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Every year at this time you'll see ads for incredibly cheap computers from Dell, Compaq, Gateway, and others. Most go down to $349.99 after rebates for a complete system. While these are decent computers that will work just fine for a large majority of people, they are dogs. Here's why: almost all of these computers come with 128MB of RAM. Cheap computers have integrated video on the motherboard instead of a dedicated video card. The integrated video shares that 128MB of RAM with the rest of the components in the computer, and video can eat up significant amounts of RAM. So essentially your computer has way less than 128MB of RAM. Microsoft says that Windows XP should have a minimum of 128MB of RAM to run smoothly. There's an easy fix for this, though. Just throw in a 256MB stick of RAM (app. $40, see DealRam). Installing RAM is as easy as pushing it into a slot and that is all there is to it. My Dad bought one of these cheap Dell computers about a year ago. Opening and closing windows and programs took forever. He threw in a stick of RAM and it was like a new computer. It's a shame that vendors will even sell computers these days with so little RAM. They are trying to cut corners to reach a price point and fool unsuspecting buyers. So buyer beware!
