Somebody Call St. Louis. We Need More Rams!

As we have just discovered, some of our computers need more RAM. The size of RAM (and everything else in the computer world) is measured in bytes. The more bytes you have, the better:

1024 bytes equals a kilobyte (KB)
1024 kilobytes equals a megabyte (MB)
1024 megabytes equals a gigabyte (GB)

RAM comes in any number of sizes. Generally around 96 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1024 MB (or 1 GB).

Now that we know about size, let's discuss RAM. What is RAM? RAM is Random Access Memory. OK, so what does that mean? It is called "random" because the memory can be accessed in any order (unlike a tape or CD which requires the computer to physically move some sort of reading device to locate the desired memory).

To paraphrase lifehacker, if your CPU is the cook, and your refrigerator is the hard drive, then RAM would be the kitchen counters. As the cook (CPU) gets stuff out of the fridge (hard drive) in order to cook, he has to place the stuff on the counter (RAM). If you run out of counter space, then you can't get anything else out of the fridge.

And WorkFlows is a big huge piece of pig that takes up a lot of counter space (and takes a while to get out of the fridge).

And some of our counters are smaller than others. So how do you find out how much RAM you have?

When looking at the desktop, you can right-click on My Computer (a couple staff computers could right-click. Others I tested could not). Then click on Properties. Towards the bottom-right of your window, you will see the amount of RAM (measured in KB). The picture hear shows my computer which has about 256 MB RAM.

So how do you get more RAM?

You can see the instructions from the same lifehacker post I linked to before. You open the computer and slap on a RAM stick. Getting those sticks is the first, crucial next step.

If you have any questions regarding this process, please let me know (email, phone, comments, wiki discussion page, etc.).