it just depends, what are you doing with the pc ? how much RAM do you have ? how much RAM are you thinking about upgrading to ? which OS ? but generally XPh SP2 is fine with 256Mb (for general use only) but XPH SP2 is happier with 2Gb when gaming or doing serious number crunching with spreadsheets, i really need to know what you use the machine for ?
XP really needs more than 256 for general use. Adding RAM allows you to run more programs at the same time without a slowdown. If you open up your browser, and maybe a large application like photoshop you'll notice than switching between applications takes more time than it usually does. Thats because Windows is using the pagefile as virtual memory when free RAM hits a certain threshold. (Although for some reason it uses a bit of pagefile anyway, regardless of RAM which is strange). For general internet browsing and maybe having a few apps open 512 is the recommended amount. Higher amounts are for having large apps like Photoshop, Dreamweaver or games open at the same time. Apart from that, with no windows open it offers a little bit of speed increase.
pc is used mainly for surfing,downloading,kids homework,streaming video/radio sometimes playing games. os-xpsp2 Ram-256mb 68gb free thinking of adding 128mb would this improve its performance?
well basically yes but consider upgrading to either 512Mb (as Addis said) or upgrading by adding 512Mb would be benificial in performance (totaling 768Mb) after that you won´t notice any improvment (obviously depending on you budget)
The only reason for the 128mb ram is because i can pinch it from my old pc. Is the processor that i am using ok for what i am doing? 2.40gh intel celeron. pc just seems a bit slugish sometimes.
well 384Mb is more than adiquate for me (but i´m on a very very tight budget) yeah chuck it in 384M is better than 256M
