What is it?

Many people confuse memory and storage in a computer. Random Access Memory, also called RAM or just memory, serves as your computer's short-term memory. It is where the system stores programs and data in active use, as well as some parts of the OS.

 

 

What specs should you look out for?

• Capacity: RAM cards can range from 1gb all the way up to 64gb. 4 and 8gb cards tend to be the most common choices. Cards are often sold either individually or as an identical pair.
• Form Factor: The size of each card. Memory cards come in either DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Module) or SO-DIMM (Small Outline DIMM). The type you get depends on which slot type your motherboard has, as these are not interchangeable.
• DDR: The amount of times a card can perform two operations per clock cycle. The most common type in use is DDR4. Again, the type you get will depend on which type your motherboard supports.
• Bandwidth: The speed at which a card can transfer data, measured in Megatransfers per second (Mt/s). This can be overclocked if the motherboard supports it. A combination of cards with different bandwidths will always run at the speed of the slowest module.
• Latency: how long it takes a card to react to a request. It is important to note with this that cards may have higher latencies than previous generations but still run faster than them.
• ECC: A special type of RAM used for fixing errors and corrupted data. These are usually reserved for servers and should be avoided in a PC.