1/2 a GIG is OK. I have 2GB in mine currently. My machine can handle up to 16GB. I strongly recommend that you look at the following: Article Q126962 'Increasing the Desktop Application Heap' http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q126962 nitro
512mb ram should be more than sufficient! You should not have lots of extra apps opened anyhow on a trading platform computer. You should have virus, firewall and the other NECESSARY apps to run the computer. You will then have your browsers. No need to have sound exe, extra utilities, running in the background. Learn how to shut that garbage off and selective startup components. I have 512ddr and only use about 5-10% memory with multiple windows open, java applets, winamp, etc..Also running is firewall, virus, temperature monitor. Right now as I type and if you click, right click on the lower taskbar, click on taskmanager if you have 2k or xp you will see processes running cpu, memory usage, I have 30 processes running.
Today I bought two 256 DIMM modules for my Pentium III machine. It already had 256 Megs. The modules I got were PC133 ram. PC133 ram is NOT backwards compatible for certain chipset types. My computer is only recognizing half of each ram module. So now I only have 512 instead of 768. Just so you know -- check the memory out first! Best buy was having a super-deal on them for only $20 a pop (256 DIMMs)
I agree about the use of RAM other than Dell. Their computers are fine. I have one. But they overcharge big time for add-ons. And they're not really any better than other brands. They obviously don't make their own RAM. But it's also true, as has been said, that you must make sure that whatever RAM you get is compatible. You should be okay since your system is new. But I'd take richtraders advice and pull a dimm out and bring it in to where you will get the RAM or if you buy it online, make sure it will be compatible. The other issue regarding this is bandwidth. You can have the fastest setup going and if you have a slow dialup connection, like I do now (unfortunately I'm in a temporary situation where that's the only option - ) you're not going to be able to run anything well. I have a 3 yr. old Dell with a 500 mhz Pentium III and 384 mgs of PC100 DRAM and it runs fine offline. But due to my slow dialup connection I've been having major hassles lately trying to run all my data feeds well. I just installed a very fast 120 gig, 8 mb buffer Western Digital hard drive with Win XP Pro. And I just switched brokers and am back using RealTick 7.6 and I also run eSignal and usually several mIRC live trading rooms, plus a couple of browsers, occasionally TC2000, and Photoshop, etc. And actually before I switched I was running Win 98 SE and had an account with CyberTrader and all these applications ran fine even on my slow connection. I'll probably upgrade my main board and buy a faster chip and add more RAM here soon, everything being so cheap these days, and also because I do a lot of graphics work. But the bandwidth issue I think is probably the most important factor in your being able to run all your applications well. That and RAM which you seem to have plenty of for trading, especially since it's RDRAM. Good luck. Let us know how you do. Here's a good link in regard to this, The Kingston Ultimate Memory Guide http://www.kingston.com/tools/umg/default.asp P.S. I had always heard that Micron was behind jacking up the prices of RAM in the mid 90's and then they had that investigation recently accusing them of just that. And Rambus was trying to manipulate things too so you'd be forced to use RDRAM. Maybe they'll be more reluctant to do this going forward. We hope so.
You can also search here to see what kind of memory is compatible with your system. http://www.kingston.com/products/default.asp