> The long held rule in computing is that you can never have
> too much RAM.
> However, I have come to the conclusion that unless you are doing video
> editing, you have a busy server, are a data base developer,
> CAD or Graphic
> professional who routinely loads huge 128 meg plus graphic
> files or have
> some other kind of serious professional scientific or
> engineering use then
> adding RAM above 128 is probably superfluous.

There's one other thing that can take RAM that many people don't realize -
the reason Windows was invented: multitasking.

As a developer, I currently have two IE windows, Eudora mail, Outlook, two
instances of Visual Basic, Oracle SQL+ and MSDN open. Of course, whenever my
memory load goes over 128MB, then I have to wait a few seconds when
switching applications. I'm currently looking to increase my laptop to
256MB...

If you often have a lot of stuff open, then 256 might be a worthwhile
investment. Of course, in Win95 or 98 it's tough to tell what memory load
you're running (but if you usually have a lot of stuff open, it's probably
worth going to Win2k anyway so one bad app doesn't ruin the whole
bunch...*). In NT or Win2k you can check the task manager to see what's
taking how much room. :)

Philo

*sorry

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