Flash drive , more memory???

Hello
I'm in the market for a laptop. I know nothing about this, so I'm trying to
learn before I buy.
I'm looking to use it for surfing, office stuff, and perhaps, photos &
videos creating and editing (fun stuff).

The HP I saw, dv9207us, has 1 gb ram and dual core, vista premium.
My question(s) : Is that enough memory for vista? I know it's the minimum,
but what do you think - the people that use it on a daily basis. The
salesperson told me that if I insert a flash drive it will act as more ram -
it was new to vista. Is that true???
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My mind is spinning
with this stuff. I'm almost afraid to buy the wrong thing. I don't want to
be frustrated by the speed. Also, I can do the wireless thing to my desktop
whis has XP running on it, right?

So confused!
Thanks
Diane

If you want to get into video editing I would strongly suggest 2 gig of RAM.

A USB thumb drive, or flash memory, is NOT a substitute for RAM. It enhances
pagefile operation - instead of the system paging to the hard drive it will
page to the flash memory first.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

"Diane" <> wrote in message
news:251E9C1B-E43D-48FD-BF88-...
> Hello
> I'm in the market for a laptop. I know nothing about this, so I'm trying
> to
> learn before I buy.
> I'm looking to use it for surfing, office stuff, and perhaps, photos &
> videos creating and editing (fun stuff).
>
> The HP I saw, dv9207us, has 1 gb ram and dual core, vista premium.
> My question(s) : Is that enough memory for vista? I know it's the
> minimum,
> but what do you think - the people that use it on a daily basis. The
> salesperson told me that if I insert a flash drive it will act as more
> ram -
> it was new to vista. Is that true???
> Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My mind is spinning
> with this stuff. I'm almost afraid to buy the wrong thing. I don't want
> to
> be frustrated by the speed. Also, I can do the wireless thing to my
> desktop
> whis has XP running on it, right?
>
> So confused!
> Thanks
> Diane
>
>

Diane wrote:
> Hello
> I'm in the market for a laptop. I know nothing about this, so I'm
> trying to learn before I buy.
> I'm looking to use it for surfing, office stuff, and perhaps, photos &
> videos creating and editing (fun stuff).
>
> The HP I saw, dv9207us, has 1 gb ram and dual core, vista premium.
> My question(s) : Is that enough memory for vista? I know it's the
> minimum, but what do you think - the people that use it on a daily
> basis. The salesperson told me that if I insert a flash drive it
> will act as more ram - it was new to vista. Is that true???
> Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My mind is
> spinning with this stuff. I'm almost afraid to buy the wrong thing.
> I don't want to be frustrated by the speed. Also, I can do the
> wireless thing to my desktop whis has XP running on it, right?
>
> So confused!
> Thanks
> Diane

512 is the minimum, 1gig is recommended. If you're going to do photo and
video editing as you have stated, then you should really go with 2gigs. As
to the flash drive, the salesman is referring to the Ready Boost feature but
you most people don't see much gain from that after they reach a gig of
installed ram. You are better off, based on what you have stated, to have
2gigs of installed ram.

Since this is a laptop, most laptops use shared mameory for graphics.
Again, with your requirements, you should have a graphics card with its own
memory as opposed to having it share main system memory. Hence, either look
for a laptop that has an option to have such a graphics card or one to which
you can add such a card, through for laptops, those cards are not cheap and
it's better to have them addit to the system. A card with 256MB or 512MB of
its own ram should do and that system will fly.


--
Michael Solomon

Thank you for your help!!

