How much memory should I get? 

Info on buying a computer

Computer technology changes almost daily. To keep up with the technology is a full time job. To advice someone on what type of computer to get, is an impossible task. Everyone's needs are different. Everyone's preferences is different. Therefore, these pages are for your information to make an educated decision. There is so much information that it may confuse you more than help you. However it is important to review all the information. Also as technology changes, some of the information provided here may not apply.

For more information that I don't have included here, see the following

Hardware questions       Information on computer parts.

 

Computer companies offer different size memory configurations as well as how many sticks of memory that is in the system. It is cheaper to purchase four 128 meg chips to make 512 than it is to sell one 512 meg chip. However buying four 128 meg chips will fill up all available slots on the motherboard.

This is fine as long as you don't need to upgrade later. To explain this I am going to use a couple of scenarios. For these scenarios, I am going to use the following price for the memory. A 128 meg chip costs $100. A 256 meg chip costs $200. These scenarios are not using RDRam memory. RDRam requires all slots to be used and therefore will cost the same on any scenario you choose. This is for systems that don't require two or more sticks to post. Click here for information on memory. Most or all systems today does not us RDRam so it probably is not an issue now (but that can change as advances in computers change)

Newer operating systems require more memory than older systems. Never take the minimum requirements that Microsoft states the operating system needs. Majority of times the minimum that they say the OS needs will allow it to run but it will be slow as ever. For example, Vista states 512 to 1 gig of memory but you will see the system drag unless you have at least 2 gigs of memory.  Here is more information on the amount of memory to purchase

Scenario one

You have four slots on your motherboard for memory and you have four 128 meg chips for a total of 512 megs of memory.  You decide to upgrade so you will have a total of 640 megs of memory.

Since all slots are full, you will have to remove a stick of memory. Now you have only 3 sticks of memory for a total of 384 megs of memory. To get your memory to 640 megs, you will have to purchase a 256 meg chip. Therefore you have to spend $200 to upgrade to 640 megs.

You also have a stick of 128 that you are now not using.

Scenario Two

You have four slots on your motherboard for memory and you have one 512 meg chip of memory. You decide to upgrade so you will have a total of 640 megs of memory.

To do this, you will have to purchase a 128 meg stick of memory. In this scenario, you will only have to insert a stick of memory. You will not have to remove a stick of memory.

The cost of the upgrade is $100 because you don't have to replace any memory to increase the amount of memory that you have.

Installing memory is easy and can be done without much effort. It can be cheaper to get more memory up front than to add later. However it can also cost the same later down the road too.  Here is instructions on installing memory.

For more information on memory, click here.