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FEATURES RAM comes in the form of a chip, and to increase memory, you simply plug additional chips in to slots on your computer''s main board. The capacity of a RAM chip is measured in megabytes, or millions of bytes. Most systems now come with 48MB of RAM and up. You should have at least 32MB of RAM for running Windows, but with the ever-growing demand for memory, 64 MB or higher is ideal. BUYING TIPS Before buying additional memory for your computer, consult the hardware manual that came with your computer. The manual will tell you what kind of memory is required for your system. It is also important to check the number of RAM slots in your computer, as there is a limited number on the main board for installing memory (anywhere from two to eight). You can only install as many memory modules as you have slots, so plan ahead. If you want to add or upgrade to 128MB of RAM, for instance, get a single 128MB RAM chip, not two 64MB modules. This will save you one RAM slot for future expansion.

There are two types of cache in your computer: level 1 and level 2. The level 1 cache (also known as L1 cache) is inside the CPU itself, and you really have no control over quantity and speed. The level 2 cache (also known as L2 cache) are all external to the chip. The L2 cache on the nside the CPU package (though still external to the CPU chip itself). Those systems run on motherboards with a variety of core logic chipsets. However, some of them are designed so that the L2 cache only works with the first 64MB of RAM in your system. The two main culprits are the chipsets—two of the most common chipsets available. Now, 64MB is a lot of RAM, so it''s not like your system is somehow crippled (at least, not for gaming). But you should be aware that in the case of boards using these chipsets, more is not necessarily better. motherboards with the chipset probably can cache up to 512KB of RAM, but a few motherboard makers cheaped out and left out a critical TAG RAM chip and—you guessed it—those boards can only cache the first 64MB or RAM. To my knowledge, boards that use the can cache more than 64MB, but be wary.