Eric wrote:

"KB" wrote in message
...

Be sure that your system's compatible with XP. Valuable information can
be found here = http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316639 You'll especially
find the Upgrade Advisor useful =
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/h...g/advisor.mspx

Note that despite their recommendation of 128MB RAM, I'd run, IMHO, 512MB
minimum.

Having been a strong advocate of ME for many years, I've not been
dissapointed with XP which took over a year to throw up an error message.
Note that I didn't upgrade but bought a new system due to hardware
incompatibility with the old system.


They recommend 128MB? It does run OK on 128MB. I believe it does run on
64MB though.
Of course 512MB is nicer, but so is 2GB. The more RAM you give it, the
smoother it will run. If you do anything that uses much RAM, it will just
use the swap file if it runs out. Just make sure you keep enough free HD
space.
Same goes for any OS. Win98 can run on 16MB, Vista can run on 1GB maybe
even less. The more you get, the smoother they run.
If you increase any one component past a certain point, you just shift the
bottleneck. Any one piece can be the weakest link for performance (CPU,
RAM, video speed, video RAM, BUS, HD...).

Above a certain amount of RAM any additional RAM added to the machine is
just a waste of money and it will not make the computer run any faster
or smoother. Where that "magic" amount lies depends on what you do with
your computer and what type of applications you run, if your computer is
not paging then adding extra RAM will do nothing to make your computer
run better, faster or smoother. Many XP users, I would say half or more
of XP users, don't need much more than 512MB of RAM and other than those
doing multimedia/AV editing or those running CAD/CAM and very large
spreadsheets or other demanding programs few users ever need or use more
than 1GB. Users who barely use 512MB will not see a bit of difference
when adding additional RAM to their computers. We see occasional posts
in the XP groups where users have increased RAM from 512MB or 768MB to
1GB and more and they disappointedly report no performance gains. The
reason they see no gains is that they weren't using what they already
had to work with.

John