Ram/Video Ram

I mostly do wordprocessing, surf the net, watch often lengthy video streams. How much regular ram and video ram should I get? I was once told that with the streaming it might be good to have some video ram, but I have never had that confirmed. I am going to stick with XP Pro.

Also, am I right that processor speed probably is of little relevance for me, e.g. 1.6 v. 2.0 ghz?

 

Video RAM counts in Games/ Graphics intensive applications. For watching movies/HDTV content, 128MB is good enough. Also, for basic tasks as word processing, surfing, etc. the processor speed is immaterial. A low end core 2 duo would be much more capable than what you need.

 

Generally, you don't want your video card stealing from your computer's RAM, so make sure your video card has dedicated memory (RAM dedicated to the video card).

As Sess said, if you don't plan to play games, 128MB should serve you well. As far as RAM, I wouldn't buy anything less than 1GB.

And finally, a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo should be fine for you.

Matt

 

Thanks for the feedback. Is it worth getting two gigs? I will probably buy through PC connections. The two gig version of seemingly the same computer is $400 more than the 1 gig. I assume I could buy 1 gig for a lot less.

 

windows xp will run great on 1gb. Unless you are using specific applications that require lots of ram.

 

my old laptop is toshiba P3 (or P4?) 2.4ghz with 256mb RAM winXP pro have always worked fine, often I have several applications running such as dvd-player, opera with loads of tabs on, photoshop and word at the same time and it flies... well figuratively speaking

anyway in very bad cases i do have small baloon pop up telling me that virtual memory is low and that windows is increasing it but that's all and everything keeps working

 

Oh yeah, definitely. Buy a 1GB stick of RAM from a third-party provider if it's $400 more. I'd recommend getting 1.5GB or 2GB.

Matt