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Increasing RAM?
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does increasing your RAM increase the speed of your laptop?
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If you increase it from 256Mb to 512Mb you may notice SOME performance improvements.
But if all you are doing is browsing the web, doing e-mails etc then you will barely notice a change.
Above 512Mb (for a laptop doing "normal" work) you will gain almost nothing.
The problem is that the REAL speed of your laptop is controlled by your CPU (chip). The chip does the actual computer instructions and a faster chip will make the computr go faster, and no amount of extra RAM will make the CPU faster.
Other things that affect your speed is:
* Memory (RAM) - too little will slow the machine down
* BUS speed - the speed the data moves round your computer from component to component
* Hard disk speed / cache - laptops do tend to have slower hard disks than deskop PCs.
* Broadband speed - many people think that buyng a faster computer will make their broadband go faster - it wont.
But if all you are doing is browsing the web, doing e-mails etc then you will barely notice a change.
Above 512Mb (for a laptop doing "normal" work) you will gain almost nothing.
The problem is that the REAL speed of your laptop is controlled by your CPU (chip). The chip does the actual computer instructions and a faster chip will make the computr go faster, and no amount of extra RAM will make the CPU faster.
Other things that affect your speed is:
* Memory (RAM) - too little will slow the machine down
* BUS speed - the speed the data moves round your computer from component to component
* Hard disk speed / cache - laptops do tend to have slower hard disks than deskop PCs.
* Broadband speed - many people think that buyng a faster computer will make their broadband go faster - it wont.
dozydave, if you are interested, a brief explanation of why a low amount of memory can slow your PC down.
Your computer has 256Mb of memory. EVERY program that starts on your PC is placed in that memory.
When Windows starts it takes some of that memory, then if you start your browser it takes a bit more and so on.
Now as long as you dont start too many programs then that 256Mb of memory will never fill up.
But suppose you start another program, and your memory fills up. What is Windows to do ?
What it does is copy the contents of part of that REAL memory out to your hard disk in something it calls VIRTUAL memory.
Now moving data from RAM to hard disk is a slow process (in computer terms) so it is already starting to slow your computer down.
Now suppose Windows needs a bit more RAM memory for something else (maybe you have started Windows Media player).
So it swaps MORE of the contents of memory from RAM out to VIRTUAL memory.
But then it find it needs something that is sitting in VIRTUAL memory in REAL memory, so it copies it from hard disk INTO RAM (again a slow process).
So instead of doing proper work, your computer spends a lot of time copying data from RAM to hard disk and back again, and this slows your PC down.
If you up your memory from 256Mb to 512Mb then your real memory is less likely to fill up, and therefore Windows will not have to keep swaping data back and forth from RAM to hard disk.
But of course any RAM you add above 512Mb is probably never going to be used because you rarely fill up your 512Mb so anything above that is never used.
Your computer has 256Mb of memory. EVERY program that starts on your PC is placed in that memory.
When Windows starts it takes some of that memory, then if you start your browser it takes a bit more and so on.
Now as long as you dont start too many programs then that 256Mb of memory will never fill up.
But suppose you start another program, and your memory fills up. What is Windows to do ?
What it does is copy the contents of part of that REAL memory out to your hard disk in something it calls VIRTUAL memory.
Now moving data from RAM to hard disk is a slow process (in computer terms) so it is already starting to slow your computer down.
Now suppose Windows needs a bit more RAM memory for something else (maybe you have started Windows Media player).
So it swaps MORE of the contents of memory from RAM out to VIRTUAL memory.
But then it find it needs something that is sitting in VIRTUAL memory in REAL memory, so it copies it from hard disk INTO RAM (again a slow process).
So instead of doing proper work, your computer spends a lot of time copying data from RAM to hard disk and back again, and this slows your PC down.
If you up your memory from 256Mb to 512Mb then your real memory is less likely to fill up, and therefore Windows will not have to keep swaping data back and forth from RAM to hard disk.
But of course any RAM you add above 512Mb is probably never going to be used because you rarely fill up your 512Mb so anything above that is never used.
well thats was comprehensively answered before I checked back then :)
yes upgrading from 256 will make it faster, my windows laptop has a celeron1.5ghz cpu and when I got it had 256mb ram, I upgraded pretty much straight away and it made a very noticeable difference to the performance
As said above though, not worth going too mad as you'll just end up with a lot of unused ram, I'd suggest putting another 512mb in it
yes upgrading from 256 will make it faster, my windows laptop has a celeron1.5ghz cpu and when I got it had 256mb ram, I upgraded pretty much straight away and it made a very noticeable difference to the performance
As said above though, not worth going too mad as you'll just end up with a lot of unused ram, I'd suggest putting another 512mb in it
Hi dave. I can't believe I'm answering a question in Technology! http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Technology/Comp uters/Question572875.html
I was given some fab advice when I posted this question + my speeds have picked up since I used C Cleaner. x
I was given some fab advice when I posted this question + my speeds have picked up since I used C Cleaner. x
go bath!! ;-) lol
everything everyone has said is sound - your machine just needs to be ... clean ... tidy ... (it's workings) and a reasonable amount of ram .... for a reasonable machine.
if you were in the market as a power user the rules change ... and so do the prices .... even then there are limits.
moore's law says that machines will double in speed every 18 months ... and it's still a reasonable statement.
but a machine that's twice as fast (processor) won't go twice as fast in reality..
40 mS to 20mS is twice as fast ... but could you tell the difference?
everything everyone has said is sound - your machine just needs to be ... clean ... tidy ... (it's workings) and a reasonable amount of ram .... for a reasonable machine.
if you were in the market as a power user the rules change ... and so do the prices .... even then there are limits.
moore's law says that machines will double in speed every 18 months ... and it's still a reasonable statement.
but a machine that's twice as fast (processor) won't go twice as fast in reality..
40 mS to 20mS is twice as fast ... but could you tell the difference?
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