The Insides of a Computer - What everything means
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RAM or Random Access Memory:
Have you ever experienced a time when you open too many programs and your computer begins to slow down? Some people believe that it is lack of hard drive space when in fact, it was lack of RAM. The term RAM or random access memory comes from the data exchange from a hard drive or CPU through the ram to its destination. Simply, the memory is stored randomly on the chip while a process or program is being run. When you close that program, the memory is cleared off the chip. Clearly, the more RAM you have, the easier it will be to run multiple programs at the same time to a certain extent.
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2 DIMMS of RAM
RAM chips are called DIMMs or dual in-line memory modules. Normally when you purchase RAM, they come either as a single DIMM or in a dual-channel DIMM. A single DIMM is just 1 chip and will sit on one DIMM slot on the motherboard. A dual-channel DIMM however, will sit on 2 parallel DIMM slots. These slots are parallel as they work together to move data faster between the 2 DIMMs. These slots are often colored the same on a motherboard so you know where to install them.
There is one caveat to RAM and the amount you have on your system. It has been found that on a 32-bit operating system (OS, a program that acts as a visual interface so you can run other programs and ties the hardware together) (Windows XP or Vista), the OS will only recognize 3.5 gigabytes (GB) of memory whereas a 64-bit OS will recognize up to 128GB of RAM. This is because of the architecture of the CPU as well as the in some cases, the wiring of the motherboard. While this won’t affect a lot of people, it is something to note if you decide to purchase more than 4GB of RAM.
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