The quickest way to add performance to your PC.
Jun 06 '00
Though many things influence the performance of your PC only a couple stand out as exceptionally important: Processor Power and Memory. A quick glance at system benchmarks will show you that more RAM (random access memory) will increase the performance of your system. It also happens to be one of the easiest and (thanks to the current market conditions) one of the cheapest upgrades you can make.
The first step is deciding how much RAM you want to add to your system. If the computer is rather new, it likely has at least 32 MB of ram. This is enough to run the majority of software available, but to truly optimize a system 64 or even 128 MB is recommended. Especially if you are running Windows NT/2000, the difference between 64 and 128 MB is quite astonishing. But, like most thing in computers, more is certainly better here.
The second step is deciding what kind of ram to buy. Without getting too heavily into the technical side, the easiest way to discern this is with your system's (or motherboard) manual. All newer computers (since about 1998) come pre-equipped to use DIMM memory, this is both faster and easier to configure than it's SIMM predecessor. More specifically, you'll need to know what the bus speed of your processor is, to find out what RAM is optimized for it. This will likely be 66, 100 or 133 MHZ. But, again, this information will be provided by the manufacturer.
The final step is actually installing the RAM. Make sure that you've cut all power to the system and unplugged it before opening the case. Your PC's documentation should include a more complete layout of the motherboard, where you will find the memory slots. Once you've put the memory in, you're ready to go. Unlike most features on the computer, no software configuration is necessary to complete this step. Windows will automatically configure itself with the new settings.
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