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September 13, 2006
While you're shopping for that display, throw in some RAM too
Paul Boutin recently wrote a piece on Slate about how the best computer upgrade these days is a bigger display rather than a faster computer. While I agree with him, I think adding more memory to your computer might be an equally worthy contender for 'best computer upgrade'.
Setting aside the demanding gaming segment, personal computers, fueled by the gigahertz myth, have long been way more powerful than they need to be for basic tasks like Web browsing, checking email and light word processing. Boutin points out that switching around a set of related applications silently soaks up far more time than we realize. He claims noticeable gains in productivity after he switched to a higher display because he can now view the applications he reads with and writes with simultaneously. Boutin's arguments make a lot of sense, but are a little journalist-centric. Most other people use more than two applications at a time: one or more browser windows, an instant messenger, a media player and other applications as needed, such as a video editor or a spreadsheet. For example, a financial services professional may cycle through Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, a trading application and a Bloomberg news terminal. A software developer may cycle through a browser, Microsoft Outlook, an IDE and the application being developed. These are just two examples, but typical office or home tasks involve more than just two applications at a time.
With limited screen real estate and multiple open applications, a computer with say, Windows XP's supported minimum memory—64MB of RAM, slows to a drag because applications not being used actively get paged out to disk. Switching among a set of applications gets painful as portions of windows take forever to be read back from disk, be redrawn and be usable. Adding more memory to your system can bring about amazing increases in performance. To be sure, there is a limit beyond which adding more memory yields diminishing returns. Continuing to add more RAM is hardly a bad idea because with enough RAM, there may be no need to swap applications out to disk at all. Rather than agonizing over what exactly the sweet spot, if you're in the market for an large display anyway, just drop another $150 on a gigabyte of RAM. It is at least four times as cheap as a 24+" LCD display and offers quite a performance boost, especially if you use more than two applications at a time.
The problem with this advice is that adding RAM to a computer is not always as straightforward as hooking up a computer to a larger display. In the case of many PCs, it involves peeking under the hood and figuring out where to install RAM modules, but only after reading through several ominous warnings to ground yourself before handling them. My most painless memory upgrade experience (see page 79) has been with my MacBook: remove battery, pop out old modules, insert new ones, replace battery. The slightly more involved process of adding RAM to most computers means less people will be willing to try it, which is really a shame. I am sure most people will wise up to the benefits of added RAM once it becomes easier to augment a computer's memory. Windows Vista has a distinctive new feature called ReadyBoost™, which enables users to expand a system's available memory simply by sticking a memory key into its USB port. Once features like these become more commonplace, memory issues are bound to (*cough*) become a distant memory. Anyone who is particular about how much memory they will need could simply carry their own around. Internet cafés may just start putting up 'BYOB, BYOM' signs.
Oh, and don't forget to enjoy that new display also!
Posted by Vishy at September 13, 2006 11:38 PM