Andrew McLaren

"Paul Pedersen" <nospam@no.spam> wrote ...
> This is not a development machine, but it will be used for small to
> moderate sized desktop publishing tasks, plus other desktop apps, while
> also acting as a low-moderate volume file server to three or four other
> machines. So performance is a concern.

Well it's a rule-of-thumb guide, but if desktop publishing includes apps
like Adobe InDesign, or similar, I'd definitely recommend you get at least
1GB. And if you want to run a file server as well, start thinking in terms
of 2GB. Vista will efficiently utilise any spare memory as cache, so it
won't go to waste; ie, you can't have "too much" memory.

512MB can be adequate for a single user running simple desktop apps - but
not much more.

You'll need to examine your motherboard (or computer's manual) to see how
many memory slots it has, and what slots are already occupied. Ideally you'd
add say, 2 x 1GB chips to your existing 512MB, for a total of 2.5GB - rather
than have to throw the 512 MB away, and replace it with a pair of 1GB chips
for total 2GB.

Hard to redict what score you'll get. But many users report significant
boost in performance by going from 512MB to 1GB - it takes Vista out of the
"packed in tight" range, into "breathing freely".

Cheers,
Andrew