If your laptop has been running sluggishly lately or struggles to switch from program to program, you might be running out of RAM capacity. If this is a common occurrence, you’ve definitely outgrown the size of RAM on your machine, and it’s time for an upgrade. Laptop memory upgrades can be a bit pricier than those on desktops, but the cost of memory has dropped in recent years. For example, 512 MB of DDR RAM (the oldest current type of RAM) can cost $50 or less these days. The most important thing about laptop memory is to understand first what kind of memory your laptop takes so you don’t mistakenly buy the wrong kind.
Laptops manufactured in the last couple of years run on DDR3 RAM, but budget-priced laptops and laptops that are a few years old probably run slightly older DDR2 memory. DDR2 runs at a higher clock rate than DDR, and DDR 3 higher still. Laptop memory can usually be accessed through a small door screwed in on the side or on the bottom of the laptop. With these machines, laptop memory upgrades can be done with very little difficulty; just slide or snap the new module in place. However, a system without an access door will need to be taken apart a different way to access the memory. For those who don’t know how to do this properly, take your laptop to a trained technician.
Laptops generally run slower and process information slower than desktops; with that in mind, laptop memory upgrades are the easiest way to get some speed back. Since you’re paying primarily for the convenience of having a portable computer, laptops are designed with this in mind. That being said, now with improvement in technology, buying more memory for laptops is not such a painful exercise anymore. Of course, if you have an older computer, memory is much cheaper anyway; however, depending on the age of your machine, you may be hunting for a while to find the right type of memory.
If you’ve been thinking about adding an upgrade or two to your computer, consider laptop memory upgrades to be the quickest way to having a like-new machine again. More memory means programs will load up faster and run faster, not to mention you’ll be able to run several more programs at the same time. It makes sense to make this upgrade, so the question becomes not if you should upgrade your laptop, but when.