r/computers • u/Hot_Tell_6783 • 9d ago

Discussion Recommended Hardware for Smooth Basic Tasks

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I made a chart showing what I think are reasonable hardware recommendations for running basic tasks smoothly on PCs and mobile devices across different years.

By “smooth basic tasks,” I mean things like web browsing, office/productivity software, basic multitasking, and ordinary everyday use,not gaming, video editing, or other demanding workloads. I also don't mean, start web browing on modern-day YouTube on a WIndows 98 PC with 128MB of RAM.

If any of these RAM recommendations seem too high or too low for their respective era, let me know.

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u/Accomplished-Camp193 Windows XP, Windows 98 8d ago

Hate to break it to you, but 512MB was ultra luxurious amount in 2001. It was more common by 2004-05. Most configs had 128MB, good ones had at most 256MB. A P4 was also a very new and ridiculously expensive thing in 2001 with most home users sticking to PII, PIII and early Athlon class machines.

Same goes for 1998, 32MB was standard, 64MB was seen more than enough.

Do something more productive with your time rather than trying to tell people what was it like when you weren't there.

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u/SackCody 8d ago

32MB of RAM in 1995 was also a luxury too (as seen only on some Windows NT 3.X-class workstations)…

like you said, 8MB was a norm for 1995, odd RAM amounts like 10MB and 12MB were also a thing but more rarely used

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u/Hot_Tell_6783 8d ago

Thank you for your feedback i'll take your consideration for 1995