…Absolutely, everything, sing it again!
In the few years that I have been in the I.T. business, doing tech support and just talking to friends I hear a reoccurring question: “why is my computer running so slow”. In some cases there are problems with spyware infections, sometimes a virus has sabotaged the system but most of the time there is an overall lack of a fun little piece(s) of hardware called RAM. RAM otherwise known as Random Access Memory is used to provide a quick place for currently active programs to store their run-time necessary data. The reason it’s called RANDOM access is because it can be accessed at anytime by the system no matter where the data has been stored on it (wikipedia). So why does RAM aide in speeding up my system? Well the answer is simple, but first you must understand the background of why this question inevitably gets asked so often.
There are millions of people who buy a new computer from a company such as Dell, Gateway or IBM and just purchase the bare minimum, usually what the manufacturer recommends just to keep the system happy and to keep your wallet a little thicker. This pre-built configuration will be fine for the average computer user for usually the first six months to a year, but than things start to get a little rough. Users start to notice their system slowing down. It no longer boots up in under thirty seconds and they want answers as to why. The reason is because after such an extended period of time most users have installed a decent amount of software, some of which will be running in the background as soon as the system starts up. In other cases, as other members of the family start to use the computer and/or create their own accounts on the system, they will forget or fail to realize that speeding up the computer is as simple as logging off your account when you’re done. These two reasons alone cause a great deal of speed reduction in a system because there are so many background processes running that your RAM gets eaten up quicker than you can even say RAM. I have talked about this in prior posts, specifically this one but I feel the need to further stress the necessity of having enough RAM. But how much is enough?
Most cheaper consumer systems today ship with 1GB of DDR-SDRAM. In my opinion this would be enough RAM for the average user IF they are using Windows XP, however these newer systems are all likely being shipped with the new Windows Vista. For Vista, 1GB of RAM is again the recommended minimum. For a Vista based system, you would probably be better off going with something like 1.5GB or even 2GB if you can afford it. You will be happier in the end and your system will remain stable and speedier for a greater period of time. Now, back to Windows XP. I know a lot of people who use Windows XP with between 256MB and 512MB of RAM. This is the minimum that you should attempt. For the average user with no more than a couple user accounts on the system, you can get away with only having 512MB or RAM, however you will notice slow downs if you start getting too many applications being used at one time.
Additional RAM will also speed up your system because it will allow you to have more applications running at once, or it will be able to handle a smaller number of running applications, faster. Memory intensive applications such as photo editing software, video editing software and PC games will also benefit. If you would like to check to see generally how much RAM you’re using right now, press CTRL + ALT + DEL, click on the Performance tab in Task Manager and look under the section labeled “Physical Memory”. You will see a “Total”, “Available” and “System Cache” label. If your available physical memory is consistantly more than 75% of your total, than you are probably experiencing some slow downs from time to time and may want to look into purchasing more RAM.
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