Those of you who have taken one of my classes know how strongly I feel about this: DON'T SKIMP ON THE MEMORY! Your computer's memory, or RAM as it is sometimes called, is a very critical component of your system and affects its performance in a big way. Memory is also one of the least expensive components of your system.
If you are buying a new computer with Vista Home Premium installed, make sure you get at least 2 GB (gigabytes) of memory or RAM. I am working on a customer's nearly brand new Compaq laptop right now. It has 1 GB of RAM. For starters, the HP company and the store who sold her the machine should be ashamed of themselves. This just isn't going to cut it. My customer says the system is slow. Well DUH! Any store clerk in a big box store should know this. My recomendation is to buy a new Vista machine with a minimum of 2 GB. While you are there, ask what the price differential is to upgrade to 3 GB or even 4 GB. I think you'll be surprised at how little the difference is, so go for the most you can afford, but PLEASE, don't get anything less than 2 GB. My customer is running Vista Home Premium, Norton Internet Security, and AOL, and these three are among the biggest memory hogs I know.
If you have a Windows XP machine, look into upgrading to 1 GB at least. Normally an XP machine does just fine with 1 GB of RAM. However, many machines were sold with 256 MB of memory and are still at that level. This just won't cut it any more. XP itself has grown and most of the applications that we have been running have also grown with updates and upgrades to later versions.
A good site to check the maximum memory permitted in your older machines, and to get an idea of cost for upgrading, is linked to below. Check out your system and think about upgrading. You will not be sorry. Memory is not only inexpensive but it is also very easy to install. Send me a note if you have any questions about this.
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