Neanderthal question. I'm looking at a Panasonic Toughbook, is 40 gigs enough memory for me? How do I determine how much memory I might need (how deep my pockets are?). I would like to e mail, surf the net, download GRIB weather files, interface it with a GPS.

Its not so much the size of the hard drive that matters. What matters, especially for the GPS interface, is the speed of the processor. If I were picking for you, I'd ask the GPS manufacturer what they recommend.

Then I would have to decide on the GPS now... is that where I should start?

maybe. Or at least start by researching the various specs for different ones. You can always add external storage, or additional RAM, but you really can't upgrade the processor.

OK, I will begin to educate myself on the processor, thanks for the heads up. I am sure I will have more questions. I am ready to get myself a machine, tho I have met some HOT librarians that know me by name now. One great thing about no TV is I read LOTS more. They have gotten all sorts of books for me, today I got to pick up one I have been looking forward to-- By the Grace of the Sea by Pat Henry, it is about a womans solo vayage around the world. I'll be piled up under the covers tonight crossing the blue salty ;-)

Sounds like a plan. Enjoy the book! Sounds like a great adventure.

I thought you were gonna say "It's not so much the size of the hard drive... it's what you DO with it." But you didn't. Carry on!

Ha! I thought about it, but it seemed to cheesey : )

No such THING as too cheesy!

40 gigs of memory? or 40 gb harddrive? Think you need a toughbook.. arent those kinda pricey (for me at least)?

with as fast as technology changes/progresses it's hard to keep up, unless you take a very active interest in it. Ergo, most tech questions are NOT neanderthal. I used to consider myself a techie, but now, I just barely keep up with the outskirts of technology! I'm SO glad we have techies in here that can help us out. :)

It all depends... Newbie here, but was lurking and saw this post..trying to get aquainted with posts and posters. Anyway, if you plan on having a lot of applications you'll need a lot of memory...RAM. Some applications, such as VMWare are known "Memory hogs" and it is very important to match your memory with what applicatons and what you plan to use your PC for. The processor is the "brains" of the PC and gives you speed. The size of the HHD (hard disk drive) IS important depending upon how much you want to store on your PC and what applications you'll have on them. Other things are, will you be downloading a lot of music on your C:/ drive, etc? So, depending upon your use, hard drive can matter, greatly. The probelm with technology (and why it get's confusing) is because memory size, hard drive's have become huge and unless you're on a server platform there really is no need for such high memory. You can easily purchase 1 TG external Hard drive but only a server platform business with daily back ups needs that size! I would NOT go by Microsofts manufactures recommendations because with Microsoft Operating systems the minimums are (in the industry) considered ridiculouly low. Surely you can put OS's on the minimum but you will run at a snails pace. Best advice is to research and look at your needs. Go to places like PCWorld.com and also Panasonic and see the max memory you can have on the machine. I am a believer in as much memory as possible if you are using lot's of applications. You can also check the GPS you plan to have installed and see if they have guidelines. Third party software manufactuers are more realistic (non Microsoft) about what is needed to run their applications smoothly. Good luck on your purchase. Those toughbooks are top-notch.