RAM, or Random Access Memory, is the storage location where your computer temporarily stores information that it uses frequently. Data in RAM is required by your computer to run applications seamlessly.
When your RAM is full, your computer uses the hard disk drive to store instead. This is called swapping. Your computer cannot access data in your hard drive as fast as it can access data in your RAM, however. Thus, swapping can significantly slow down your computer.
Because RAM is very affordable and its benefits are immediately felt, it is always a good idea to get more RAM for your computer. If you are doing a PC upgrade solely to increase the speed of your computer, the amount of RAM that you have should be among the first things you need to consider.
RAM is measured in megabytes (MB) and gigabytes (GB). One gigabyte is equal to 1024 megabytes. You can increase your RAM by installing more memory modules, or replacing your current modules with high-capacity ones. If you run the intensive operating system, Windows Vista, it is advisable to have 2GB of RAM.
The amount of RAM that you can have is limited by your motherboard. The latest motherboards can allow you to use four RAM modules at the same time, but the older ones will only accommodate two RAM modules.
Apart from determining the number of RAM modules that your system can use, it is important for you to check out the type of RAM that your motherboard accepts. Many proprietary motherboards are built to accept certain types of RAM modules only. If your RAM modules and motherboard are incompatible, your computer will not be able to boot. To play things safe, bring your old memory card along and tell the PC store attendant that you want something like it, but at a higher capacity.
Jeffrey_Frasco
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