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    What's ideal amount of RAM for XP?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by mackie, Nov 18, 2006.

  1. mackie

    mackie Notebook Enthusiast

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    How much RAM should one buy to outfit XP Pro with a nice amount of RAM, with the idea of just running Win XP Pro (not Vista). is 1GB plenty of RAM for XP or is 2GB needed even for XP?
     
    mackie, Nov 18, 2006
    #1
  2. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    What applications do you plan on running? For basic users, 512MB is alright, I would not go any lower (it is hard to buy a machine with less than that anyway unless you get one of the ultra low-end ones). Ideally, you want to have 1GB so there will be some headroom for bigger/more intensive programs.
     
    Charles P. Jefferies, Nov 18, 2006
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  3. mackie

    mackie Notebook Enthusiast

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    Well the idea will be to get 1GB or 2GB. I occassionally play Counter-Strike. Otherwise, just MS Word, music burning, photo viewing, and web surfing.
     
    mackie, Nov 18, 2006
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  4. paqtrick22

    paqtrick22 Notebook Evangelist

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    go with 1GB of ram... that way you won't have to worry other programs running on the background... or 2GB if you'd lke to have no worries
     
    paqtrick22, Nov 18, 2006
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  5. NetBrakr

    NetBrakr Notebook Deity

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    1GB is plenty...I upgraded from 256MB and it is worth it.

    JC
     
    NetBrakr, Nov 18, 2006
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  6. Gator

    Gator Go Gators!

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    Minimum is 512MB as suggested. 1GB is very good and is starting to be the standard nowadays. 2GB for high end gaming---ex: BF2.
     
    Gator, Nov 18, 2006
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  7. Fred from NYC

    Fred from NYC Notebook Evangelist

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    I don't think that 512 MB of RAM is enough with XP, you'll get a lot of hard drive access. 1 GB is a good choice (and the consensus of the posts so far) and enough to play Battlefield 2.
     
    Fred from NYC, Nov 19, 2006
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  8. Sam

    Sam Notebook Virtuoso

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    512 MB will be fine if you use it for basic tasks.

    1 GB is ideal, and 2 GB will be best.

    4 GB is just starting to get ridiculous.
     
    Sam, Nov 19, 2006
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  9. Nicolas41390

    Nicolas41390 Notebook Consultant

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    I would say that 512mb is the lowest, and less windows gets all screwy and is slow. 768mb is a good place, but a full gig or even better 2gb for playing games.
     
    Nicolas41390, Nov 19, 2006
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  10. chrisyano

    chrisyano Hall Monitor NBR Reviewer

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    For XP I'd say 512 MB is about the lowest you should go, but 1 GB is recommended.

    If you do a lot of gaming and multi-tasking, then 2 GB is a nice option. It's not necessary though as 1 GB should be sufficient for what you mentioned.
     
    chrisyano, Nov 19, 2006
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  11. Zecter

    Zecter Notebook Enthusiast

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    wow so that explains why my pc is running slow. I have a 256 and 1.8 celeron, plays just diablo 2 and warcraft 3 and using firefox and yeah sloow..

    edit: I'm using XP Home SP2
     
    Zecter, Nov 27, 2006
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  12. yan

    yan Notebook Consultant

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    I'd get one stick of 1GB, that way you could always upgrade later.
     
    yan, Nov 27, 2006
    #12