how much pc133 ram for an internet computer?

[Cawchy87]

I plan to run winXP on it. It will be used mainly for internet use and various microsoft programs (ie. word, excel etc.) I already have 256mb, and have one empy slot. is this enough or should i put more in? how much more?

athlon duron 800mhz processor
ABIT kt7a mobo

 

[Evdawg]

another 256 would be nice

 

[Mik3y]

256 is fine. unless you plan to run other apps on it, 256 will be fine for internet and hmwk. more doesnt hurt tho. 🙂

 

[n0cmonkey]

I wouldn't go with anything less than 512MB these days.

 

[stevty2889]

256MB is plenty for internet and office applications. SDRAM is too expensive now, and going to 512MB won't speed up your internet or office applications by much if anything at all.

 

[John]

I just built a Celeron 466 w/ 256MB PC100 rig that run XP Pro for my finacee's cousin, and it runs Office apps and surfs webpages like a champ. Turn off all of the XP eyecandy and you'll get a nice speed boost.

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I wouldn't go with anything less than 512MB these days.

Yep, I've seen XP running on a machine with 256 and it isn't pretty.

 

[Tostada]

Originally posted by: Gurck

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I wouldn't go with anything less than 512MB these days.

Yep, I've seen XP running on a machine with 256 and it isn't pretty.

That's odd. I've got XP Pro running on my laptop and my GF's Celeron each with 256MB. HDD swapping isn't an issue for web surfing and office apps.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I stick by my statement. 512 always feels smoother for me, even if I'm doing BS things.

 

[dullard]

I ran Win XP with 128 MB of memory at work for 2 years (P3 800 MHz). It runs just fine. I've used Word (with 300 page dissertation open), Excel (with multiple large files open), Powerpoint (with medium sized presentation open), MathCad, Visual Basic, McAffee, and Zone Alarm all running at the same time. Sure there may be a 1-2 second lag switching programs, but it runs ok.

Recently I got a free boost to 384 MB on that computer and I cannot see much difference at all.

Your situation seems similar to mine. It'll work no problem with 256 MB. Yes you'll have the occasional swap of memory with the HD, but with just Office work and Internet, it will be minimal. More memory will buy you very little difference.

Just be sure to turn off much of the eye candy in Windows XP. Biggest memory eater of course is the fast user switching. But even things like a fancy background and screen saver can eat up 1% of your 256 MB memory - so just use simple ones or none at all.

Use the computer for a day, then go to the task manager and look at the peak commit charge. If it isn't much above 300 MB, you'll see little if any benefit of more memory. (A slight swap to the HD of some memory is typically done with Win XP regardless of how much memory you have, thus I didn't say 256 MB in this paragraph).

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: dullard
I ran Win XP with 128 MB of memory at work for 2 years (P3 800 MHz). It runs just fine.

Sure there may be a 1-2 second lag switching programs, but it runs ok.

I guess "runs just fine" means different things for different people.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: crimson117
I guess "runs just fine" means different things for different people.

If it is a mission critical thing where you absolutely cannot wait 2 seconds, then no it isn't just fine. But most people here are pickier than they need to be when it comes to computer performance. Honestly, in that 1-2 second lag, I wouldn't have done anything productive. So for me it is just fine. In fact, I can start moving the mouse to its next useful position and the program switch is done before I can get there. Thus I couldn't have been any faster myself. A computer reading internet and doing basic office work doesn't NEED much memory at all. I did that back with a 6 MB computer and DOS. It worked. Yes it was slow (much slower than the 1-2 second delay I spoke of above).

But yes that slight delay will drive some people up the wall in sheer madness.

 

[nick1985]

256 is plenty

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: crimson117

Originally posted by: dullard
I ran Win XP with 128 MB of memory at work for 2 years (P3 800 MHz). It runs just fine.

Sure there may be a 1-2 second lag switching programs, but it runs ok.

I guess "runs just fine" means different things for different people.

Yeah. I had a temp computer up and running with a P3 Celly 1Ghz and I was lazy and just stuck a 128MB PC133 DIMM into it. Boy was WinXP SP1 (and later, SP2 RC1) slow. It was almost unusable. I would never run XP with less than 256MB, preferably 512MB. W2K Pro, you could get away with 128MB, but 256 or more is still much better.

Heck, Mozilla/Firefox alone, needs about 256MB all to itself for extended browsing sessions.