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It's astonishing that approximately 85% of people living in developed nations have access to a PC when it was only 40 years ago that the first computer was invented, and even those cost much more than the average household could afford and ran much slower than the speed we experience today with leading PCs coming from the likes of Apple, Samsung, Acer and Dell. But what makes a computer fast enough for efficient usage with a capacity to run at a good speed with many apps and tabs open? In this article I shall explain how RAM and a computers processor contribute to a computer's speed and which has a greater effect. Most people know that RAM stands for Random Access Memory but not many people know what it actually does and to be honest, they don't need to know. However for the purposes of this article I shall explain. RAM is the working area of a computer that disappears when the computer is turned off. This is the opposite of a hard drive which keeps all of its stored memory on the computer even if it switched off. It never disappears. If you open your emails or a word, excel etc program, this loads into the RAM and then gets processed in the RAM whilst you're writing your email etc. When the email is sent and closed, the computer takes out this RAM and stores it back onto the non-volatile memory source, the hard-drive. Make sense? Let's use an analogy to explain how RAM affects computer speed. Say you are working; you have all your equipment such as pens, pencils etc and you also have your desk. The desk represents RAM and all the equipment represents numerous programs and files etc. If you want to get work done you need enough space on your desk or you'll have to move everything into different places and then back onto the desk when you're done. This is not efficient. So, if you have a large desk (a large amount of RAM) your computer works much quicker because it has more freed up space and the ratio of programs running and space free is much less. Next we have the Central Processing Unit (CPU). This is the 'brain' of the computer and its job is simple. It receives the information from various inputting devices and executes the instructions that have been electronically (and very quickly!) sent. A CPU's cycle is the amount of instructions it can complete within a group, and the speed of the CPU is measured by how many cycles it can complete in 1 second. Quite simple really. The name 'hertz' means the speed it takes to complete 1 cycle in a second and you can therefore work out the speed of a CPU is you know how many cycles it completes in a second. A CPU that completes 2 million cycles/second will have the speed of 2 megahertz and a CPU that has a frequency of 1 billion cycles a second has the speed of a gigahertz. Overall, the type of CPU is very important because better CPU's (those that operate faster) can complete more tasks in a quicker period of time which keeps the overall running of the PC smooth and rapid. Nowadays people are using their PC for more and more things so a fast CPU is a must-have for frequent PC users because to be honest, it is the power of the PC and you need power behind all your apps and music files etc, to drive them at a workable speed. In this day and age, price is an important factor when choosing what PC to buy and not many people look at the computers specifications and understand what all the assortment of letters and numbers mean. Moreover, even if they did, price would be a much more important factor to consider for a family when times are tight. CPUs range highly in price because of the various speeds and qualities available. An Intel Celeron 533 Mhz processor will cost around 8, a dual-core Intel Pentium 2.60Ghz CPU will cost around 100 and the top of the range Dell Intel Xeon X7460 2.67GHz will cost you thousands of pounds, so it really depends how much you will use your computer and what you will be using it for; but of course, the high-range, extremely expensive processors would not be efficient for normal home use. They would be used to carry information across an office of computers, all working 24/7 carrying lots of information including animation, sounds, video etc, to be processed. Again, of course the price of RAM also varies depending on your use and how much of it you'll need. I don't think the price of RAM and the price of a CPU are really comparable because you purchase them individually and even though they work together to make a computer function, a very high quality CPU and a very low amount of RAM would still work fine, even if it is a large waste. Generally when the amount of space in the RAM runs out, the processor will need to send the excess information to the hard disk to prevent it being lost. This process slows the computer down and this is why having a fast CPU and an adequate amount of RAM are both necessities. Overall, like I have said, I don't think the two can e compared in terms of price, but I do think they can be compared in terms of how much they benefit the running speed of the PC. In my humble opinion (and what should also be your opinion), given the choice of a huge amount of RAM and an extremely fast CPU, you should choose the top-notch CPU every time. You will rarely need more than 2 gigabytes of RAM as it is not necessary. You use the memory in RAM on-the-go You do your work, music etc, and then save it onto the hard-drive and the RAM is in some ways re-booted the next time you turn on your PC. If anything, the quality of the RAM is more important than the 2 gigs of RAM because good quality of RAM has no latency and is quick to run without breaking down. Not to mention, regardless of the amount of memory it holds, a good quality RAM will last longer and you will feel more confident in your computer's overall ability to run successfully. The answer proclaimed in this article is obvious; a faster CPU is more important when comparing the computer's speed because it carries out the processes and fixes any mistakes made by a lagging and slow RAM with little memory. Check out the latest notebook prices in karachi
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