Often, computer owners blame memory shortages as the cause of a computer's recent declining performance. Before you add more or different memory to your computer, ponder these questions to avoid disappointment.
Upgrading memory is the number one upgrade for both desktop and laptop computers. Recent drops in memory prices over the last five years or so have made RAM upgrades not only economical, but one of the biggest bangs for your buck when it comes to upgrading a computer.
There are two ways to upgrade memory in a desktop or notebook computer. One way is to add more of the RAM you already have installed in your computer. The second way to upgrade computer memory is to install a higher class of RAM such as when upgrading from DDR2 to DDR3 memory.
However, many computer owners who upgrade their computer’s RAM are disappointed by the resulting change in their computer’s performance. Unless you have a low amount of memory in your computer, upgrading to more or a higher class of RAM may not give your desktop or laptop computer the boost you were hoping for. Before you shell out your hard-earned money on a memory upgrade, ponder the following three questions to get the most out of your upgrade.
Assuming you are interested in adding more of the same memory you already have in your computer, you must assess whether your computer is capable of using additional RAM. There are two reasons why you may not be able to add more memory to your computer. The first is a hardware issue.
All motherboards ship with a finite number of memory slots. The manufacturer of your computer may have filled all of your motherboard’s memory slots leaving none for upgrades (see picture at left). In this case, you will have to abandon the RAM you have now and replace it with all new memory modules. This may drive your memory upgrade over the amount of money you want to spend.
The second reason why you may not be able to add more memory to your computer is a software limitation. Certain version of the Windows operating system, for example, can recognize only a certain amount of memory.
For example, the 32-bit version of Windows 7 can only recognize a total of 4 Gigabytes of cached memory. This means that your 32-bit Windows-based computer can only recognize about 2.8 to 3.2 Gigabytes of RAM. If you are already over that limit, adding more RAM will do nothing for your computer. 64-bit versions of Windows 7 can recognize up to 192 Gigabytes of RAM so that limitation is largely irrelevant for users of 64-bit version of the operating system.