Determining how much Ram memory and virtual memory you require

Based upon your needs and the types of applications you used on your PC, including the configuration of your devices and peripherals the amount of RAM and the Virtual Memory needed, will vary. In layman’s term the more power you expect from your PC the more memory you’ll need. Adding memory to your PC can be considered as making a reasonably priced upgrade, bringing significant gain in performance and the same goes for increasing virtual memory. Tips: If you got a slow outdated PC, increasing its virtual memory and adding some physical memory (RAM) can help lengthen the life of your PC before replacing it by a new one.

You can refer to the following guidelines to have a better understanding of your requirements based upon the OS used:

WINDOWS XP

Office purposes: Basic
Category: Spreadsheets, Word processing, Emailing, Web Browsing, Fax
Minimum requirements: 128 to 256 Mb

Office purposes: Advanced
Category: Business graphics and Presentations, Multi tasking Application
Minimum requirements: 256 to 512 Mb

WINDOWS XP Presentations

Presentation:Basic
Category: Graphical presentations and proposals, Project Management
Minimum requirements: 128 to 512 Mb

Presentation:Advanced
Category: Databases, Statistical applications, Video Conferencing
Minimum requirements: 128 to 512 Mb

WINDOWS XP Multemedia Applications

Presentation:Basic
Category: Multimedia presentations, Web development, Image and Sound Editing, Gaming
Minimum requirements: 256 to 1GB

Presentation:Advanced
Category: Real time Video,Animation,3D Computer Aided Design, Digital Imaging
Minimum requirements: 1GB to System maximum range

WINDOWS VISTA

For Windows Vista it’s quite simple. Don’t think you could manage without a least 512 Mb of RAM and a 256 Mb graphic card.

WINDOWS VISTA Office and Business purposes

Office and Business purposes:Basic
Category:Spreadsheets, Word processing, Emailing, Web Browsing, Fax
Minimum requirements: Minimum 512 Mb

Office and Business purposes:Advanced
Category:Business graphics and Presentations, Multi tasking Application
Minimum requirements: 1GB to System maximum range

WINDOWS VISTA Multimedia Application

Office and Business purposes:Basic
Category:Multimedia presentations, Web development, Image and Sound Editing, Gaming
Minimum requirements: 1.5G to 2 GB

Concerning old versions of Microsoft Windows (95, 2000, NT)
Within a range of 128Mb and 512 Mb installed on your PC, things should run smoothly.

Here below is a brief explanation of how to manage virtual memory .
The aim is simply increase the size of the paging file in order to have a larger sector of your hard disk acting like RAM on your PC.

Steps
Open your control panel and click on the System icon
Select the Advanced Tab
Select the Performance Options Tab



Select the Change Option found in the Virtual memory sub menu



Under Paging file size for selected drive, select Custom size check box. You can manage the amount of memory you would like to allocate for Virtual memory by entering the initial and maximum size. Note that it’s recommended to set initial and maximum size to the same value; it will prevent your PC from changing the size of the paging file. The value entered should be a least 1.5 greater than your physical RAM; Such that a PC having 256Mb of RAM the minimum value entered will be equal to (256*1.5) 384Mb.