Memory Requirement for XP Pro

[Ineedjava]

I am considering buying a PC with a 2.6ghz processor and 512MB DDR RAM. For the first time in my fun career, I will be installing XP Pro on the PC and using the machine as a file/print server and broadband internet gateway for 6 other locally attached PCs.

If the 6 local PCs all have logged into the XP Pro server and are simultaneously accessing the internet, does this activity use a lot of memory on the XP Pro server? I want to avoid memory swapping to the hard drive but I also do not want to buy 1GB of RAM if it won't be utilized.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[bcastner]

Along with the new XP buy a router.

512 will be fine, and it is easy enough to add RAM. Remember to set your Advanced options in System Processes to have the system optomize for background processing and the system cache.

What you want to do is to reduce processor activity. Offloading the DHCP and routing needs of the internet to a hardware router would help a lot. I will warn you that if you have multiple printers and/or lots of print jobs, the background print process is relatively demanding.