How To Pick The Right RAM

How do you pick the right RAM for your computer? This is a very common question among computer users alike. RAM (Random Access Memory) is typically one of the very first things people will upgrade when looking to improve performance of their computer. However, as many people know you can’t just purchase any RAM on the market. You need to make sure you buy the right RAM for your motherboard. Each computer motherboard can handle different RAM so it is important to buy the right kind or it will not function properly (if at all).

In order to make sure you get the right RAM I recommend you check out Crucial.com and go download their System Scanner (both PC and Mac compatible) and it will tell you exactly what RAM you need for your computer.

You can download the Crucial System Scanner here.

Once you know the right RAM for your system you then need to decide on a brand to buy, I typically recommend the following brands (all of which can be bought from NewEgg/Tigerdirect/any online computer/electronic reseller.

Recommended Brands: Corsair, Crucial, Mushkin, OCZ, Kingston, OWC (for Apple computers)

Note: I highly advised against buying no-name generic RAM as generally it is of much lower quality and can lead to system instability and loss of performance.

If you need additional help picking the right RAM for your computer feel free to post in the PC Support section of the BestTechie Forums.