Question: How much RAM and hard drive space is enough?
The IT Guy says:
This is an answer that seems to change over time. The answer depends on the types of things that you will use the computer in question to do. Computer users who use mostly word processing and spreadsheets and print them, surf the Internet and check email need less RAM and hard drive space than people who create things like MP3 audio archives, work with lots of digital images, or create digital movies. The first type of user can do fine with 128 megabytes of RAM and a hard drive of 4 gigabytes or larger. Newer operating systems like Windows XP and Macintosh OS X require more memory and run better with more, and it is usually best to exceed the minimum requirements if possible. If you work with digital images and use programs like Adobe PhotoShop, or create digital movies with programs like iMovie, you probably should have at least 256 megabytes of RAM and hard drives with at least 20 gigabytes of storage space. These are just guidelines and will change as processor speeds and memory capacities of computers grow. Thankfully, relative costs for comparable processing power continue to fall.
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