Familiarity with Different Memory Types Can Help When Attempting to Speed Up Memory

One way to get a faster computer is to speed up memory. You can improve PC speed by adding memory. It's cheap and fairly easy to install. Random Access Memory (RAM) is considered the most important part of PC memory. Speed up the RAM and you'll wind up with a faster computer.

Speed Up Memory But Know the Different Memory Types First

When applications are activated on a PC, each of them uses some of the system's RAM. Having multiple programs running in the computer simultaneously eats up system memory. Each of these programs requires memory to keep running. With so many programs open, PC functioning slows down, sometimes to the point where it crashes or freezes up.

The good news is you can speed up memory by installing additional RAM. But before moving on to memory installation, it would help to learn about the types of memory available. RAM comes in many different kinds as well as configurations. It runs at a variety of speeds too. Familiarizing yourself with them will be useful. Listed below are the different RAM types:

Dual Inline Packages or DIPs – Older PCs use this type of memory. The DIPs are directly plugged into their own sockets on the PC's motherboard. They come in twos or sets of eight.

Single Inline Memory Modules (SIMMs) – These are plugged into matching, long sockets on the motherboard. They have more capacity than the DIPs. Motherboards typically have several banks of SIMM sockets. SIMMs come in 30- and 72-pin formats. The 30-pins often have less capacity than the 72-pins.

SDRAM, Rambus and DIMMs – Dual Inline Memory Modules resemble SIMMs in appearance, but are available in 168-pin formats. They're generally higher-performance, faster memory than SIMMs and are utilized in Pentium computers. These have capacities ranging from 64MB upwards. Newer memory-types Rambus (or RIMMs) and synchronous DRAM (or SDRAM) run faster and have capacities of 64MB and up.

ECC vs. Non-ECC – DIMMs or SIMMs usually have nine memory chips on them. Eight are used for the system memory itself while the ninth is referred to as the parity chip. It's used for checking errors, ensuring that other chips aren't causing errors. Some PCs require parity chips while others don't. In newer memory-types, it's no longer termed parity or non-parity. Instead, it's error correcting code (ECC) or non-ECC.

Before you attempt to speed up memory, note that memory is available in different speeds. Naturally, the faster the memory, the faster computer systems will operate. You measure memory speed in nanoseconds. Lower nanosecond ratings mean faster computer speed. The easiest way to improve PC speed is to speed up memory – and that can be done by adding more RAM.

See to it that the memory you purchase matches the type of memory that your PC is able to accept. Never go for slow RAMs. Sure you might save a buck or two, but it will likely slow your PC system down.

If the computer you own requires proprietary PC memory, you'll have to obtain special memory for the machine that's usually available from the PC's manufacturers. Lastly, when plugging the RAM modules in, check that they fit snuggly into the sockets or else they will not work – and it will not speed up memory.

Back