"Michael Solomon" wrote:

> Diane wrote:
> > Hello
> > I'm in the market for a laptop. I know nothing about this, so I'm
> > trying to learn before I buy.
> > I'm looking to use it for surfing, office stuff, and perhaps, photos &
> > videos creating and editing (fun stuff).
> >
> > The HP I saw, dv9207us, has 1 gb ram and dual core, vista premium.
> > My question(s) : Is that enough memory for vista? I know it's the
> > minimum, but what do you think - the people that use it on a daily
> > basis. The salesperson told me that if I insert a flash drive it
> > will act as more ram - it was new to vista. Is that true???
> > Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My mind is
> > spinning with this stuff. I'm almost afraid to buy the wrong thing.
> > I don't want to be frustrated by the speed. Also, I can do the
> > wireless thing to my desktop whis has XP running on it, right?
> >
> > So confused!
> > Thanks
> > Diane
>
> 512 is the minimum, 1gig is recommended. If you're going to do photo and
> video editing as you have stated, then you should really go with 2gigs. As
> to the flash drive, the salesman is referring to the Ready Boost feature but
> you most people don't see much gain from that after they reach a gig of
> installed ram. You are better off, based on what you have stated, to have
> 2gigs of installed ram.
>
> Since this is a laptop, most laptops use shared mameory for graphics.
> Again, with your requirements, you should have a graphics card with its own
> memory as opposed to having it share main system memory. Hence, either look
> for a laptop that has an option to have such a graphics card or one to which
> you can add such a card, through for laptops, those cards are not cheap and
> it's better to have them addit to the system. A card with 256MB or 512MB of
> its own ram should do and that system will fly.
>
>
> --
> Michael Solomon
>
>
>

On Thu, 03 May 2007 17:08:00 -0700, Diane wrote:

> Hello
> I'm in the market for a laptop. I know nothing about this, so I'm trying to
> learn before I buy.
> I'm looking to use it for surfing, office stuff, and perhaps, photos &
> videos creating and editing (fun stuff).
>
> The HP I saw, dv9207us, has 1 gb ram and dual core, vista premium.
> My question(s) : Is that enough memory for vista? I know it's the minimum,
> but what do you think - the people that use it on a daily basis. The
> salesperson told me that if I insert a flash drive it will act as more ram -
> it was new to vista. Is that true???

That is not true. To make decent use of the rest of the system and vista,
recommendation would be 3gb.

> Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My mind is spinning
> with this stuff. I'm almost afraid to buy the wrong thing. I don't want to
> be frustrated by the speed. Also, I can do the wireless thing to my desktop
> whis has XP running on it, right?

IMHO - you'd be a lot better off looking for a system with something other
than vista or plan to replace it. It is a resource hog and lots of folks
are having issues - see microsoft.public.windows.vista.general for more
info. A lot of consultants are advising against vista until at least SP1
is delivered. DELL has said it will be offering xp again - due to
overwhelming demand. They are also scheduled to begin shipping consumer
models with Ubuntu Linux in the near future - IMHO both of those would be
better options than vista.


>
> So confused!
> Thanks
> Diane

I dont agree. I am using Vista on a 1GB RAM, shared video and it works fine
for day to day activities like browsing, word processing. I haven't tried
video/photo editing but 2GB should get you going. And if you customize a HP,
they upgrade you to a NVIDIA video card for $49.

Like others said, flash memory "might" help in fast paging. Will not hurt
though. But its not a substitute for RAM.

Dell has Vista written all over its web site. Makes no sense in buying WinXP
at this moment. Ubuntu, RedHat.....been hearing those for a long time..no
offense..have tried Linux before...not for end users. They are just good for
debates.

My .02

"ray" <> wrote in message
news...
> On Thu, 03 May 2007 17:08:00 -0700, Diane wrote:
>
>> Hello
>> I'm in the market for a laptop. I know nothing about this, so I'm trying
>> to
>> learn before I buy.
>> I'm looking to use it for surfing, office stuff, and perhaps, photos &
>> videos creating and editing (fun stuff).
>>
>> The HP I saw, dv9207us, has 1 gb ram and dual core, vista premium.
>> My question(s) : Is that enough memory for vista? I know it's the
>> minimum,
>> but what do you think - the people that use it on a daily basis. The
>> salesperson told me that if I insert a flash drive it will act as more
>> ram -
>> it was new to vista. Is that true???
>
> That is not true. To make decent use of the rest of the system and vista,
> recommendation would be 3gb.
>
>> Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My mind is spinning
>> with this stuff. I'm almost afraid to buy the wrong thing. I don't want
>> to
>> be frustrated by the speed. Also, I can do the wireless thing to my
>> desktop
>> whis has XP running on it, right?
>
> IMHO - you'd be a lot better off looking for a system with something other
> than vista or plan to replace it. It is a resource hog and lots of folks
> are having issues - see microsoft.public.windows.vista.general for more
> info. A lot of consultants are advising against vista until at least SP1
> is delivered. DELL has said it will be offering xp again - due to
> overwhelming demand. They are also scheduled to begin shipping consumer
> models with Ubuntu Linux in the near future - IMHO both of those would be
> better options than vista.
>
>
>>
>> So confused!
>> Thanks
>> Diane
>

