Increasing the RAM memory of the computer can be very useful if you have an old computer but in which everything continues to work well except that it is scarce. If you are going to expand the RAM of your computer, there are several aspects that we have to take into account: the first and foremost thing is to know how much you have in order to have more. But we must also think about how much RAM we need or, more importantly, how much our laptop is capable of supporting.
If you are thinking of changing the RAM memory, there are a series of aspects that we must take into account and that are essential to make the change . How much do you have, how much do you need, how much are you going to have… Tools that will help you choose correctly and that we can take into account whenever we make a change.
How much memory do I have?
If you want to expand the RAM memory, it is because you know or sense that you need more and that the one you have is insufficient. In that case, the first thing we have to know is how much we have installed on our computer. If it is a desktop computer that you have bought, there will be no problem because it is normal for you to know it. But not all users are computer savvy and you may have a laptop or someone else’s computer and you don’t know how much memory it has to expand further.
In the case of Windows, it is as simple as going to “Start” on the computer and going to “Control Panel” from where we have to go to “System and Security” and to “System”. Here, a window will open with the “basic information about the computer” where you will see the installed operating system, the processor, the RAM memory, the type of system… Right here you will find the RAM memory installed on the computer you are using.
How much RAM do I need?
The minimum that Windows requires for the installation of Windows 11 is a RAM of 4 GB or more. But what is recommended in a mid-range computer that you buy from 2022 is that it has 8 GB of RAM if you want it to work properly and for applications to run smoothly. If you are going to use tools like Adobe Photoshop, for example, it is recommended to have 8 GB or more. In fact, Adobe recommends a minimum requirement of 8 GB for the use of Adobe Photoshop, but what is recommended by the manufacturer is to have 16 GB or more if we want it to work smoothly. The same goes for other programs like Adobe Illustrator which requires a minimum of 8 GB but recommends 16 GB or more.
The RAM memory that your computer needs depends on the use you make of it, it depends on what you want or are going to use. It will not be the same if you have a computer to open email or look at web pages as if you normally use video or photo editing programs, if we are going to use design applications or if we want to use the computer for gaming, for example. In those cases we will need much more than if you are simply going to watch Netflix.
How much RAM does the computer support?
On a desktop computer it is quite easy to know what the limit of RAM memory is. Typically each slot is capable of accepting 16GB of RAM on newer computers. If you have 2 slots, you support up to 32 GB, and if you have 4, up to 64 GB.
Therefore, in a desktop computer, just by knowing the name and chipset of the motherboard, we can go to the manufacturer’s website to easily check what is the maximum amount of RAM memory that it supports depending on the chipset that it uses or of the peculiarities of each model. However, with laptops things change, since each one has a different design.
Kingston Memory Module Search
Kingston has a tool on its website that will solve this problem for us. In the Search for memory modules section, we can see what is the maximum amount of RAM memory that our system supports by entering the manufacturer, the model, or the reference number of our system.
For example, we are going to perform the test with an HP Gaming Pavilion 15-cx0051ns, a gaming computer with an Intel Core i7-8750H processor, 1 TB hard drive and a GTX 1050. The only “problem” with this laptop is that for Depending on what uses, its 8 GB of RAM may fall short. Luckily, the laptop is expandable, and we can add an additional 8 GB of RAM. To check this, we introduce the model series. It is likely that it will not appear if we enter the full name, since each laptop is adapted for a different market depending on factors such as the cables they include or the keyboard layout. Therefore, in this case we have to put “15-cx0xxxx” so that the models of that series appear. Putting that will take us to this section of the web , where we can see the modules that Kingston recommends buying. Both the 4 and 8 GB ones have a single module to leave the other slot free, so we can put up to 16 GB in total, with the additional advantage of being able to make them work in dual-channel. The maximum frequency of DDR4 RAM that this board accepts is 2666 MHz. Now we can decide whether to buy a module from Kingston’s own website or if we buy it on our own.
In the event that nothing appears, it is possible that our laptop has soldered RAM and we cannot expand it.
Alternative: Use a specific tool
In the event that in none of these ways we manage to know the amount of RAM supported by our equipment, we can also use a tool such as CPU-Z . It is a software that we can download as an installable program or in a ZIP folder . If we choose this second option, we will only have to launch the executable file and we will not have to go through any installation process.
In any case, once CPU-Z is launched on our computer, it will analyze all the hardware components installed on the computer and show us all the information. The tool’s interface is organized by tabs and in each of them we can find the information related to the CPU, motherboard, RAM memory , graphics card, etc.
With this information we will be able to know the type of chipset that we have in our PC , the number of free and occupied slots, as well as the amount of RAM that we currently have. Therefore, if for example the chipset supports 32 GB and our computer or laptop has two slots, each of them will support 16 GB. In this way we can also know the amount of memory with which we can expand it if necessary.
