If it has Vista, don't even think about it with less than 2 GB. Theoretically, Vista can boot with less than 512 MB, but that's insane. Our Vista laptop came with 1 GB, and it was hopeless. Unfortunately, it had two 512 MB modules, so I had to pull one to upgrade, and went to 1.5 GB. It was faster, but still painful. I upgraded the other module, and now that it has 1 GB it's finally useful.
Part of the problem with the laptop is that it has a shared-memory video card, but we don't run video-intensive stuff on it, so that shouldn't make it hopelessly slow. But our Vista desktop, with 2 GB, is a whole lot snappier than the Vista laptop with the same amount, so I suspect that the shared-memory video card is part of the problem.
XP is happy with 1 GB and wonderful with more. Our main machine has XP and 3 GB, and it's great. I hope Vista is that good eventually, probably after a service pack or two, but it's not great yet.
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Part of the problem with the laptop is that it has a shared-memory video card, but we don't run video-intensive stuff on it, so that shouldn't make it hopelessly slow. But our Vista desktop, with 2 GB, is a whole lot snappier than the Vista laptop with the same amount, so I suspect that the shared-memory video card is part of the problem.
XP is happy with 1 GB and wonderful with more. Our main machine has XP and 3 GB, and it's great. I hope Vista is that good eventually, probably after a service pack or two, but it's not great yet.