Excellent suggestions made by all kudos! I would recommend that you do a
little research on the features available on laptops. Good starting points
online would be PCWorld.com, Cnet, or PCmag.com.

I would also advise you to really shop around for the best deals. Be sure
to check both the retail store and its website, many offer sales available as
online only. Also check the online retailers such as Gateway and Dell
(Gateway is better IMO), they tend to be more patient and better equiped to
answer questions.

When it comes to laptops try to get as much value as possible. Laptops tend
to cost more to upgrade than desktop PC's and have fewer component options.
Get the 2 gigs of RAM and forget about the Flash Drive, same cost but RAM
provides superior performance boost.

Finally consider what type of CPU you get either AMD or Intel. Intel PC's
cost more but have a slight edge over AMD machines. The AMC PC's will cost up
$100 less than the Intel (which you could use to upgrade the laptop).
"Diane" wrote:

> Hello
> I'm in the market for a laptop. I know nothing about this, so I'm trying to
> learn before I buy.
> I'm looking to use it for surfing, office stuff, and perhaps, photos &
> videos creating and editing (fun stuff).
>
> The HP I saw, dv9207us, has 1 gb ram and dual core, vista premium.
> My question(s) : Is that enough memory for vista? I know it's the minimum,
> but what do you think - the people that use it on a daily basis. The
> salesperson told me that if I insert a flash drive it will act as more ram -
> it was new to vista. Is that true???
> Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My mind is spinning
> with this stuff. I'm almost afraid to buy the wrong thing. I don't want to
> be frustrated by the speed. Also, I can do the wireless thing to my desktop
> whis has XP running on it, right?
>
> So confused!
> Thanks
> Diane
>
>

ray wrote:

> On Thu, 03 May 2007 17:08:00 -0700, Diane wrote:
>
>
>>Hello
>>I'm in the market for a laptop. I know nothing about this, so I'm trying to
>>learn before I buy.
>>I'm looking to use it for surfing, office stuff, and perhaps, photos &
>>videos creating and editing (fun stuff).
>>
>>The HP I saw, dv9207us, has 1 gb ram and dual core, vista premium.
>>My question(s) : Is that enough memory for vista? I know it's the minimum,
>>but what do you think - the people that use it on a daily basis. The
>>salesperson told me that if I insert a flash drive it will act as more ram -
>>it was new to vista. Is that true???
>
>
> That is not true. To make decent use of the rest of the system and vista,
> recommendation would be 3gb.
>
>
>>Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My mind is spinning
>>with this stuff. I'm almost afraid to buy the wrong thing. I don't want to
>>be frustrated by the speed. Also, I can do the wireless thing to my desktop
>>whis has XP running on it, right?
>
>
> IMHO - you'd be a lot better off looking for a system with something other
> than vista or plan to replace it. It is a resource hog and lots of folks
> are having issues - see microsoft.public.windows.vista.general for more
> info. A lot of consultants are advising against vista until at least SP1
> is delivered. DELL has said it will be offering xp again - due to
> overwhelming demand. They are also scheduled to begin shipping consumer
> models with Ubuntu Linux in the near future - IMHO both of those would be
> better options than vista.
>
>
>
>>So confused!
>>Thanks
>>Diane
>
>
Ray, you're really beginning to wander into the realm of FUD about Vista.
Suggest you cease from doing so as it's starting to make you look other
than an intelligent person.
Just a kind "heads up".
Frank

Diane wrote:

