Computer terms: What is ‘memory’?

Clients with older computers sometimes tell me they are battling because they are running out of memory on their computers. But what exactly is memory? In reality what is happening is that they are running out of storage, not memory. Here is a quick guide to understanding the difference:

Memory

Computers all have a certain amount of memory, called RAM. This comes in multiples of 2Gb, such as 4Gb or 8Gb, sometime 16Gb on higher-end models. RAM comes in electronic modules (picture, above.) This memory is where computer programs are loaded while they operate, and where their functioning happens. The more programs that are run simultaneously, the more memory is utilised to run them. It has nothing to do with storage, and is volatile (i.e it is reset when the power is switched off.)

Storage

Storage refers to the Hard Drive capacity of the computer. This comes in rough multiples of 256Gb, with 256Gb being entry-level in modern systems, and hard drives ranging upwards from 512Gb to 4Tb in capacity. Storage is where your programs and data are written to, stored and ‘live’, and can be filled up by storing more and more data, or after years of installing programs. For example, every picture or document that you save occupies hard drive storage and reduces the capacity of the drive.

The problem

Both memory and storage affect the functioning of the computer. Running too many programs or having too many tabs open in your browser can deplete the memory of the system to the extent that it battles to work properly, and may even crash. In the same way, when storage is too full then problems loading or saving items can arise, or corruption can happen when drives get old.

The solution

At Byte Digital we specialise in upgrading both memory and storage for systems that have need of greater capacity. A RAM upgrade can make the system faster and smoother in daily operation and newer hard drive types can give older systems a boost that makes them even faster than when they were new, Chat to us about your needs.