RAM
RAM, or Random Access Memory, is a form of storage inside your PC. It allows programs such as your operating system to be read and written much faster and therefore is also quite important when it comes to gaming. Keeping it brief, there are a few things you want to look into when you’re buying RAM: size, memory type, speed, and channel.
The size or amount of memory is going to affect the performance of your machine. At the time of writing this guide, the average gaming machine will have around 8GB of RAM, although some may stretch up to the dizzying heights of 16-32GB. Upgrading RAM is probably the easiest upgrade you can make to your machine, so if you want to switch from 8gb to 16gb in a year’s time, simply grab another two sticks of RAM the same brand, speed, size, and channel and throw them into the RAM slots on your motherboard.
The memory type can range between DDR3 and DDR4. There isn’t really much of a personal choice to be made here. Whatever your motherboard supports is the type you’ll buy. While DDR3 is the more common type, more recent gaming rigs and motherboards will now support DDR4. If you get the wrong type it simply won’t fit into place on your motherboard, so always double check before buying.
The speed of your RAM won’t make a huge difference, but faster speeds can help when running resource intensive programs. The speed will be in the form of MHz and again, whatever you do choose, make sure it’s compatible with your motherboard.
The channel of RAM you buy is once again dependent on what your motherboard will support (you’ll probably have noticed grabbing a good motherboard is really quite important). Your motherboard will support either dual, triple or quad channel RAM. Dual channel means you’ll want to buy RAM in sets of two, triple in sets of three, and quad is most optimal with sets of four or eight sticks.
Corsair, Crucial and Kingston are the brand names most commonly associated with RAM. These are always a good place to start, but there are plenty of other brands out there that may be more suitable to your needs and budget.