> Thank you for your help!!
>
> "Michael Solomon" wrote:
>
>
>>Diane wrote:
>>
>>>Hello
>>>I'm in the market for a laptop. I know nothing about this, so I'm
>>>trying to learn before I buy.
>>>I'm looking to use it for surfing, office stuff, and perhaps, photos &
>>>videos creating and editing (fun stuff).
>>>
>>>The HP I saw, dv9207us, has 1 gb ram and dual core, vista premium.
>>>My question(s) : Is that enough memory for vista? I know it's the
>>>minimum, but what do you think - the people that use it on a daily
>>>basis. The salesperson told me that if I insert a flash drive it
>>>will act as more ram - it was new to vista. Is that true???
>>>Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My mind is
>>>spinning with this stuff. I'm almost afraid to buy the wrong thing.
>>>I don't want to be frustrated by the speed. Also, I can do the
>>>wireless thing to my desktop whis has XP running on it, right?
>>>
>>>So confused!
>>>Thanks
>>>Diane
>>
>>512 is the minimum, 1gig is recommended. If you're going to do photo and
>>video editing as you have stated, then you should really go with 2gigs. As
>>to the flash drive, the salesman is referring to the Ready Boost feature but
>>you most people don't see much gain from that after they reach a gig of
>>installed ram. You are better off, based on what you have stated, to have
>>2gigs of installed ram.
>>
>>Since this is a laptop, most laptops use shared mameory for graphics.
>>Again, with your requirements, you should have a graphics card with its own
>>memory as opposed to having it share main system memory. Hence, either look
>>for a laptop that has an option to have such a graphics card or one to which
>>you can add such a card, through for laptops, those cards are not cheap and
>>it's better to have them addit to the system. A card with 256MB or 512MB of
>>its own ram should do and that system will fly.
>>
>>
>>--
>>Michael Solomon
>>
>>
>>
A usb flash drive of 2-4 gigs configured as readyboost along with 2 gigs
of system ram and Vista will run extremely fast. It will allow you to
load and run all of your chosen software without bogging down.
Frank

On Thu, 03 May 2007 20:13:40 -0700, Frank wrote:

> ray wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 03 May 2007 17:08:00 -0700, Diane wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Hello
>>>I'm in the market for a laptop. I know nothing about this, so I'm trying to
>>>learn before I buy.
>>>I'm looking to use it for surfing, office stuff, and perhaps, photos &
>>>videos creating and editing (fun stuff).
>>>
>>>The HP I saw, dv9207us, has 1 gb ram and dual core, vista premium.
>>>My question(s) : Is that enough memory for vista? I know it's the minimum,
>>>but what do you think - the people that use it on a daily basis. The
>>>salesperson told me that if I insert a flash drive it will act as more ram -
>>>it was new to vista. Is that true???
>>
>>
>> That is not true. To make decent use of the rest of the system and vista,
>> recommendation would be 3gb.
>>
>>
>>>Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My mind is spinning
>>>with this stuff. I'm almost afraid to buy the wrong thing. I don't want to
>>>be frustrated by the speed. Also, I can do the wireless thing to my desktop
>>>whis has XP running on it, right?
>>
>>
>> IMHO - you'd be a lot better off looking for a system with something other
>> than vista or plan to replace it. It is a resource hog and lots of folks
>> are having issues - see microsoft.public.windows.vista.general for more
>> info. A lot of consultants are advising against vista until at least SP1
>> is delivered. DELL has said it will be offering xp again - due to
>> overwhelming demand. They are also scheduled to begin shipping consumer
>> models with Ubuntu Linux in the near future - IMHO both of those would be
>> better options than vista.
>>
>>
>>
>>>So confused!
>>>Thanks
>>>Diane
>>
>>
> Ray, you're really beginning to wander into the realm of FUD about Vista.
> Suggest you cease from doing so as it's starting to make you look other
> than an intelligent person.
> Just a kind "heads up".
> Frank

Or what? You'll break my knees? I call them as I see them. If you need to
ask about vista, at this point, you probably should not go there. It may
work out, but there is a pretty high risk of terminal frustration.