What is RAM (or memory)

A guide to understanding computer RAM (or memory)

Author:  Tina Landers

RAM is short for Random Access Memory (commonly referred to as memory). RAM is defined as "temporary storage", as opposed to your Hard Disk Drive which is a more permanent storage facility. Think of RAM as "working space" in your computer. While your computer is powered on, all of the information files and program files that you are working on remain open in your computer's RAM. The Operating System and the Software Programs open and carry-out all of their instructions in RAM. From there, instructions are broken-down and passed to the relevant parts of your computer for further processing. When you've finished working with a particular program, the program and all associated information files are "saved" back to your Hard Disk Drive. You can read a more detailed article about Hard Disk Drives here (Recommended Reading).

RAM is "volatile" which means that it can only hold information and function while it has electrical power being fed to it. As soon as its power supply is lost, it loses all of the information being held in it - hence the common saying "save your work regularly" - it's simply a safeguard against your computer losing its power and all your hard work that you haven't yet "saved". When you "save" your work, a copy of it is passed to the Hard Disk Drive where it is safe, regardless of any power supply.

RAM is one of those things that, no matter how much you have in your computer, there never seems to be enough of. Too little and you will notice a performance degradation in your computer, too much and it simply seems to be "consumed" by your computer. The reason for this is that, usually, your program and information files that are open are far larger than can fit into RAM. To compensate, your Operating System "reserves" a space on the Hard Disk Drive that it uses as "Virtual Memory". Everything that it needs that cannot be stored in RAM is temporarily placed in Virtual Memory. It then "swaps" information, as needed, between RAM and Virtual Memory to do its work. Hence the slowing-down of your system as information is swapped to and from your (much slower than RAM) Hard Disk Drive. Occasionally you may even get a "Virtual Memory" or "Page Fault" error from your computer, suggesting that even your Virtual Memory allocation is overflowing.

If you persistently get these sorts of error messages, you probably should consider upgrading to a larger capacity of RAM. If you only get the messages on rare occasions, consider "closing" some of the programs and/or information files that you have "open". Bear in mind, the fact that you "minimise" something doesn't mean it's "closed", it simply means that it is removed from view but is still residing in RAM.

As a general rule, more RAM is better than less (within your budgetary constraints, of course). These days, most off-the-shelf computers come with a minimum of 256 MegaBytes of RAM. Personally, I'd prefer the accepted minimum to be 512 MegaBytes. At home, where we do all our general-purpose computing, each of our three networked computers is configured with 1 GigaByte of RAM. You can read a more detailed article about MegaBytes and GigaBytes here (Recommended Reading).

RAM storage is far, far faster, and considerably more expensive, than Hard Disk storage. RAM is purchased in the form of "modules" (sometimes referred to as chips, cards or sticks) with specific capacities. It is one of the components of your computer that is upgradeable should your needs change. RAM modules plug into a board inside your computer and the configuration of the module is (generally) specific to your computer, ie. any RAM module will not fit into any computer, you must get the right type for your computer.

One of the many forms of RAM modules

RAM stores far more iformation than just the programs and files that you are working on. It also stores all of the system-related files and instructions that your computer needs to function properly. On occasion, and more often than not, your RAM also stores files and information that your computer doesn't really need. Sometimes these may be nasties, like Trojans, Spyware and Adware, or they could simply be programs that are opened and left open for "faster access". These programs are placed in a "Startup" folder and are automatically opened when the computer is started. They don't need to be there and they shouldn't be there and should be removed.

What do we use for this? We use System Cleaner 5. It's an "all in one" software product that "cleans", fixes problems and it provides a facility to remove "unwanted" startup programs. We highly recommend this software. You can find out more and/or download a trial version here.

In the meantime, consider using the FREE software utility CCleaner - it has a simple facility whereby you can view and edit the programs which start-up automatically in your computer. It's not as complete as System Cleaner 5, but it is free... and it's a good start. You can read about and get it here. If you'd like to know how to download and install software, you can read a more detailed article here.

You can read a more detailed article about maintaining and cleaning your computer here.