You don't need more than 8gb of RAM.  Your message implies that you may be confusing the size of the hard drive with the amount of RAM.  If it were me, I wouldn't worry about the size of the hard drive.  If you need more storage, you can always buy an external USB hard drive. 

 

But in terms of memory, RAM, which your computer uses to run applications efficiently, and has no connection with a hard drive, 8GB is the generally recommended amount unless someone runs memory intensive programs or a lot of programs at once, neither of which you do.  the majority of users don't need more.

 

And as far as keeping costs down, you might consider getting a laptop from Computers for The Blind.  I've seen good reports from people on lists like this.

 

I don't know what country you live in so you may not be able to.  I think they provide refurbished computers only within The United States.

 

Gene

----- Original Message -----

From: Anna Givens

Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2020 1:28 PM

To: gui-talk@... ; Tech4theblind+subscribe@groups.io ; NVDA subgroup ; Jaws Users

Subject: [chat] Buying new computer

I’m wondering if someone can help me decide how much memory and how much storage I need in a new laptop in order to keep costs down but still be able to have a smoothly functioning computer. I only use laptops for basic things like editing documents and surfing the web, etc. And then I also stream Netflix or things like that. I don’t tend to have a ton of apps on my computer. I do need to install and use NVDA or JAWS or fusion.
Given all this. How is the minimum I would need?

Thanks so much.

Anna