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Memory Assessor

Windows Vista

Kingston has created this guide to help you determine your optimal memory requirements for Microsoft® Windows® Vista.

Windows Vista gives you the freedom, performance and reliability to experience more than you ever thought possible with your computer and the Internet.

To find out how much memory you will need, select the description that most closely matches your business or home computing usage.

Microsoft Vista Version
32-Bit
Min - Max Memory
64-Bit
Min - Max Memory
Home Basic 512MB/1GB* - 4GB** 512MB/1GB* - 8GB
Home Premium 512MB/1GB* - 4GB** 512MB/1GB* - 16GB
Business 512MB/1GB* - 4GB** 512MB/1GB* - 128GB
Ultimate 512MB/1GB* - 4GB** 512MB/1GB* - 128GB
Enterprise Edition 512MB/1GB* - 4GB** 512MB/1GB* - 128GB
Footnotes: * 512MB required for Vista Capable. 1GB required for Vista Premium Ready systems.
** Approximately 3.3GB addressable memory. Vista reserves upper memory space for hardware usage.

Does Kingston have any recommendations for memory capacity by user for Vista?

Kingston recommends that you install at least 2 GB of memory, and take advantage of dual-channel memory (by installing matched module pairs in the paired channel memory sockets) for performance and future headroom. The typical user will rely on the new Vista system for 3 or more years, and applications will integrate more advanced features requiring greater system performance.

 
Entry
Mainstream
Performance
HIgh-end
Memory Requirements –
Desktop
1GB – 3GB
2GB – 4GB
2GB – 16GB+
4GB to system max++
Memory Requirements –
Notebook
1GB – 2GB
2GB – 4GB
2GB – 16GB+
4GB to system max++
At Home
Email
Picture share
Web Surfing
Basic Office Products
Personal Finance Download and Manage Music
Manage and share photos
Interactive web surfing
Personal Finance
Basic creative software
Basic Office products
Download and Manage Photos, Music, Movies and TV
Photo enhancement
Web Hosting
Games
Personal Finance
Full Suite of office products
Movie/Photo/Music Editing
Digital Home
Gaming
Web Hosting
Personal Finance
Full Suite of office products Advanced Features
At Work
Email
Web Surfing
Basic Office Products
Corporate Software (CRM, Accounting, Manufacturing)
Email
Web Surfing
Full suite of office products
(Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, etc.)
Corporate Software (CRM, Accounting, Manufacturing)
Email
Web Surfing and Development
Graphic Design
Full suite of office products Advanced Features
(Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, etc.)
Corporate Software (CRM, Accounting, Manufacturing)
Software programming
Design Engineering
Advanced Web and Database Development
Production level editing
Sound Engineering
CAD based engineering programs
Footnotes:
+ Vista specifications from Microsoft: 32-bit Vista versions only support up to 4GB of memory; 64-bit Home Basic supports up to 8GB of memory, and 64-bit Home Premium supports up to 16GB of memory. Please note: Maximum system memory is also dependent upon the total number of memory sockets and the maximum memory module capacity (using 2GB modules, 4-socket desktops will support up to 8GB of memory and 2-socket notebooks will support up to 4GB of memory).
++ Up to 128GB for 64-bit Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate versions. System configuration may also limit the total memory capacity.

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