Long gone, but now back… sort of. :)
(Answer requested by Mandi Bailey) If it’s a brand-new PC, odds are it’ll have a reasonably current, capable CPU; and an at least acceptable hard drive. But most PC baseline models have only a modest — sometimes minimal — amount of RAM. So, if I’m allowed only one upgrade, I’d go for more RAM —…
Speaking very generally: RAM is very fast, temporary data storage used only while the device is powered on. The data in RAM goes away when you turn off the device. Hard drives are for storing data longer term; they retain data even when powered off. But hard drives — even solid state drives! — are…
In general, “older laptops” were mostly 32-bit systems, which mathematically max out at 4GB of RAM. If the laptop has less RAM than that, I’d consider starting there, to bring the laptop to its full memory complement. Because it’s an “older system,” you probably can buy RAM for cheap. If the laptop is already maxed…
This is way cool: New software can analyze faint light patterns on walls and other matte surfaces to reconstruct a full-color representation of objects that are out-of-frame or around corners. No special optics are required: It works with ordinary digital camera snapshots. Besides the “way cool” factor of being able to see around corners, once…
The answer is: 17. Or 674. Or 2. Or 4,237. Not all “programs, tasks, and games” are equal. A handful of resource-hungry apps might bring even a top-of-the-line PC to its figurative knees. But you could run hundreds or even thousands of tiny, efficient apps on the same machine. Sorry, there’s no way to answer…
Remember them? I wrote some! 🙂 In fact, I believe I wrote the first type-and-run program to appear in a non-computer, general-circulation magazine, at least in the US. Back at the dawn of the PC era, I was a newly-hatched junior editor at New Shelter magazine; a general-circulation publication with 750,000 subscribers; covering things like…
Recall that early computers used tape as memory — paper tape at first and later, magnetic tape. Tape-based memory is serial: If you want a byte of memory in the middle of the tape, you have to start at one end of the tape and spool through to the location you want. That’s clumsy and…
Meh. You’ll either see no gain at all; or so little that you won’t notice. Here’s why: The circuits that RAM plugs into are controlled by a clock that sets the pacing for all memory-related operations in that part of the PC. In the vast majority of PCs, the RAM clock speed is set at…
A reader asks: “Is 32 GB RAM too much?” Fred says yes, even for future-proofing. Here’s why.
Q: How much RAM do I need for my laptop? I mostly use it for word documents, Internet browsing with multiple tabs, and, occasionally, light video editing. I currently have 4GB but I’m considering going up to 8GB. (via Quora) A: Here’s an easy way to see if you have enough RAM in any PC,…