky programs IF your computer DON'T restart. I have 4 startx running and after hmmmm.. 10 days 50Mb of swap are used. Restarting X's and I am back to almost zero. To check how much memory you use, issue free command.
b. if the response is above your RAM add accordingly.. RAM not swap! For emergency you add swap.
I suggest swap space for hibernation. I tried, it's easy if your hardware agrees
Secondly linux swaps unused portion of memory, so it's good to gain some extra ram. I gain "only" 20Mbytes, so... no big-deal.
FYI I have scanned a book in 300 dpi, video editing (transcode), image proccessing (gimp), browsing, e-mailing with 512MB ram swap is at 21Mb of 100Mb. Free ram 243Mbytes.
Linux memory management is superb.