Can RAM Effect the computer's Speed?

Question

Hi i have 318MB Ram in my computer and i have a windows XP Professional. if i get 2.0GB Ram on my computer, wwill the computer go faster?
i also have 74GB harddrive?

Answer 1

To explain how it works, your hard drive contains all the processes and memory the computer has. Its like a big filing cabinet. The RAM is like having the immediate stuff you need on your desk in front of you,its accessed quicker because its there. Therefore the more Ram you have, the faster your computer will be because its able to access more of what you need faster. There are several things that will speed up your computer, ie: a faster processor and more Ram,,Buying more Ram is the cheapest way to significantly speed it up. However you need to make sure that your system will handle 2gb of Ram. Some older systems top out at 1gb of Ram that it handles effectively without upgrading the processor and other things. So you could be spending more money than is needed. I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Adding more RAM is the most effective and cheapest way to speed up your PC. At 318MB RAM, XP can barely get out of it's own way. I have found that an XP PC needs at least 768MB RAM to run efficiently. 1GB is good for most users. Power users should have 2GB.

As for your hard drive, it's size is not as important as the free space available. 74GB is plenty, as long as you burn your downloads of to CD/DVD regularly so that the percentage of the drive used doesn't exceed 2/3's. If your free space shows less than 1/3, it's time to start getting rid of stuff.

De Frag, Full Virus Scan and check for Spy Ware once a week.

You should be in good shape.

Answer 3

Without any doubt. 318mb of ram is barely enough to run XP especially with all the new ram eating updates as well as Service pack 2. With Service Pack 3 around the corner its a mus that you at least go to 512 but going over a GB will be a god send. Hopefully you have a decent video card. If you have a shared Ram video card your speed will even be greater since a lot of your 318md of ram is being transfereed to your graphics card. The question is to make sure that your computer is upgradable to 2.0 GB.

Answer 4

Other than the processor, RAM has the biggest effect on a computer's speed. To run XP efficiently, along with all the other programs that we have on our computers these days, you need a minimum of 512Mb of RAM, since some of that is reserved for graphics, video and audio. First check to be sure your processor and motherboard will handle 2.0Gb of RAM. Unless it is very new, it most likely won't handle that much.

Answer 5

If you put more ram in (if your computer will even handle 2gig) you might notice a speed increase, depending on how much garbage is running on your machine.

I would start by pressing ctrl+alt+del and go into processes - make a list and search for each to see how to (and if you can) remove each item or leave the ones that are necessary for windows to run. Back up all of your stuff before you start messing with it. Look for instructions on cleaning stuff out of your registry, and finally run defrag on your hard drive.

See how the machine runs then - and add some ram if it still isn't fast enough for you. It may be your processor (you didn't specify one). If it is an older one you may want to ditch the winXP pro, and go for win2k, win98, or some version of linux.

Answer 6

MUCH FASTER.

Also the size of the Harddrive doesn't matter.. just the speed.

Think about it this way your working and you have everything your working on laid out on a table (your ram) but.. your table only has limited space so some of your stuff gets stuffed in boxes under the table (your harddrive) it's much faster to find something you need by looking on the table rather than having to go through all those boxes.. Expecially if those boxes (your harddrive) hasn't been defragmented.

Answer 7

Absolutely. RAM is probably the biggest factor in the speed of a PC. You should see a nice difference upgrading to 2GB...but make sure and do some research first to make sure your system can take that much. No point buying it if Windows can't see it.

A 74GB hard drive is not very big when compared to today's standards. (It is probably 80GB drive) but as long as you aren't clse to being full, that should be fine for awhile.

Answer 8

Greater the RAM u have, the more faster ur computer goes as it gets more memory to work on......But it would be better if u dont rely only on RAM, as it aint the greatest contributer for ur computer's speed....Updated drivers of video cards and sound cards, latest patches and tools like XP Tools Pro, Tweak UI, Microsoft Bootvis....etc. also help in increasing ur PC speed......Also a unfragmented hardrive can result in almost 20-25% of speed boost.....So if u install 2.0GB RAM....remember....it is not alone in contributing to ur PC speed.......

Answer 9

Yes - there will be a HUGE improvement moving from 318mb to 2gb RAM.

RAM is what the computer uses to actually load and run programs. The more RAM you have, the less time the computer spends loading and unloading code into memory to run applications.

Answer 10

You don't need a larger hard drive, that is a monster from my viewpoint, but you definately need more memory. I had 128M in my machine and bought 512M and moved the 128M over so now I have 640M (with XP Home) and the change was astounding. Even things that were, I thought, unrelated to large program size, like downloading e-mail, speeded up immediately, apparently because it was swapping to virtual memory on the drive or storing each one to save memory.