Lack of memory can be a real issue, especially with today’s high performance machines and Operating Systems (OS). If you’re using Windows (and let’s face it, most of us are) then you need to ensure you have the appropriate amount of RAM for your system. Microsoft list “minimum requirements” with each OS – but they are in the business of selling software. That’s why their “minimum requirements” are always at the lower end of the scale. There are numerous sites around that will advise you need “x” amount for XP and “y” amount for Vista. As a general rule, Vista and Windows 7 work well with 2GB and XP with 1GB. You can use more, of course, but as a minimum these figures are accurate. 64-bit systems do not really have memory limits (there are theoretical limits of 16 exabytes (1 Exabyte = 1 billion gigabytes)) but you’ll find that such systems will be able to handle large amounts of memory.

If you don’t have very much RAM, what happens? Well, Windows loads programmes into memory to allow fast access. When it has no more memory left, it will start using your hard disk. This is much slower than using RAM, so your programmes will appear to run more slowly. The part of the hard disk used by Windows is called a swap file. So, a lack of RAM can also eat into your hard disk space as well.

RAM is not terribly expensive at the moment, so it makes sense to upgrade. You can find out what type of RAM you need by downloading PCWizard – a system analyser (it’s free!) or going to one of the manufacturer’s sites such as Crucial and using their memory advisor tool. Once you know the type of RAM you need, there are plenty of online stores to choose from.