How to Buy Memory
There are no two ways about it: the more memory, the better (at least up to a
point). Adding more memory to a computer will almost always result in better
performance, and will help reduce crashes as well. Windows loads drivers,
applications, and documents into memory until it??™s full; once there??™s no more
memory available, Windows starts pulling large chunks of information out of
memory and storing them on your hard disk to make room for the applications
that need memory more urgently. Because your hard disk is substantially
slower than memory, this ???swapping??? noticeably slows down your
system. The more memory you have, the less frequently Windows will use
your hard disk in this way, and the faster your system will be. (See ???Optimize
Virtual Memory and Cache Settings,??? in Chapter 5, for more information on
this mechanism.)
The nice thing about memory is that it is a cheap and easy way to improve
performance. When Windows 3.x was first released, 32 MB of RAM cost
around a thousand dollars. The same quantity of memory (and a faster variety)
available at the release of Windows Vista costs less than a ticket to the
movies.
The type of memory you should get depends solely on what your motherboard
demands??”refer to the documentation that came with your motherboard or
computer system for details. There are many different brands of memory, and
some are simply known for better reliability and stability.
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