RAMming Home An Old Point

For many of you this is a no-brainer but maybe some folk might find it helpful. I had to switch laptop the other day while one was being fixed and was horrifed to find how slow the replacement was. Every program, every file, every function loaded slowly and the hard drive was stuttering along despite being well-defragged and with plenty of spare space.

Of course, it was the RAM (computer memory, where programs operate, rather than hard drive storage, where they hang out between bouts of action). Why IBM ThinkPads com come with only 256 MB of RAM as standard baffles me. Unless you're running absolutely nothing, my experience has been that it's just not enough to get you into Windows, let alone do any serious work.

The good news is that it's really, really easy to add another 256 MB, just by unscrewing the bottom and slotting it in. Do it. Given it'll cost you less than $100 it's worth it. Now I'm back to 512 MB and I'm very, very grateful. Now the question is: Is it worth adding another wodge of RAM? My technical advisor says not.

Comments

[syd]

You can never have enough ram. I'd add as much as you can afford!

[Scott]

Wodge?

[Akshay]

I ran Windows XP Pro on an old Thinkpad wiht just 128 MB ... never had any speed issues either. It's the difference between waiting 1 second or 5 seconds, IMO.

[JW]

A definition of wodge, from http://tinyurl.com/5tobq
noun 1. colloq
A large lump, wad or chunk.

Etymology: Early 20c: a variant of wedge.