diff --git a/hosts/modules/base.nix b/hosts/modules/base.nix
index f203480..c172ff8 100644
--- a/hosts/modules/base.nix
+++ b/hosts/modules/base.nix
@@ -19,8 +19,16 @@
   # enable zram. not totally sure if this does it in physical ram or just swap
   zramSwap.enable = true;
 
+  boot.kernel.sysctl = {
+    "vm.swappiness" = 10;
+  };
+
   # enable earlyoom to stop the system becoming unresponsive when out of ram
-  services.earlyoom.enable = true;
+  services.earlyoom = {
+    enable = true;
+    freeMemThreshold = 10;
+    freeSwapThreshold = 90;
+  };
 
   networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 8000 8080 ];