"1 GB RAM is well more than enough. My main machine I'm on now had only 1 GB RAM for ages on Windows 7, and I do absolutely everything with this PC. Latest games, heavy video editing/encoding, audio tracking and production, crash dump analysis, Photoshop to name a few...
No complaints at all then with the 1 GB. As a fact, I don't even notice the difference at all doing any of the things I do, now that I have 2 GB."
Dude 1GB is just only cutting it, even with the 32bit Version and that 1GB is just for windows 7 bare bones, consider you have other programs running in the background and then using Photoshop or Microsoft Office together take a further 512MB Ram each then have a Virus program and Windows Media player going together at the same time together using another 512.
1GB for windows+1GB for Photoshop and MIcrosoft Office+512MB for Virus Program and Windows media Player and 512MB for background items=3GB. My Gaming Computer has 8GB and soon to be upgraded to 16GB. IMAO NO COMPUTER should come with less than a 64bit OS and 4GB ram, even Netbooks
Baring in mind that a 64Bit OS cost's no more than that of a 32Bit and it is around $59 Per 2GB of Ram
My Netbook given to us at work has 1GB ram and Windows 7 Enterprise and runs fine, ("untill I load something then it takes forever, Like word proccessing, Internet use or Windows Media Player") No excuses upgrade the memory and OS to Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate and make sure it's a 64Bit, all modern processors support it, Ram is cheap and it's the way of the future
Only having a 32bit OS and 1GB ram does a lot of hard disk memory swapping, Slowing the Computer's performance and the more it does that on a 5400 RPM HDD the slower the computer gets, don't ever let your computer do Hard Disk Memory Swapping or use the HDD for even temp Memory, Unless someone's tieing you to a chair.
No excuses with today's technology and how cheap it is.