I want to add memory to my system.  This is my current config:

Dell Dimension 8400
Processor: Pentium 4 3.20 GHz, 800FSB
Memory: 512 MB (2 x 256 MB, 533M) factory installed
Video: ATI X300 128 MB
Hard Drive:  160GB, Serial ATA, 7200

I don't play any games, but I do use a lot of memory-eating apps.  At
any time, I could have any or all of these apps running:
Adobe Audition 1.5
Photoshop CS
Microsoft Word 2003
Outlook 2003
Excel 2003
FrontPage 2003
PowerPoint 2003
Internet Explorer 6
Firefox
Windows Media Player 10
Winamp 5
iTunes 6
Napster 3.5
Tunebite 2.0
AOL Instant Messenger 5.5
WindowBlinds 4.5
Norton AntiVirus
...and more...

Should I go with more than 1 GB?  My system will support upto 4 GB.  I
was looking at Crucial Ballistix.  Is that good memory?  Is it worth
the extra $$$? I just want the best value.  I'm under the impression
that buying memory directly from Dell will be overpriced.  Can I mix
old memory with new memory, as long as it is in pairs?  Any opinions
would be greatly appreciated.

Well, i checked how much RAM the apps that you gave.
Adobe Audition 1.5 takes about 50MB
photoshop CS2 takes 60MB. i think that CS1 takes about 60MB too
Internet Explorer 6 takes 20MB and Firefox takes bitween 20MB to 40MB
Windows media player(while running a videoclip) = 40MB
Winamp is 40MB too
i dont know about
iTunes 6
Napster 3.5
Tunebite 2.0
AOL Instant Messenger 5.5
WindowBlinds 4.5
Norton AntiVirus
but i guess they're like 35MB each.

and i dont know about office things too... them all need to be max 60MB
its about 480MB and you have 512MB and you need to use less than
%70(its recommended)
so you just need to buy a 512MB memory card.
btw, if you want to buy a DDR2 memrory card, check if your processor support it!
for example, my AMD cant run a DDR2 memrory card - only a DDR ones. i
think that Intel support DDR2.

And dont let someone cheat you! A Samsung/Kingston DDR2 512Mb 533MHz
CL3(i recommend you to buy one of them) has to cost up to $100. In
Israel it costs $60.

Hope i help ya!

A great place to buy memory for a good price is newegg.com
It has just about any type of memory you could want and all at good prices.

Hope this helps.
runbigmama@gmail.com

Check how much memory you are using when running all of these
applications and buy a little more than that.  My guess right now
would be 1gb.  You should also check how many slots you have free, so
you can find out if you will have to get rid of some memory.  Right
now tigerdirect.com has some good prices on memory.  512mb ram for
$35: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_memory.asp?CMP=ILC-FPM06