Computer Hardware - Know about RAM and what to choose...

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When you are adding in hardware and software in your system it uses resources in your computer. Everytime you turn that computer on and you use your everyday programs, applications or maybe play games it allocates in your system memory which is RAM (Random Access Memory). The way it works is that let's say you open an application - it will address it through RAM and stores usage each time you use it. Even through Microsoft Windows, the system files and services that it has will be stored and be used through your memory. With Windows 2000/XP/Vista you can actually check your performance and how much RAM is being used. By going through it is Window's Task Manager - and opening the Task Manager is doing on your keyboard CTRL+ALT+DEL or CTRL+SHIFT+ESC or Click start, click run and type in taskmgr. In the performance tab shows you your total RAM like say you had 1GB of RAM that reads it as 1,038,384 bytes. That's your Physical Memory of your hardware RAM. Let's say your availability is about 462,468 bytes (over 460MB) available - that means over 500MB of RAM is being used - counting your Windows system files, services and other applications you're using. The less programs you have running the more space your RAM has to allocate and store files, but the more you have running will exhaust and slow down your performance which can overload your RAM. It's always good to free up RAM process so that your system doesn't slow down much. Remember say for example you have a system with 256MB or 512MB of RAM and you like to burn DVDs, play PC Games, do graphic editing actually just multi-task a lot - you're going to need more than amount of RAM - if you had at least 1GB of RAM then the better. Now if you want to free some space so that your system starts up smooth then disable certain programs in Microsoft System Configuration Utility (msconfig) - this is where your startup programs are - Remember taskmgr? Yes in that menu they have a tab called "Processes" and in there has your programs running in the background and you'll notice the use of RAM for teach application. It is always best to end a process of a program you're not using - that's files only under your username - not files running through System or Services - lets say your username is Billy Bob then you can choose which programs to end process under that name. Be wise on what RAM to buy - Generic RAM (no brand name) or names that no one has ever heard of will cause problems because for one they are made cheap and can break down easily generating errors. For example if a RAM chip is bad most of the time it won't boot up your system, also you might be experience multiple restarts and blue screens. If a certain part of RAM is damage no application or hardware will not allocate properly in RAM and cause so much issues it would give you a major headache. Buy quality RAM like Kingston or Corsair - these companies are known for quality RAM and even last much longer than Generic RAM. Why? Because I use Kingston actually much more than Corsair - for many years now. The times I have built systems with generic RAM I came across about 90% of the time replacing it due to the fact of major RAM errors. Another thing to use as well for checking if your memory is bad or good is a small program called MemTest - yes it is superb and as a tech I use this all the time when I do computer diagnostics and repairs. Even after I finish building a system I then test MemTest to see if there are errors in the RAM. Another thing that MemTest does is it also detects if the motherboard is bad when it can't function RAM in its board meaning the Bank Slots for RAM is corrupted and damage where the working RAM chips will not be used properly. There is so much to learn in computers and how RAM works. I hope this information can help you in the long run.