Question about svchost.exe and 'normal' Vista processes/ram usage

I am using Vista on a relativly new laptop (the M1710 is ~1 month old) and it appears that I have 13 different svchost.exe processes running at the same time and between 53 to 63 processes running with no major programs open.

First question: Should I be worried that I have many (~13) of the svchost.exe processes running at the same time?

Second question: I am currently using roughly 700 MB of RAM with no major programs running (perhaps a few small ones are running in the background). Does 700 MB seem about right for Vista Home Premium?

I know laptops have many extra features that cause more processes to run than desktops (like the track pad process and some of the dell quick sets,) but >55 process seems like there may be something wrong. Does Vista normally run like this for other laptop owners?

 

I see that you like the XPS Line from Dell

Aside from that, I think there's a BIT too many SVCHosts.EXE running in your background. I only have 2 SVCHosts.EXE, and one's running from me, and the other one is a 'NETWORK SERVICE'.

I am running Windows XP Media Center Edition, but still, the difference shouldn't be that great.

Also, I think using 700MB of RAM without any major programs running (I suppose you don't have MSN/AIM, or any Internet Explorers Running), is too much.

If you had MSN/AIM, Internet Explorers, and Music running, that could pass off as reasonable, but, I'm not sure.

You might want to wait for a soild response from somebody that actually has Vista, or even better, somebody that has a Dell XPS M1710 on Vista

 

Both the RAM usage and the number of SVCHost processes are well within the norms for Vista, so I wouldn't worry about it.

As far as the RAM goes, Vista caches programs that you run often so that when you start them there will be little to no delay, but when you need that RAM (for example, you try to run a game) Vista will release the RAM to the process that needs it. So again, there's really no need to worry about "excessive" RAM usage in Vista because Vista allocates RAM more efficiently than XP.

The SVCHost processes I'm not so sure exactly what they do. I know that they are system processes, each of which handles a different aspect of the OS, but beyond that, I'm afraid I can't give you any exact details. Micrsoft might be able to though. Take a look at the following link. What is SVCHost.exe?