RAM Archives - Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Why won’t my new RAM stick fit in my computer?

Posted on January 17, 2023

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from David: I recently bought a refurbished Dell desktop computer that came with 8GB of RAM installed. I want to double that to 16GB.

I ran the “Crucial System Scanner” you mentioned in this post and it said the machine can use up to 64GB of DDR4-2133 RAM.

I found an 8GB DDR4-2133 RAM stick on Ebay for less than half of what Crucial is selling them for so I bought it. I received the new RAM just 3 days after I ordered it but it won’t fit into one of the empty RAM sockets on the computer.

Do you think the problem is an error in the info I got from the System Scanner? [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I find out how much RAM my PC can use?

Posted on August 10, 2022

Question from Gene: Rick, I have a desktop computer I hired a guy to build for me about 3 years ago. It has Windows 10 on it.

It has 4 GB of RAM in it right now and I’d really like to max it out to (hopefully) speed things up a bit.

How can I find out how much memory this computer can use since it doesn’t really have a brand/model to look up? [Read more…]

Q&A: Is it better to add more RAM or install an SSD?

Posted on August 7, 2022

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Thomas: I have a little cash to spend to upgrade my desktop computer and I need your advice on how best to spend it.

Right now it has 16GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive (which is close to being full).

My question is should I use the money to max out the RAM on this machine by adding another 16GB or would I be better off replacing the hard drive with a 1TB SSD? [Read more…]

Speed up your computer by adding more RAM

Posted on July 21, 2022

If you’re thinking about spending a few bucks to upgrade your PC you’re probably wondering what to upgrade in order to get the most bang for the buck.

In most cases, except for adding a solid state drive, adding more RAM will do more to speed up your computer than any other upgrade you can make. [Read more…]

Q&A: Would moving the Page File to a RAM Disk make a PC run faster?

Posted on June 1, 2022

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Ethan: I was reading an article last night that discussed using part of a computer’s unused RAM as a RAM Disk, and it got me to thinking.

I have a pretty old desktop computer that’s running Windows 7. It has 2GB of RAM and a 200GB hard drive.

This machine runs really slow, coming almost to a crawl at times. After doing some research I’ve determined that it’s likely sluggish because it’s doing a ton of swapping back and forth with the page file.

Do you think moving the Windows Page File to a RAM Disk would help speed it up? [Read more…]