How do I determine how much memory I need?

hi, personally with win xp, 256mb of memory or more.256 being the minimum.i have 384mb and i have never had any troubles. keltik chalk_Tv.

I only have 192. What type of problem or problems could I expect if it is too low? Thanks Keltikgent

hi, well you may be ok with 192,if you notice computer slowing down when opening folder or you keep getting error messages,like internet explorer occured an error and must be shutdown.error like that sometimes mean not enough memory to keep the application open.sometimes you can get a blue screen.im guessing your running a stick of 128 and a stick of 64?i read somewhere cannot remember where ,but the stick of 64 can cause performance problems also.i hope someone can confirm or correct this.if your system seems stable i wouldnt worry about it. but if you were to buy new memory leave the 128 in take out the 64 and put in another 128 stick or a 256 stick. keltik chalk_Tv.

The amount of ram you need really depends on how you use your pc. If you normally only have one or two windows open 192 should be fine, not great though. It doesn't leave much run for Xp to breath. If you like me and its common to have 15-20 Internet Explorer windows open, Photoshop running, Windows Media Player playing, and a few other apps going all at the same time your system would choke with only 192 megs. This is why I have a 1 gig of ram. If you don't need 30 apps running at once you won't need a gig but 512 megs is a very sweet spot for running Xp smoothly. Disk thrashing is one very distinct symptom of too little ram. If you have two programs running and you switch from one to the other and your hard drive begins to go crazy you may need more memory. Hope this helps, Sandman