Build It. Fix It. Own It.: A Beginner’s Guide to Building and Upgrading a PC

Chapter 3. The Work Area: Memory

	“Living backwards!” Alice repeated in great astonishment. “I never heard of such a thing!” “—but there’s one great advantage in it, that one’s memory works both ways.” “I’m sure MINE only works one way.” Alice remarked. “I can’t remember things before they happen.” “It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,” the Queen remarked.
	--Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

IN THIS CHAPTER

• What Is RAM?

• Combining Memory Chips into Memory Modules

• DDR, DIMM, and More: Understanding Memory Specs

• Windows and RAM: The 4GB Conundrum

• Buying Memory

As you might be starting to appreciate by now, the performance of your homebrew computer depends on many different but interrelated factors. These include (but most definitely ...