RAM vs. PC preformance..and speed?

I agree that applications now require a lot more RAM and you will definitely notice a difference with more. If you install it yourself, be ABSOLUTELY sure you've bought the right part. We've done it successfully before, but the last time we tried it we toasted the first application that we opened. ("Toasted" is a very technical term. Don't ask me to explain it - just avoid it! LOL) From now on, even though my husband is very hardware savvy, I will take it to a pro if I need more RAM. I don't want to risk that happening again.

In your case you do have small amount of ram and would be a good idea to upgrade it. For example an anti virus can use 50MB of ram or more. Would suggest ccleaner for cleaning your pc a bit but you said you have done it before. Upgrading ram is very simple. Open the case, shut down the power and find the ram slots. Pull the currant ram out ( you push down two leavers on both sides of ram). Than write down every detail of your ram because a short number of letters can mean the difference between a laptop or desktop ram. Even better is to take the ram to pc shop and ask for compatible one. Than you just put both rams in slots (power is off while doing this) and pc should now have double ram. Hope i helped but it doesn't mean your pc will be as new. There can be a number of things to adress in old pcs like the cpu fan needs cleaning or replacing (temperatures can be measured by a program called speedfan)or graphic card might not be working properly or hard drive is damaged and so on. Hope i gave you some ideas. Good luck, it's not hard i learned gradually over years.

coffeebreak, Firstly, if your computer is installed with the Windows XP operating system, then I have to say that 384MB RAM is way below the minimum RAM requirement for your computer to operate without a hitch. You may want to check if your computer's motherboard could accommodate as much as 1GB of RAM before you to upgrade this hardware. Especially, when you need to consider other hardware like hard disk and faster network card. Lastly, I am assuming that your system is already using old and probably stopped production parts. As such, you may probably end up buying secondhand RAMS that are being stripped and resold into the market. So, I don't think I need to elaborate further about the quality assurance of such parts. Also, Microsoft would conclude tech support for their Windows XP operating system in 2 years time, making it obsolete. With this consideration, you may want to consider saving up for a new computer with the latest operating system which FYI will require at least 1GB of RAM to operate optimally.

From what you have mentioned in your post I would say that yes, your RAM is very low in terms of current memory available today. What operating system are you running? XP? Vista? Windows 7? Each Operating system has minimum memory requirements. A memory upgrade is probably available to you but the first thing I would do is visit the following website: http://www.crucial.com This website is a good memory website and it's where I purchase my own memory. They have this free scanning tool which scans your system and tells you how much memory you have in your system. The scan also tells you the maximum amount of memory you can install in your system and also the type of memory that you have. It's important that when going for a memory upgrade you match the memory type that is already in your computer otherwise there will be incompatibility issues. To upgrade your memory is very easy but you do have to know what you are doing and you must not touch anything inside your computer without grounding yourself. This relates to ESD or Electro Static Discharge which is very bad for your system, it can actually destroy computer components and chips on your motherboard. So, you would use an antistatic wrist strap. If you don't have this then you can ground yourself by touch a metal part of your computer chassis and then you can go on to install new memory. I would also check youtube out and look at some of the memory upgrade videos there, some of them are very good in terms of quality instruction. I think a goldern rule with any computer is to install as much memory as your computer can handle, that's to say the maximum amount of memory. Anyway, good luck. Andrew

i quite agree with the above suggestions. make your RAM at least 1 gb and try to install a software such as Tuneup Utilities to maximize your operating system as it cleans the registry, recommends or suggests things to increase performance. to be sure just take out the memory card from the CPU and bring it to the computer shop to get the exact specs, so there would be no problem regarding compatibility with the motherboard. search videos at youtube.com for installing memory cards, it's easy. good luck and happy myLotting.

384 MB?Oh its very small.Get at least 1GB RAM if your motherboard supports it or otherwise if your motherboard is older then you could buy RAM up to 512 MB.If you ask me what brand you should go for,my answer would be get RAM of that brand which provides you better service in your area.I'm using Transcend's here. And how to fix it? Well its not harder as it looks.Just open your cabinet,take out your old RAM and fix the new one in it but carefully.If you have an extra slot then theres no need to take out the old RAM,you can fix the new one into the other slot it means you can have both in it.Good luck!