ONLY THE OVAL
BUTTONS LINK
Memory
and Your Computer
by Peter
E. Huemer 9/1/98
C.E.O. of User-Friendly
Computing
THIS PAGE: How it works. NEXT PAGE: Recommendations.
| One of the most common questions about computing is whether to upgrade components and, if so, which ones. There are plenty of ways in which you can use hardware to boost your PC's performance: Upgrade to a faster CPU or disk, swap out your old graphics card for a faster one. These solutions generally cost at least $100, and most cost more. If your system is truly, completely outdated, we recommend that you replace it entirely. On the other hand, if it's only a year or so old and doesn't have quite enough zip, one of the best the best ways to improve your performance is to add more memory. It's an easy thing to do and it's about the cheapest way you can soup up the performance of your PC. Insufficient memory often goes by unnoticed - the computer will still continue to function, it will just do so at a snail's pace, halving your productivity and raising your blood pressure. You've probably worked on a machine that was memory deficient without even knowing it - you click on an application, see the hourglass, and listen to the hard drive whir and grind sounds for what seems like an eternity. Sound familiar? Other deficiency symptoms may include being unable to open one program application without closing another, or chronically having to restart your computer to get the screen to unfreeze. This usually results in data loss, since the information temporarily stored in memory not yet have been written to the hard drive. Some of these irritations may be temporarily addressed simply by simply cleaning up your desktop and eliminating unnecessary applications from startup. Giving your computer fewer distractions when it is trying to pull up an application will reduce the risk of memory overload. However, upgrading your system's memory is virtually just as simple, and will result in a dramatic increase in computer performance overall. By giving your computer the extra memory that it's hungry for, you will realize an immediate boost in productivity in multi-tasking and memory-intensive environments. According to PC Computing, doubling the memory in a typical system boosts overall managerial productivity by 38 percent and administrative productivity by 16 percent. It pays for itself in just over a day for managers and in about five days for administrative workers. Best of all, memory prices are at an all-time low and falling. In the realm of computer service, memory is one of the most cost-effective areas to upgrade. What is memory? People in the computer industry usually use the term memory to refer to Random Access Memory, or RAM. Memory is one of the more misleading monikers in the computer world. Users often confuse the terms memory and storage, especially when describing the amount they have of each. Both are measured in units of megabytes. However, the term memory refers to the amount of RAM installed in the computer, whereas the term storage refers to the available amount of hard disk capacity. To clarify this common misunderstanding, it may be helpful to compare your computer to an office that contains a desktop and a set of file cabinets. The file cabinets represent the computer's hard disk, which provides high-capacity, long-term storage. The desktop represents memory, which offers quick and easy access to the files you're working on at the moment. An important difference between memory and storage is that the information stored on a hard disk remains intact even when the computer is turned off. However, any data held in memory is cleared when the computer is turned off. (It's like saying that any files left on the desktop at closing time will be thrown away.) It's therefore important to save frequently while working on a computer. The computer memory holds any changes you make to a document until you save the changes to a disk. If anything interrupts the computer's operation -- such as a power outage or system error -- any changes made, but not saved, are lost . How does it work? RAM is really read write memory, which the processor can use as a scratch pad and modify rapidly. It's used for data that come and go. A computer uses random access memory to hold temporary instructions and data needed to complete tasks. This enables the computer's Central Processing Unit, or CPU, to access instructions and data stored in memory very quickly. An example of this is when the CPU loads an application program -- such as a word processor or page layout program -- into memory, thereby allowing the application program to run as quickly as possible. In practical terms, this means you can get more work done with less time spent waiting for the computer to perform tasks. When you enter a command from the keyboard or mouse, it calls for data to be copied from a storage device (such as a hard disk drive or CD-ROM drive) into memory, which can provide data to the CPU more quickly than storage devices. This process is analagous to placing various electronic files and documents you're using on the computer into a single file folder or directory. By doing so, you keep them handy and avoid searching in several places every time you need those documents. | RAM is used by