What is Memory? How Much is Enough?
Memory is the part of your computer in which programs run and you write or modify your documents. It is not the same thing as storage (even though both are measured in gigabytes nowadays). Storage is done on your hard drive, a small device in your computer that measures about 3-1/2 inches wide, 6 inches deep, 1 inch tall. The hard drive is where the files and programs are stored once they are written to your computer and waiting for use.
Now that the easy part is answered, let's move on to the harder question: how much is enough. This depends on a number of factors: the version of the operating system installed, the programs you use with your computer, whether you have your video controller built into your motherboard, how many programs you wish to use at the same time, and what programs will be running in the background.
In regard to the operating system question, if you are still running on Windows 98 or Windows ME, you are good with about 256 megabytes of RAM as they were not as memory-hungry as the later versions but more never hurts. Windows 2000 would be best served by 512 megabytes for most users. Windows XP users want a minimum of 1 gigabyte of RAM if they wish it to be as fast and functional as possible. (I'll explain this in more detail in a moment.) Vista users, if you have less than 4GB, you should run out and get more memory now. Vista is a hog when it comes to memory (and for no good reason). This is one of the many reasons that I feel Vista is a bad idea and have yet to recommend it to any of BDC's customers.
Now, let's get back to Windows XP's memory requirements. Many machines, especially Dell computers, came configured with only 256 megabytes when brand new. If you look at the memory usage of such a machine with something like Tune-Up Utlities' Resource Monitor, you will find that at 256 megabytes and nothing loaded in memory (the computer is just sitting at the desktop after just starting up), the computer has only about 20 megabytes of memory free. Considering that even a simple web browser such as Mozilla Firefox uses as much as 70-80 megabytes to look at the Internet, you can see that something has got to give. What gives (until the memory is upgraded) is the speed of the computer. Windows makes up for the memory deficit by moving necessary items in and out of the Windows swap file (which is a special file on the hard drive that is used by Windows as if it is memory). The problem is that hard drive access happens much slower than memory chip access: hard drive activity is measured in milliseconds (thousandths of a second) while memory access is measured in nanoseconds (billionths of a second). Thus, literally, the hard drive is a million times slower.
Okay, now you are convinced that you need more RAM but you think, "Eh, why go up to a full gigabyte? I can get another stick of 256 megabytes, double my memory, and make Windows happy, right?" Wrong! Windows is happier that you put in the additional memory but it starts using it for everything that it couldn't put into memory before. Thus, out of the total of 512 megabytes of RAM that you would have installed, your available memory would be only about 100 megabytes, meaning that you could run one program in memory (say, Firefox) and that's about it. To keep the computer from bogging down, you would have to close Firefox to start up something else.
So, what happens when you take out the 256 megabyte stick and drop in a couple of 512 megabyte sticks to give you a full gigabyte of RAM? Windows still grabs some of it but not quite as much. With 1 gigabyte of RAM, most users have around 400 megabytes available for running various programs. If you intend to use a web browser, email client (such as Mozilla Thunderbird), Quicken (or QuickBooks), RealPlayer, and maybe a few other things all at the same time, then your 1 gigabyte might start to seem puny and you might want to move up to 2 gigabytes by putting in two 1-gigabyte sticks of memory (if your motherboard can support sticks that big; to make that determination, let us know your brand and model of computer and we will tell you).
Okay, so we've discussed the operating system and the number of applications that one might wish to run. What does the video controller have to do with anything? I'm glad you asked! With desktop computers, there are two possible ways to get video to the screen: a video controller built into the motherboard and a video card plugged into one of the expansion slots. (If you have a laptop computer, there is no choice: your video is built into your motherboard.) To determine whether your video is built into the motherboard or not, take a look at the back of your computer and see whether the video cable from the monitor is plugged into a port that is grouped along with others fairly close to the power supply or whether it is perpendicular to the others and further down from the power supply than the other ports. If it is with the others, then it is built into the motherboard. Otherwise, it is an option card.
Now why does this matter? Because a video controller built into the motherboard has no memory of its own to use for displaying images. Thus, it has to "steal" it from the system memory. Most computers with such motherboards are set up to give 64 megabytes of RAM to the video controller. Therefore, if you have upgraded to 512 megabytes, you are actually running with only 448 and your available memory is probably closer to only about 30-40 megabytes after that upgrade. This is yet another good reason to move up to a full gigabyte of RAM.
What about the specific programs that you might wish to run? Some are more demanding of memory space than others. For example, when I burn DVDs from home movies stored on the computer, it is not uncommon to see the burning software use 300 to 400 megabytes of RAM. If it weren't for the fact that I have my computer configured with 2 gigabytes of memory, I would definitely be hitting the computer's limit when doing something as simple as making a DVD. On the other hand, if you are a professional photographer and use Photoshop to edit your top quality pictures or are an architect and use AutoCAD for your drawings, you may want to move up to 64-bit Windows XP and put in 4 gigabytes or more as those applications can easily grab it all.
So, as you can see, when looking at memory upgrades, there are many various factors to keep in mind. The best advice is to get in touch with us at Best Deal Computers so that we can make sure to steer you in the right direction.