In the previous instalment, we had a look at hard drives and how they store data; today we will have a look at RAM and how it affects the PC.
4GB DDR3 1333; this is how you may see the details of a RAM card when you are wanting to upgrade and as you can see there are three distinct parts which we can compare to a bakkie, stick with me for a bit and you will see what I mean…
A bakkie has three areas that we would look at when you want to buy one: the pay load (amount of space in the back), the generation of the bakkie as well as the engine size. So how do these link up with a RAM card, well simple 4GB (gigabytes – see part 2 for a full explanation of this) is the amount of space, how much data the card can store (we will look at this in more detail a bit later). DDR3 has to do with generation; newer is always better so DDR3 will always be better than DDR2 which in turn will always be better than DDR (which stands for double data rate). The 1333 (measured in megahertz, the same as what a CPU is measured in) is like your engine, the higher the number, the faster the RAM card can run and access data, again higher is always better.
So, a little more detail on the 4GB part.
RAM is also known as temporary storage, this name comes from the fact that if the computer is turned off, all data in the RAM is lost. When you start the computer, any information that the computer needs in order to run, or that you need to work on will be placed into RAM. So in reality what will happen is as you turn on the computer, the Operating system is placed into RAM, this takes up about 500-700 MB when using windows, and then any other application such as work or outlook that you open will also be placed into the RAM. As I work on my PC, on top of the PS I have one word document open as well as outlook and Firefox and I am using 1.34GB of RAM. If I close Firefox, the RAM usage drops down to 1.28GB. So we now know that Firefox in reality uses .06 GB or 60 MB.
A few things to keep in mind when you’re looking to upgrade:
- A motherboard has something called the front side bus (FSB) which among others controls the RAM, and this FSB has a certain speed at which it runs. The speed of the RAM card must match this speed.
- All motherboards can manage only a certain amount of RAM, you cannot have more RAM than this maximum amount.
- Operating systems also have a maximum addressable (useable) RAM.
Happy upgrading!!!
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