D. Spencer Hines said:
Hilarious!
It's QUITE amusing watching some gurus rant about "the average
user" and "sufficient for their needs" -- speaking as if NEEDS and
REQUIREMENTS are STATIC and don't CHANGE over the life cycle of a
given computer.
The NEEDS of 2007 may be QUITE different from the NEEDS and
REQUIREMENTS of 2009, when newer applications and other software
programs will have demanded more RAM.
Again, any serious user should realize he needs TWO GB of RAM in
order to run Vista and have room for future developments over the
life of the computer.
It's rather shameful how some of the more pseudo-knowledgeable
people here are buying TWO Gigs of RAM for THEMSELVES -- while
recommending ONE Gig as sufficient for the needs of others.
I personally plan to have FOUR Gigs of RAM, at a minimum -- when I
buy VIENNA.
I see a flaw in your logic (or several of them)...
- Everyone is different. While you may actually use your computer for more
RAM intensive things and need 2GB memory now - many others may not. I have
several family members who will likely never need more than the
1.8GHz-2.2GHz/512MB Windows XP systems (SP2, Office 2003, all the standard
Internet plugins) they currently have. That was an upgrade (because I had
spare machines - not because they needed/wanted it) from the 700MHz-1.2GHz
w/256MB RAM machines they had. They were fine before I upgraded them - and
their OS and everything they normally used did not change. Sure - things
are a bit faster, but overall - they didn't see much necessary difference.
- All you mentioned was RAM. That's it. That's pretty weak and doesn't do
a computer justice.
- While you are purchasing your new computer for *the future needs* - why
didn't you buy Quad Core Xeons... Two of them? What processor(s) did you
get to prepare for the future? How many cores do they have? How many total
processors did you get?
- What about your video card? Does it do one, two, three, four monitors?
How much memory does it have? What type of slot does it plug into? AGP?
PCI? PCIex?
- How large is your hard disk drive? Better yet - how many do you have
and what kind (EIDE, SCSI, SATA, SATA2, SAS, etc)? How fast do they spin?
What is their average access time? Did you set them up in a RAID so that
you get a little more performance out of them? Perhaps you also mirror them
to another set (Stripe+Mirror) or did you use RAID 5?
- What type of optical media drive did you purchase? CD? CD-R? CD-RW?
DVD? DVD-R? DVD+R? DVD-RW? DVD+RW? DVD-RAM? DVD-DL? DVD+/-RW and DL?
How many? How does it connect? (IDE? SATA?) What speed does it read at?
What speed(s) does it write at (if it does)?
- What network card did you purchase? 10? 100? 1000? What type of slot
does it go into?
- What motherboard did you purchase to manage all this hardware? What
chipset does it have? How many memory slots and what is the maximum amount
of RAM it can handle? What types of available slots does it have for
expansion cards? Built in components of any type? How many processors will
it accept?
- What power supply did you buy to run all this? Are you sure it has
enough wattage to actually support what you have? Did you get
dual-redundant power supplies for less down time? How many fans do JUST the
power supplies have? What type of fans (ball bearing? other?)?
- What computer case did you get? Does it help dissipate the heat well?
Can it hold everything you want now and in the future? How many 120mm fan
spots does it have? 80mm? Does it have room for your hot-swappable
dual-redundant power supplies?
- What size monitor and/or how many monitors did you get? If your vision
is messed up somehow, will you still be able to read it? How bright is it?
Is it LCD or CRT or something else? What is the connection type (VGA, DVI,
other?) Did you buy a stand for the multiple monitors so you could better
adjust them as a single unit?
- Finally - how much RAM did you get? Will it be enough for your MatLab
calculations? What about your Wave-tank simulations? Just how much can you
get into memory before it has to start using the swap drive 'for real'?
- Might someone's needs change? Yep.
But I think it would be completely moronic to purchase 8 times the amount of
RAM (from my example) than what was needed now *just in case*. Go double -
sure, but go beyond that? By the time your needs *might change* - you will
likely be better off upgrading the whole system. It will be cheaper and
since RAM is by far not the only performance determining factor in a
computer - you'll be better off for it.
Just like I wouldn't go out and buy the 4x4 Dually King-Cab 1 Ton truck
'just in case I need to haul something', I wouldn't go stupid ridiculous on
the amount of memory *I* need for *my* computer. Let people get 'what they
need'. Start at a base, and move from there.
- Your example is from 2007 to 2009. Wow. That is a lifetime for a
computer. In the businesses I help manage - I recommend that computers be
rotated out between 3 and 5 years - no more. Some of that has to do with
Warranty - but mostly - I cannot look back and not see any three to five
year period where the computer industry has not changed enough in that time
to *not* warrant a change in computers. The 1.8GHz with 512MB RAM just
doesn't do the job anymore. Sure - I could add more RAM and it might help -
but it's just not going to perform as well as the 3.6GHz with 1GB RAM and
all the other new components. It also may not have the features that come
standard now. I remember 4MB video cards used to be HUGE. 256MB is now
more the standard. 750MB hard drives have evolved into 750GB hard drives.
In order to get the most for the money - the wise decision is to buy the
whole new system.
Then again - maybe your new game would run fine with 512MB memory more and
you have two of the machines - so you are not worried about warranty...
Maybe your new database just needs to be seen on a larger monitor. Maybe
you don't have the money for a whole new system - nor the need really.
Maybe you don't even really need things to go faster, work harder. Maybe
that is your child telling you that.
The point? There is no *blanket* statement.
What does it for you might seem weak and worthless to me and 8 times
overkill to someone else.
Will people using standard apps and such benefit from more than 1GB RAM on
Vista? Maybe. Maybe not.
Might they need more than 1GB RAM someday? Maybe. Maybe not.
Might the price of RAM go down and they end out coming out ahead getting the
extra RAM they *might* need later? Maybe. Maybe not.
You do what *you* need to. You tell us what *you* are going to do and have
done, if it makes you *feel better*.
However - rethink when you come in and make a statement like, "... any
serious user should realize he needs TWO GB of RAM in order to run Vista and
have room for future developments over the life of the computer ..." <--
because what you need/did/think you should do may have nothing to do with
what others need/did/think they should do. They may just realize what you
need would be ridiculous for them. They may just realize what you need
wouldn't even be close to enough for them.
Can you define a 'serious user' any better than those you might criticize
can define the 'average user'?
After all - maybe someone you know is a serious online poker player... I
bet their Vista PC used exclusively for that runs GREAT for them with 1GB
memory and they'd probably not notice the extra gig or three if you threw it
in. Maybe someone else you know does some heavy simulation calculations and
2GB would be laughable.
on't feed the trolls.