The RAM
How long does it take you to open and close programs - two second, ten second or more? In switching between windows a matter of second or seconds? This time depends on the amount of RAM you have in your PC.
The right amount and kind are important - a system with the fastest processor may work slower than it's lesser cousin if it does not have enough RAM.
Random Access Memory is a temporary storage area in your PC that stores all the information about whatever you are currently working on. It's called random access because the information can be read from and written to any place on it. It's temporary or volatile because all that is stored on it is erased when you switch off the computer. SO you must save your work on the hard disk for later use.
Why does
my system need RAM?
Since all our programs and
the data we work with are stored on the hard disk, the processor needs
to fetch them from there before it can do anything with them. It fetches
the information in bits, processor the first one, writes the changes back
to the hard disk, and proceeds with the next bit. So there's a continuous
information flow between the hard disk and the processor. But there's a
problem here. The hard disk and the processor work at different speeds.
The processor work at 100 MHz - 1 GHz speeds whereas the fastest hard drives
work at only 66 Mhz. So while the processor has finished one task, it has
to remains idle before it begins another, because the data is still being
transferred from the hard disk to the processor.
to be continued...