RAM – It’s your computer’s processor’s instantly-accessible working-space. It’s the first place the CPU uses for storing information, notes, formulae, algorithms, data, logs, and anything else that it might want to access in a hurry. If there’s not enough room in the RAM then the processor has to utilise some space on the hard-disk to use in its place.

What’s the big deal with that then? Well to the processor the difference is like popping in to the local store next door – or driving to town, parking up, walking to the supermarket, waiting in a queue at the checkout to pay, walking back to the car, and driving back home again. Disk access takes ages compared to accessing the RAM, and it also causes extra wear and tear on the disk too.

On the evidence of that, then, we can say that the more RAM you have installed in your computer the better… Up to a point: If you’re using a 32-bit operating system then your computer will only see a limited amount of RAM. I know this for a fact. A customer of mine was adamant that he was going to have 4GB RAM fitted to his box that I was building, and that we’d agreed I was going to install 32-bit XP professional on; This despite the fact that I had told him that the operating system wouldn’t see all of the RAM if that much were installed. When completed the computer saw only 3.5 GB of RAM with its 32-bit operating system; and the onboard graphics used 250MB of that, leaving 3.25 GB with 500MB unseen. Click this link for a little more.

I’ll move on to 64-bit operating systems further down.

Both of my computers run 32-bit XP Professional and have 2GB RAM fitted. Only once when I was indexing and viewing a large file of over 2000 pictures; some over 1GB in size, have I ever run out of space in RAM. If you’re using a 32-bit operating system and using your computer for average general computing then 2GB is probably as much as you’ll ever need. With the low price of RAM sticks there days, though, it wouldn’t hurt to fit 3GB RAM if you have enough memory slots on the motherboard.

If you’re using a 64-bit operating system, though, it won’t hurt to stuff as much RAM as you can into your box. Assuming that your motherboard will support it; filling 4 memory slots with 4 x 4GB memory sticks – making a total of 16 GB – is fine. Why waste memory slots? They may as well be used if they can be used.

64-bit operating systems have the capability to address much more RAM. How much? Well it appears that nobody can actually agree on exactly how much: Nobody I know anyway.

I’ve heard one person claim that it can take an infinite amount of RAM – Which is wrong; there is a limit. I’ve heard someone else still claim that it will only see a terabyte of RAM. I personally calculated it at several terabytes. Whichever is correct, it’s fairly academic anyway: I don’t see a motherboard anywhere at the moment that’ll take 250 X 4GB RAM sticks (1TB). Such a board would be rather large: Larger than most people would like anyway, I think it would be safe to assume. The most RAM I’ve ever heard of anyone using in a single box under a 64-bit environment, up to time of writing, is 32GB on a Mac. That is used for doing a shedload of video editing/broadcasting, in addition to running an entire online business. Do you have more than that fitted to your computer? Please say so if you do.

There are a few rules to fitting RAM, other than fitting the right type of RAM, e.g. DDR, DDR2, DDR3, etc. Let’s take a look at some of them: =

Most motherboards these days have dual-channel architecture. This is analogous to the dual-core processor in a way; except for the preference that at least 2 individual sticks of RAM should be used. There should be no problems using only 1, but system performance will be enhanced by using at least 2. It’s a better idea to use an even number of sticks; though I’ve not heard of any major issues in using an odd number of sticks.

As you may or may not know; there are different speeds of RAM: For instance; one of my machines is fitted with DDR2 533MHz RAM, whereas the other one, which I’m writing this on, is fitted with DDR2 667MHz RAM. What’s the difference? The difference is the frequency that they operate at. What difference does the RAM speed make to system performance? A very small and almost unnoticeable difference; but something rather than nothing. If I was using DDR3 RAM in one of them then the difference would be noticeable; and so would the cost, as DDR3 is more expensive than DDR2, added to which I’d need to replace the motherboard to be able to use DDR3, as my memory slots will only accommodate DDR2 sticks.

So what happens if I were to mix up the sticks and fit a 533 and a 667 MHz stick to one of the computers? The answer is that the RAM would run at the speed of the slowest stick; in this case 533MHz. – So yes you can mix the speeds; but the result will be that all the sticks will run at the speed of the slowest stick.

How much RAM can I get away with NOT using?

I’ve run XP Home on a Pentium 1 processor with 32MB PC133 RAM before now; and it worked. – ‘Just that it took half an hour to boot, thrashed the disk like crazy, and ran slower than the UK railways.

I’ve run XP Home on 250MB DDR RAM in a box with an AMD Sempron 32-bit single-core CPU. It was slow, and the hard disk was very busy. I installed a second 250MB DDR stick and everything worked reasonably well; on “tick-over” that is: It wasn’t 100% happy when doing intensive jobs and took its time over some operations.

XP Pro 32-bit works fine with a dual-core processor and 1GB DDR2 RAM. I like to have 2GB installed as there are occasions when the system needs it. I have nVidia turbocharged graphics cards; which borrow up to 186 MB of it if the display needs it too.

Vista loves RAM; and it’ll greedily utilise loads of it just showing the desktop. It’s a well-known resource-hogger; so if you’re running Vista I’d say 2GB minimum for 32 or 64-bit.

Linux – depending on the distro – will run on almost anything. In the case of operating systems like Ubuntu, however, I’d recommend a minimum of 1GB.

Mac OSX – A very versatile *nix – based 64-bit OS. With that one I’d say the more the merrier…And that goes for any 64-bit OS too in all honesty. – It depends what you’re using it for.

That’s about it for this article: I think I’ve RAMmed the message home enough for now. – That’s enough PUNishment. If you have any thoughts, disagreements, views, whatever, then please comment below.