General questions about upgrading memory

What is memory?

Memory or RAM is a piece of hardware in your computer that holds software applications that you are working on. It serves as temporary working space between your computer’s hard drive and CPU.
Why add memory to my computer?

Adding memory will improve your computer’s performance. Specifically, it will speed up opening new applications, running multiple applications at once, and switching between software applications (multi-tasking).
How does additional memory improve performance?

One task that additional memory speeds up is opening a new software application. Let’s take this as an example. When you open a new application on your computer, your computer’s CPU fetches the application from the hard drive and stores it in RAM memory. It stores it in RAM because RAM is very fast relative to the hard drive. When RAM gets full, and you open a new application then the CPU needs to kick out one of your open applications, put it back on the slow hard drive, fetch the new application from the hard drive, and place the new application in RAM. Basically, it swaps the applications.
This game of swapping wastes time. Ideally, your computer could have an infinite amount of RAM. Then your CPU would fetch an application once from the hard drive, save it into RAM, and never need to kick out another application. There is no such thing as infinite RAM, but you can max out the RAM on your computer by adding the maximum amount of memory to each socket.
How do I max out the memory on my system?

To max out your RAM memory, add the maximum amount of memory to each memory socket. To find out how much RAM each socket can support, divide the system maximum RAM amount by the total number of sockets in your system.

For example, if your system maximum RAM is 2GB, and your system has 2 total sockets then the maximum amount each socket can support is 1GB. If one of the sockets is already filled then you can always remove the existing module and replace it with a higher capacity module.
Will adding memory void my warranty?

No. The 1975 Magnusson-Moss Act prevents OEM manufacturers from disqualifying a warranty when 3rd party memory is used. For more details, please see the Magnuson-Moss Act.
What is memory speed?

Memory speed refers to the amount of time that memory (RAM) takes to put data into its memory or send it out. Your device’s memory will have an upper limit on the speed at which it can operate.
What is a memory kit?

A memory kit is a number of memory modules sold as a unit or a kit. For example, a 1GB memory kit will contain two 512MB modules. This is written as (2x512MB).

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General questions about upgrading memory

What is memory?

Why add memory to my computer?

How does additional memory improve performance?

How do I max out the memory on my system?

Will adding memory void my warranty?

What is memory speed?

What is a memory kit?

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