Minimum amount of RAM required for a poker computer

[nevadaJACK]

I'm buying a new computer for poker and ONLY poker...leaning towards a laptop, but could go desktop too. I want to know what the minimum amount of RAM I should look for is. I know that 256 and up is pretty much the industry standard now, but I'm finding some pretty good prices on some older systems that have only 128, and even as low as 64 MB RAM...given that I only care about being able to play poker on this thing, is even something as low as 64 enough?? (Some of these systems are older, like Pentium IIIs and IIs...does that factor into the decision at all?)...I've been thinking that as long as it's got an ethernet connection, that should be all I need for poker...love to hear all opinions on this.

Thanks,

[fyodor]

If you are going with a used system it is likely they will have an older operating system installed. Bear in mind that Windows98 has a serious memory leak. At PartyPoker if you open and close too many tables your video will eventually mess up and you have to reboot.

Windows2000 and XP both avoid this problem. Both these O/S require more memory than 98 to run well. For 2000 get at least 128MB. For XP get 256.

[Lumpy]

One thing to consider with looking at a laptop is if you plan on multi-tabling. Most older laptops will not support a high enough screen resolution to even play 2 tables easily. I would go the desktop route. Even a decent used machine will be more than enough. If you are going to splurge, spend extra $$ on the monitor.

[nevadaJACK]

It's interesting that you bring up the "too many windows" thing: whenever I play poker on Empire on my desktop, and I open and close many windows (often in an attempt to find an empty seat), it gives me an error message that says "Empire has encountered a problem and needs to close". Is that what you're talking about?? I didn't know that problem was widespread, and figured it was just a problem with my computer.
What's odd is that I have a Pentium 4, 256 RAM, and Windows ME on my desktop, and it still gave me that error...hmmm...you seemed to imply it only happened on older systems with Windows 98.

[MercTec]

IMO, Windows ME is the worst OS Microsoft has ever released. 2K or XP is definately the way to go. ME is essentially 98, but I've sen more problems with ME than any other OS ( I work in the computer industry)