How to Add More Memory to a Computer? Introduction to Ram

How to Add More Memory to a Computer? Introduction to Ram
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Adding Memory

As mentioned earlier in one of the previous articles in this series, adding memory to a computer is one of the surest ways to increase your computer’s speed and performance. However, it’s always recommended that you don’t overdo it (basically you would be putting cash on the table while you don’t really have to).

Increasing your computer’s memory, however, is worth the time and money spent on doing it. A computer that has adequate amount of memory is quick, agile and responds to your commands pretty quickly and never lets you down. In times like these where we expect everything “yesterday”, adding more memory seems to be a standard thing to do.

How to Find Out the Amount Memory you Have

The first step to increasing memory is to first find out how much memory your computer presently works with. To do this, all you have to do is follow the steps below:

  1. Go to the “My computer” icon on your desktop (if you are using Windows) and right click on it.
  2. From the pop-up menu that appears, choose the one that says “properties”, found usually to the bottom of that menu. A system information tab would then appear as shown below.
  3. If you click on the “general” tab, you would see some standard information about your computer there and towards the bottom of the information; you’d see the clock speed and the memory nestled together.

How Much Do You Need?

Now that you know how much you have, it is easy enough to determine how much more you would need. Remember that the amount of memory you need is really dependent on the kind of applications you’d run. If you are into gaming and/or graphics design, you’re going to need a lot.

Here’s a nifty shopping list you can consider to make your RAM shopping easier:

  1. What is the amount of memory/RAM you have: __ M
  1. Determine the applications you are likely to use and figure out the memory/RAM you require: __ MB

  2. Amount of Memory/RAM on each module: __ and __

  3. Maximum RAM your computer can handle: __ MB

  4. Memory/RAM you will buy ( You do have a budget for this, don’t you?): __ MB

  5. RAM speed for your computer: __

  1. Should you pick up SDRAM or DDR SDRAM?

This post is part of the series: RAM - Random Access Memory.

RAM is so important for a computer that it deserves a series of its own. This mini series is all about RAM – what it is, how it works, how it fits into the overall scheme of things and the various types of RAM. It will also cover the upgrade information that you might find useful

  1. Random Access Memory - How Computer Memory Works?
  2. Random Access Memory - How Much Memory Do You Need?
  3. Random Access Memory - How to Add More Memory
  4. Random Access Memory - Types of Memory