I often find that people are understandably confused about computer ‘memory’.

There are usually two issues, firstly, confusing RAM with Hard Disk storage, and secondly how much do they need have of each?

Put simply, RAM is the memory that your computer uses to run programs and typically your computer will have between 1 and 4GB.

Hard Disks are where you store your pictures, documents, music etc and are much bigger – typically 250GB – 1TB (Terabyte or approximately 1000GB*).

So how much do you need of each?

Well, there is little to be gained for the vast majority of users in having more than 3GB RAM, though most new laptops or PCs will come with 4GB which is fine.

If you have an older laptop or PC you may well have less than 3GB, and as long as you are happy with the performance it’s not a problem – having more RAM than Windows need to run itself and your programs won’t make your computer faster, but not having enough will slow it down.

I mentioned that most new computers now come with 3 or 4GB or RAM – why the difference – well primarily it’s because of the operating system – the version of Windows you are buying.

Windows 7, and for that matter the now defunct XP and Vista come in two flavours, 32 or 64-bit.

32-bit versions can address, or use, only up to just over 3GB of RAM, whereas 64-bit versions can address much larger amounts, but as mentioned above it really makes little difference to the vast majority of us.

As far as hard disks are concerned, it’s really a case of how long is a piece of string – if you store lots of music, films and DVDs you will obviously need more but for most of us a laptop with 250GB is plenty.

* (Manufacturers cheat a little when listing hard disk capacities, they call 1000MB a GB and 1000GB a TB, when strictly speaking a GB is 1024MB and similarly a TB is 1024GB).