how do I know if I have enough RAM?

[Jerboy]

I have 512MB of DDR memory and I don't see any difference compared to back in the day when I had 128MB. I still get "insufficient memory" error just as often and I've never had a program that doesn't run because of memory shortage. On Mac OS you can tell how much memory is being used and once the sum of memory usage exceeds the amount of memory available, you'll get a message that says not enough memory.

How am I supposed to know my 512MB is actually better than 256MB?

Basically the computer is used as an e-Machine, surfing, chatting on instant messengers, very light duty Photoshop and Office apps.
Look in my sig for complete spec.

 

[jcmkk]

your main problem is the fact that you are running windows ME. Upgrade to WInXP or Win2K and you should never have those errors.

 

[Bovinicus]

It sounds to me like you don't really need 512MB anyway. Like the last guy said though, WinXP or 2K is the way to go if you have a lot of memory.

 

[wluk]

I used to get the not enough memory warning on winme. Since I've updated to winxp, my system is so smooth and never get the same error again. My money was well spent on the OS upgrade.

 

[Mitzi]

If you go for Win2K or XP you'll also get better memory usage statistics via the task manager.

 

[AMDPwred]

As everyone else has said a new OS would be ideal. For what you do you could probably get away with 128MB RAM but it doesn't hurt to have more. It's just the longer you'll wait before an upgrade.

 

[Alex]

in win2k and xp if ya open the taskbar or whatsitsname ya can see a bar chart of mem usage & system resources etc. plus they manage memory better than win9x. no reason to get xp really, it rocks!