When frugal PC users publicly lament minimum RAM requirements, a common response is "RAM is cheap!", often expressed callously, and sometimes even with an audible sneer.
RAM can be "cheap" indeed, but there are 3 possible situations, which ought to be recognized by a more
charitable onlooker:
· Some RAM sockets are empty inside the PC: Adding RAM might be a quick remedy. The RAM need
not be
new; it can be
salvaged from some other PC,
if the type & speed can be matched. Mom-&-pop computer-or-electronics stores can be a useful source of types of RAM
memory-modules that're of a type too old to be still available from the retail "usual suspects" (I'd prefer that the store has an operational RAM-testing device whose results can easily be watched by its customers).
· All RAM sockets are full inside the PC, but
not all of those sockets have memory-modules of the maximum capacity: Then replacing 1 or more modules might provide a remedy. It's not sufficient to have the modules fit
physically in the sockets inside the PC, because the
maximum capacity is determined not only by the physical design of the RAM sockets, but also by limits or restrictions imposed by the circuit-boards or BIOS, and those limits might've been motivated by
marketing, not engineering. Among the possible
engineering restrictions might be a requirement that the modules match in capacity & speed. So one might need to find & check docuмentation, whether neglected & dusty on a book-shelf, in a never-before-opened file on the PC's original hard-disk, or available via the Internet. For such docuмentation, don't overlook Web sites that sell RAM, and provide information for specific PC models from specific manufacturers, especially if a manufacturer has disappeared from the Internet, or has obnoxiously deleted
its own information on that specific model of
its own PCs (readers might easily guess how I'm became aware of that scenario). But there's also the situation I've left until last:
· All RAM sockets are full inside the PC, and
each of those sockets has a
memory-module of the
maximum capacity: It
can be the least enviable situation.
[...] nowadays a really limited hand-me-down PC: Hardware [...] whose single CPU runs at barely more than 1 GHz., and whose motherboard's RAM slots are fully stuffed, but even so, [those slots] contain only 1/2 GB [RAM].
Sigh. As the immediately preceding quote shows, it is indeed
my situation.
So
Linux Mint might not be a workable solution for me. Fortunately, there are
alternative solutions.
Topic: Lets give up MS Windows for Lent (Read 1188 times)