Here is a big 'o pile of RAM
Here is a big 'o pile of RAM
Oh RAM, your overall importance has lessened so much in recent years. Whilst some may disagree, there really is becoming such an abundance of the stuff in most systems now that you can nearly always depend on their being enough RAM for you to manage, however, there are some crafty tactics at work that stop you taking full advantage of RAM, and some other little things to look out for.
Number one is to check the operating system that comes bundled with the laptop as it often is the 32bit version (e.g. Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit). There are 32bit and 64bit editions of pretty much most versions of Windows since Windows XP, and whilst I’m going to explain the basics of ‘why’ in the Operating System section of the guide, but you won’t be able to take advantage of 4Gigabytes of RAM and above if you use the 32bit systems.
Number two is more of a specific thing, but I’ve found can actually indicate a few things; is the laptop using the maximum number of RAM slots on the machine. First of all, if it’s full, if you want to upgrade it you will need take some of the already installed RAM out and would have to buy more expensive, higher capacity RAM. Secondly, because RAM is easy to install, some re-sellers of laptops will pile the machine full of cheap RAM in order to make it more appealing to the buyer. So, just because you are getting a machine with 6GB of RAM, it may be a machine that was originally released a few years ago and hasn’t been produced for a few years. Hopefully, the specifications of the graphics and CPU components may give it away, but it is not always the case.
Laptop RAM is easily upgradable usually, a slot on the bottom reveals a 'click-in' compartment
The type of RAM can also give away the machine’s actual age, as DDR3 SDRAM is the standard in most laptops, and whilst each have different variations in terms of specs that will make no sense to the majority of us and will make little difference in terms of how the machine runs.
In terms of recommendations, it often comes down to what you are using the machine now. For the majority of applications, apart from a minority of specialist packages, 4GB will give you plenty of room to manoeuvre in terms of Operating System processes and your programs. I’d say that you could get away with 2GB with systems running Windows XP, Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows 7 Home Basic, but for Vista and 7, you may be struggling slightly. If you really want to be safe, a 64bit system with 6GB and upwards would serve you well. My main recommendation though is go for as much as you can afford/find, because more RAM is always a worthy buy.
[image: mwolk.com]
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Josh Dean
Josh came to Game-Engine after running several other “web destinations” into the ground with constant re-designs and feature sets. After founding a website based about games, which again, suffered the fate of a perfectionist, yet poor, designer, Game Engine was created as a way to channel those energies in the direction of a poor, vunerable website. Afer co-founding Game Engine on a historic moment in intergalatic history, Josh turned his attention to web development yet again, muddled through it, and then started to “write” about what is probably his most normal interest, video games. Now Josh has expanded into poorly recorded screen captures and talking into cameras with painstaking conviction, as well as keeping up playing a lot of video games, then claiming that they are either ‘awesome’ or ‘rubbish’.
