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 Along with the progression of RAM size, chip technology has changed to the point where it’s become fairly difficult to know what type of RAM your system needs. The irony is that it’s actually more difficult and time-consuming to become familiar with RAM than it is to install it, which should take less than 10 minutes. A RAM Discovery. There are three ways to discover how much RAM is in your PC. Look under the Total column for the amount of RAM your system has. The amount is listed in simms kilobytes (KB); to convert it to megabytes, just eliminate the numbers after the comma. For example, if the amount is 16,192KB, remove the 192. You have 16MB of RAM. Another way to find your memory is to watch your monitor as the computer boots up. The Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), which controls your system’s start-up routines, runs a diagnostic test on the computer’s peripheral hardware. In the process, it tells you how much memory you have. Different Speeds of Memory The faster the memory, the faster a computer operates. Memory comes rated at different speeds, and the faster the memory, the more it costs. Memory speed is measured in nanoseconds, and the lower the nanosecond simms rating, the faster the memory. For example, a 60 nanosecond chip is faster than an 80 nanosecond chip. Be sure simms that the memory you buy is as fast as the memory you''re replacing. Many newer, faster Pentiums come with RAM that can run at 100Mhz-the speed of the system bus. It’s always a good time to add random- access memory (RAM) to your computer. That’s because RAM is easy to install and can improve the performance of even the weakest computer. A couple of years ago, the average computer contained four megabytes simms (MB) of RAM. Now the standard is up to 16MB, with many new computers sporting 24MB or more. And users who play computer games or work with desktop publishing programs might have as much as 128MB of RAM. FEATURES RAM comes in the form of a chip, and to increase memory, simms you simply plug additional chips in to slots on your computer''s main board. simms The capacity of a RAM chip is measured in megabytes, or millions of bytes. Most systems now come with 48MB of RAM and up. You should have at least 32MB of RAM for running Windows, but with the ever-growing demand simms for memory, 64 MB or higher is ideal. BUYING TIPS Before buying additional memory for your computer, consult the hardware manual that came with your computer. simms The manual will tell you what kind of memory is required for your system. It is also important to check the number of RAM slots in your computer, as there is a limited number on the main board for installing memory (anywhere from two to eight). You can only install as many memory modules as you have slots, so plan ahead. If you want to add or upgrade to 128MB of RAM, for instance, get a single 128MB RAM chip, not two 64MB modules. This will save you one RAM slot for future expansion. Would you like to find ddr, simm or dimm memory but aren't sure where to look? Search no further. We have any type of memory for any computer you have. Shop our pages and purchase everything you need online!
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