win2k and RAM

[thePh@r@oh]

ok my girlfriend had a rig given to her for school she doesnt want win98 she knows enough about computers that she knows 2k is much better.......i dont know where she heard that *grins* the rig she has has about 64mb ram as far as i know....will that handle 2k?

it will run but it will be SLUGGISH. i suggest 128 or more for best preformance.

[OuTpaTienT]

Technically it'll run Win2k yes...however I wouldn't do it. A bare minimum for w2k is 256mb ram. And that's realistically a BARE minimum. Recommend you have at least 512mb. More is better, but I get by pretty well with only 512.

Ram is fairly cheap. If the machine was given to her then even if she bought some ram for it it'd still be quite a bargin. (This is assuming the rig is good enough that it's worth upgrading the ram.)

[thePh@r@oh]

ok well i just got more info on it its an old compaq so i guess im just gonne fdisk and do a clean install of win98

[ShawnD1]

64mb? Laff, that won't be enough to drive my calculator. If your friend is serious about multitasking she will want at least 512. Even win98 needs at least 256. One of my friends has a computer with 64mb ram on win98 and he literally cannot join a game of Counter-Strike, he times out because the computer is just that slow due to not enough ram.

Here is a picture of the amount of ram it takes to run windows explorer, outlook, MyIE2, gamespy, Counter-Strike and some other junk in the system tray.

[thePh@r@oh]

well she will basically use ths for college while shes at school she'll be emailing home and writing papers and stuff she wont be doing any gaming as the FPS games make her sick she only plays minesweeper and a few games on the internet...

[ShawnD1]

In that case, just 256 will be fine (yes, even if it's just win98).

[OuTpaTienT]

Actually your 64mb will be ok with Win98. Especially if what you mentioned is all that she'll be doing.

I remember running Windows 3.1 with only 4mb of ram.

I think I only had 8mb or maybe 12mb when Win95 came along. Everything worked.

[ShawnD1]

My friend's computer that can't play CS just sucks at normal programs as well. Loading a program like Outlook takes serious power. Trying to open MS Word is like trying to find a cure for cancer, it takes a while.....

[thePh@r@oh]

you have to remember not everyone in this world are tech junkies like us...loading time isnt a huge issue for everyone