Re: Do I Need to Upgrade my Memory?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DemonDragonJ
I use my computer for a number of tasks: word processing, internet browsing, music and movies (to the point that I use it for those tasks more than I use a television set or radio receiver for them), and occasional gaming, although I do not have any new games; the most recent games that I have played are Diablo II and Warcraft III, which are now both more than a decade old. All my other games are emulated, mostly for DOS, NES, and Game Boy, and therefore do not require extremely powerful hardware.
I am not certain about converting my memory into a RAM drive, mostly because I am unfamiliar with the procedure for doing so, and I also do not need such a drive at this moment. I suppose that the best option for me currently is to simply keep my computer as it is now, and upgrade when I am able to afford doing so. I shall definitely upgrade to faster memory (1,866 megahertz at minimum), and likely upgrade from 4 to 8 gigabytes as an incidental upgrade, in the case that I wish to convert some of that memory into a RAM drive.
I doubt you are utilizing even 2GB of RAM. You could safely experiment with a 1GB RAM drive now (leaving 3GB for the system). Here is a program that will let you create one up to 4GB for free. I've used it for a few years and it works great. I'm sure you'll be surprised at how easy it is. Make sure to run crystal disk or something on your HDD and then compare it to the RAM drive!
Here's my netbook's HDD and RAM drive:
Quite an improvement, but still not as fast as a good SSD.
Re: Do I Need to Upgrade my Memory?
More memory is always good but the truth of the matter is, with the uses you listed, you'll probably see very little improvement going from 4 to 8 GB. I personally have 16GB in my main pc, and my last machine had 8 and I can't honestly say I've ever needed it - I just put it in as when I upgraded, I was going from DDR2 to DDR3 and the RAM was scary cheap at the time.
If you can add extra memory while memory prices are so low, it might be a good idea for futureproofing but if you have to take out the existing memory and buy all new then it's probably not worth spending the money. If you have spare memory slots, then maybe, if not, then probably not....