PSP 8 is definitely RAM hungry. I had 512MB of RAM on a 2.4 GHz P4 overclocked to 3.0 GHz. This setup was fine for working on photos, but when I started working on scrap lo's (8.5x11 @ 300dpi) the system would come to its knees after adding a few layers. I think that a lack of RAM will also contribute to instability.
I ran the WinXP task manager and checked memory usage on the performance monitor and found that with PSP 8 loaded without any images that I only had about 64MB of RAM free. So, I ordered and extra Gig of RAM to bring my total to 1.5 GB of RAM and now things run much better. Even with a lo loaded into PSP, I have about 512MB free.
So, my advice would be to have at least 1GB of RAM and preferably a P4 processor (My son's computer is my old P3 with 512MB and it runs like a dog with PSP).
Oh one other thing I forgot to mention is to remember that your disk performance is a major issue because most programs save the undo information for each action that you perform to disk. If you have an old, slow hard drive it will take forever to do this function. You need to have a disk with a fast interface (ATA 100 or 133, or SATA) (which your computer must be able to support), a high rotation speed (7200 rpm), a large cache (8 MB) and a high disk density (60 - 80 GB per side). This is probably as important as RAM. Also, make sure you have adequate disk space and that it is not overly fragmented.
07-16-2004
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