my rule has always been 30 or less when my computer is idle with no other programs running. Isn't it terrible how computers come so loaded down with junk software these days. I just got a windows vista laptop with a dual core processor and a gig of ram that runs like it single core without enough ram. It had 63 processes stock from the factory. How can they get away with this, computers that are prebuilt come in a barely usable condition. WHEN WILL IT END!!!