Random Access Memory - RAM

We continue our Simple PC Specs series with a post about RAM a.k.a. physical memory of your computer. RAM is confused a lot of times with the memory of your graphics card and even hard-drive space. This post will explain in simple plain English all about RAM, so you will never be confused again. Hopefully after reading post you will be able to upgrade your memory or at least know where to look for memory and what type of memory too look for, read on!

Random Access Memory is sometimes referred to as computer's physical memory because it is the place where all the calculations take place also you can physically touch RAM chips. When ever you open a word document it is loaded into javascript:void(0)RAM and stays there until you close it or save it to your virtual memory which is your hard-drive. RAM is counted now in Giga Bytes and Mega Bytes on graphics cards. RAM chips are different in packages and types, most desktop PCs today use DIMMs and laptops use SODIMMs. Also the most widely used type of memory is DDR and DDR2, your computer should be using either of these.

When you upgrade your RAM you simple add more space for your processor to work in. It wont speed up your Internet, or games, but it will make your games lag less and let you have more open programs and running processes at the same time.

You can find out how much memory you have by clicking properties of My Computer, the default tab System Properties shows you your processor speed and all the physical memory that you have installed.

To see if you actually use all the memory, you just have to open Task Manager and see Performance tab. If the numbers are high even if you don't run anything like a video game, you should upgrade your memory. You should upgrade it if your computer hangs often and you can't run multiple programs at once. Vista operating system requires more RAM than XP, all the latest games and 3D modeling programs use a lot of RAM. Otherwise there is no good reason to buy expensive RAM. A lot of the time, just saying I have 4 GB of RAM is very cool, you probably barely feel the difference when you use your upgraded PC.

If you decide that you still want to upgrade your memory, be sure to read the manual of your computer and see exactly what RAM chips your computer uses and what are the upgrade options, and limit. Be sure to have the correct info of your chips before you go out buying new ones, if you can and feel confident enough, open your box and write down everything that is written on those chips, don't take them out unless you are absolutely sure you can do it, read, watch some guides before attempting to remove your RAM chips. RAM is vital to your computer, just taking it out an placing back in may stop your computer from working. It is always better to get a professional engineer to do it for you, even if it costs a little more.

We hope this post helped you to understand RAM better and now you are ready to upgrade it if you ever need to. We hope you enjoyed reading this post, come back soon for more great info and tips!