Newegg is always a good place to go to do research on computer parts, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a consistently better reseller, too.


Bring up the task manager (Start->Run->taskman; Ctrl-Alt-Del, T; Ctrl-Shift-Esc) and open the "Performance" tab. Verify that the Total Physical Memory looks right. Now watch the Total Commit Charge. If its value hovers near that of Total Physical Memory, you have too little memory for what you're doing. Note that the current value of the PF/Page File Usage graph is actually the same as Total Commit Charge. (Which means that it really isn't that related to the page file at all.) Regardless, you can use the Page File Usage History graph to see what your memory usage looks like over time, so you don't have to constantly watch that number change.