The "1Gig" thing was in response to this post .

I know ... and those two are still used for business - specific functions that I do not want on my other PCs.

Try using a Dell Mini XP netbook with a fixed 1GB and no way of upgrading. I've put 8GB in all my other lappies and they zap along nicely.

win7 for a desktop.

2G in use
3G in standby
3G in Free.

So assume 4 or 8G will be enough in a laptop..

I hit around 8G memory use when I use Virtual box to run multiple os systems, but apart from that I think 8G is enough.