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The role of RAM and CPU

  • 29-02-2008 4:10pm
    #1
    Ronan H
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,058 ✭✭✭


    Could someone outline the differences between the role of RAM and CPU in a machine? You hear general statements like "If you want to increase the speed of your machine buy more RAM or get a faster CPU..." but what exactly is the difference in how they affect the machine?

    The reason im asking is that I have an old laptop which has barely enough RAM to function (256MB). I was thinking of upgrading it to 1024MB, but I'm curious about what sort of effect it will have without doing anything to the CPU. My plan is to use it as a music centre, so it wont have loads of programs on it, just Windows Updates, a media player and MP3s...

    Thanks...

    RAM Head


Comments

  • #2
    sebastianlieken
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,778 ✭✭✭sebastianlieken


    well think of it in the sense that the cpu is the analytical part of the brain of the computer. It does all the calculations, essentially the cpu figures stuff out. where as ram is like short-term memory, it can recall information at a very high speed.

    analogy:
    if you were going to sit a math exam, the cpu would work out all the mathematical equations from scratch. (the faster the cpu, the faster these problems can be solved). the ram however would cram just before the exam so it could slap the info right down on the page. (the more ram, the larger the capacity of short term memory) however, you still need a good analytical knowledge for this in the first place

    and yes, if you upgrade to 1024mb of ram, u will get a significant improvement. however, it can only do SO much with a weak procesor


  • #3
    Ronan H
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,058 ✭✭✭Ronan H


    Nice analogy... Thanks for your input...

    Head Case


  • #4
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,563 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    It depends where the bottle neck is.
    If you are using a 33.6 dial up modem for internet access with anything except plain text ..
    If your hard drive is full

    you can use taskmanager or procexp to list how much RAM each process uses, if you can turn off unneeded programs you need less RAM and there may be lower CPU usage.

    If you can get to 1024 MB then you can turn off the swap file to extend battery life , but in your case you would need to read the mp3 so won't really help.

    If you press ctrl-alt-del then you can open task manager and in it you can see the PEAK memory used.


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