ram

[catchinit]

I realize how basic this question may be, but if ya don't know, ya don't know. Will buying more RAM for my notebook actually make the thing perform tasks quicker. It noticably slow at opening programmes and seems to lackin available RAM all the time.Its 256mb at the min and was thinking of throwing 1gb at it if it helps.

[redmug100]

It will open things quicker and you will be able to open more things at once. It will also be quicker because it wont have to use the hard disk drive as temporary memory(virtual ram)

[vehelpfulguy]

Buying more RAM for a PC or laptop is probably the quickest and easist thing to do to improve performance.

This assumes you are running XP, earlier versions of Windows could not cope with large amounts of RAM.

Of course you reach a point at around 1G where adding more RAM will make no difference.

Also, if you have a slow processor then no amount of RAM in the world will make any difference.

[dodgyshirt]

It also depends upon which operating system you are using. All modern versions are theoretically capable of handling 2mb of RAM (motherboard permitting ) but a bug in 98 prevents it from handling anything in excess of 512mb.

Other factors can also affect the usability such as dual-boot systems etc.

If you are running XP, especia;;y on a PC with shared graphics, then 512mb is an absolute minimum requirement to achieve satisfactory performance.

[Ethel]

Have a look at crucial.com

They will do an online scan and tell you which RAM best suits your notebook.

As already mentioned it may be pointless putting 1gb in.