Windows 7, 64-bit... on 2gb of RAM?

One of my coworkers asked my expertise, which I have none of in this case. She wants to buy her sister a new computer, just something to get on the net with. One of the cheap computers she was looking at on Best Buy is selling a machine with 7 home premium 64-bit and only 2 gigs of RAM.

MS has a long history of under-rating what their OS is going to utilize, and I'm very leery of telling my co-worker that this would be an okay gift. Thought I should check in with the people who've made the move to 7, and have been experimenting with it since day 1.

A compaq is not bad for someone who just needs to get on the net... Not my first choice, but the ASUS machines I would recommend from Tiger are out of her price range.

What would you guys say about sending this off to someone who is not computer literate and probably couldn't upgrade the machine without paying geek squad (I'm not joking, that's what'll happen) just working out of the box for a couple years of home use?

 

If it's only "to get on the net with" then there's no problem... Jeez I'll gift this machine or an old Amiga 1200 for that.

Windows 7 is less of a resource hog than Vista but I'm sure your colleague's sister would like a little more than browsing from a new system.

My advice! Avoid answering or be prepared for a lot of hassle in the future

 

64bit win7 on 2gig is like running vista 32bit on 1 gig if you want to make it scream along the min is 3~4 gig of ram i used to run win7x64 on 2 it did go ok but since adding an extra 2 gig it really flies now, programes open noticably faster than on 2 gig