Memory

Memory is the name given to silicon chips that stores volatile computer data. Volatile means that the contents of memory will be lost if the power of the computer is switched off. Memory stores some of your operating system and application data while it is being run. The more memory you have in your system, the more application you can run simultaneously and will provide an overall better system performance.

Memory comes in many form. The older system uses SDRAM, while the current system uses DDR-SDRAM (Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory). Depending on your CPU bus, you have to use SDRAM to match your CPU bus speed. For example, PIII 750 runs at the bus speed of 100Mhz therefore you need SDRAM that run at 100MHz, known as PC100 SDRAM. However if you are going to use PIII 866 you will require PC133 SDRAM which runs at 133Mhz bus speed. You also have to make sure that your motherboard can support these speeds. New generation of memories are currently out. Intel P4 use rambus memory known as RDRAM and the new AMD processors use DDR2 SDRAM. Some of the well known memory manufactures are Crucial, Kingston and Samsung.

The following is an image of an PC133 SDRAM that will be used for our demonstration PC.