Questions about Ram (Basic questions I think).

[milk]

Hi, I have some questions about RAM.

1. I bought a computer and I asked for 256megs of RAM. I know there are different kinds of RAM, but since I bought the computer I have forgotten what kind I have. Is there a screen in control panel that will tell me?

2. I bought 256megs of RAM, but when I look in my Control Panel it only says 128megs of RAM. I think I have two sticks of 128megs of RAM though, so would it say "128" or "256" when I look?

3. The person at the computer store told me that RAM will run at the speed of your slowest stick. So if I bought a stick of 256ram, but still kept my other two sticks of 128ram would that be a dumb move? Would my ram speed still be 128ram? Can someone explain how this works, doesnt make much sense to me.

4. This is kind of unrelated but I was wondering if someone can explain proccessor speed and RAM to me. It seems your computer will run games faster with more ram as opposed to having more megahertzes (I have no idea if that is a word).

If it matters, I am mainly interested in the gaming aspects of a computer. My computer right now is a:

750mgz Athelon (spelling)
256 ram (not sure what kind)
32meg Riva video card
30 gig hard drive
speakers from zellers http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[AwARe]

Milk if you have 256MB of Ram then it should say 256MB

Right click my computer, go to properties, at the bottom it shopuld tell you the total amount of Ram you have........

Hopefully you have not been ripped off! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif

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What I meant by what I said is hopefully less confusing then the contemplation of the question that led to the confusion in the 1st place.......

[milk]

I just looked at my receipt and it says two sticks of 128meg RAM. So it defienetly should say 256RAM? I looked in my system properties and it only says 128megs RAM.

[mjc]

Just how new is this machine?

I would have the store you purchased it from fix it under warranty, if possible, because one of the sticks of RAM is not working properly.

RAM speed and size are not the same thing. 128MB is the size of the stick, it means it is capable of storing 128 megabytes of data, or about the same as 89 floppy disks. Of course this storage only occurs while the computer is powered on, when powered dowan the contents of RAM are lost (also when rebooted). The speed is what bus speed is the maximum the RAM will properly function at, ie PC66, PC100...so if you have 1 stick of PC133 and one stick of PC100 the RAM will run at the maximum speed of the slowest stick, in this case PC100.

The processor speed is the frequency at which the processor operates. One of the reasons games will run faster with more RAM is they use alot of graphics, which are memory intensive, and the more that can be stored in active memory rather than on the hard drive, the faster that they can be accessed, and therefore the faster the game will run...up to a point, no matter how much RAM you add to a 300MHz processor are you going to get the same performance as the same amount of RAM on a 1Ghz processor (if all things where equaol, like bus speed, video card and so on)

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mjc
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