your computer to store all data that has to be processed by the CPU. Since the data contained in documents, spreadsheets, graphics, or any type of file must be stored in RAM before the processor can manipulate that data, the amount of available RAM affects how quickly your computer can perform tasks. Therefore, you can never have too much RAM. How much do I really need? These days no matter how much memory your computer has it never seems quite enough. Not long ago, it was unheard of for a personal computer to have more than 1 or 2 megabytes of memory. Today, you need at least 4 megabytes of memory just to boot up a system. And the popular applications in today's law or home office, such as Windows 95 / NT, MS Office 97, Corel's WordPerfect Suite 8, Netscape Communicator, and Internet Explorer are larger and more memory-hungry than ever. Even the old standby CD-ROM-based legal research products, such Mathew Bender and Westlaw, are recommending more memory. Some applications that are now emerging in the law office, such as Dragon Dictate and Amicus Team, may require a minimum of 32MB RAM or more. Perhaps you already know what it's like to work on a system that doesn't have quite enough memory. Things run a little more slowly at times, memory errors can occur more frequently, and sometimes you can't launch an application or a file without first closing or quitting another. On a system with sufficient memory, however, you can easily engage in multiple tasks at once -- such as printing one document while working on another -- and you can keep multiple applications open simultaneously, and error free. Memory used to be a simple matter. A computer came with a set amount of memory, and software designers stayed within those limits. But today, new applications are pushing the limits on memory requirements. Even so, software companies often keep their memory recommendations low in order to make their software applications look lean, which doesn't really help the people who use those programs. The amount of memory required is determined by the requirements of the application programs. The fact is, every user's needs are different. People use their computers in different ways to accomplish different tasks. Some people demand the maximum their system can deliver. Other people need less. So how much memory will you *really* need to run Windows 95? Don't believe anyone who says you can run Windows 95 in 4 MB. On that minimalist machine, you can probably load Windows 95, a copy of 32-bit Notepad, and the Dilbert screen saver. If you want to do anything more - and especially if you even want to think about sharing data with the help of OLE - you'll need the extra 4MB. The Windows '95 operating system therefore needs a bare minimum of 8 MB RAM, and is noticeably better with 16 or 32 MB. Upgrading from 16 MB to 32MB on a Pentium will result in a very noticeable improvement in performance with virtually any operating system. Ultimately, you can figure out how much memory you really need. Independent laboratory tests have proven that most operating systems and applications are tuned to specific memory requirements. That means there's an optimum amount of memory for the way you use your computer. By factoring in a few key items, you can easily and accurately determine your specific memory requirements. When figuring your memory requirements, consider three things - the optimum memory configuration of your operating system, your usage patterns and your hardware. To eliminate the guesswork in determining a specific amount of memory for your operating system, baselines have been identified for each of the major operating systems and dozens of the most popular business applications. Upgrading to the baseline for your particular operating system is the best place to start. However, if you are using multiple applications in networked or Internet environments, consider upgrading beyond the baseline recommendation. Different people use different combinations of applications, and while some people use a given application to its fullest potential, others might only use a few functions. It all depends on what kinds of tasks you're trying to accomplish - like administrative, number crunching or design tasks for example. But there is an easy rule of thumb: look at the size of the files you most commonly use and allow for 3 to 5 times that size in RAM. If your files are typically about 4 megabytes, you should have and additional 12 to 20 megabytes of memory. Understanding typical usage patterns is the first step to determining memory requirements for all types of workers. Typically, administrators and service professionals rely on a core group of applications like word processing, fax and e-mail communications and simple spreadsheets to get their jobs done. Executives and analysts use a greater variety of applications and typically keep more than three programs running at one time. Engineers and designers with expertise in page-layout, illustration or 3D modeling require powerful systems with greater memory requirements. The peripherals attached to your system can also be key indicators of additional memory demand. CD-ROM drives, scanners and graphics accelerators are all indicators that memory-intensive applications are at work. NEXT PAGE» |