For the record, according to Microsoft and Intel, today’s operating systems
and processors demand at least 64MB of RAM; the machine will work, but
you’ll probably be unhappy with its performance. (Windows XP works with
64MB, but Microsoft recommends 128MB or more.) Earlier versions of
Windows work with as little as 32MB. Either way, running a modern machine
with insufficient memory is kind of like saying you can drive a car that has
four flat tires; it moves, but not very fast or very well.You know the somewhat unrealistic minimums. Does that mean you should
go crazy and install gigabyte upon gigabyte in a laptop? In a word, no.
Remember three things about memory:In general, more memory is better than less memory.
The amount of memory that seemed unrealistically large two years ago
will appear ridiculously insufficient a year from now.There is a tipping point that varies based on the microprocessor and the
motherboard. That tipping point is where you have enough memory for
your needs. Adding more would be a waste of money, a drain on battery
power, and could even slow down the machine.In my opinion, the tipping point for an older machine for most users (based on
a Pentium III or older equivalent microprocessor) is in the range of 192–320MB.
Current machines (working with a Pentium 4, Pentium M, Intel Celeron, or AMD
equivalent) would be happiest with somewhere around 512MB; if you do a
great deal of graphics or audio work, you can boost RAM to 1GB.If you’re buying a new laptop, the lower-priced models typically come with
256MB of RAM, which is merely an adequate level of memory. (And some of
those machines use motherboards that steal away some of that RAM for
workspace for the video adapter; that’s called shared RAM.Nothing is inher-
ently wrong with shared RAM except that you have that much less working
space; there may be 256MB within the case of the laptop but only 192MB is
available to the microprocessor.)If you’re running Windows XP and advanced software (including graphics
programs like Adobe Photoshop, Web design software, or audio editors),
I suggest you purchase a machine with 512MB of RAM.Modern machines are capable of working with several gigabytes of RAM,
although that may be unnecessary; older machines using earlier microproces-
sors had maximum capacities ranging from 256MB to 384MB. And if you’re
looking for a way to boost the speed of a laptop you already own, you can do
little that’s more cost effective than increase the amount of memory. The best
news of all is that adding more memory (or swapping smaller memory mod-
ules for larger ones) is very easy to do. I show you how in this chapter.80 Part II: Explaining What Could Possibly Go Wrong