You know that your system's performance is dependent on the RAM installed in your computer. But what happens if you don't have enough RAM or if the boards installed in your system are not working properly?
If you're new to all this, it can seem overwhelming. Your questions about what types of RAM your computer supports aren't easy to answer if you don't know where to look.
You should know that the supported types of RAM depend on the computer's motherboard. For this, you should have your motherboard manual or the information provided to you by the motherboard manufacturer.
Most modern machines come without a printed motherboard manual. If you don't, or can't find that DVD anymore, you still have other options, but it will take time to get the answers you need.
First, you'll need to find the manufacturer and model of your motherboard. Once you have this information, you can use a search engine to find the motherboard manual online. Most companies have a large list of manuals on their websites.
But let's make things easier.
We present you the application CPU-Z. You can also use other tools, such as the application Speccy or HWINFO which will reveal the information you need.
Note: The information can also be displayed during your computer's startup or in the BIOS.
Download the portable (zip) version of the CPU-Z application, unzip it to your system and run the program
The Motherboard tab will give you the important information you need about the manufacturer and model. You can also check your motherboard version to see if there are any updates available. These updates may allow your motherboard to support RAM types that were not supported by the original version.
The Memory and SPD tabs will tell you more about the RAM already installed in your system. There you can find information about the size of each RAM module, whether there are any free slots available for additional RAM modules, and the manufacturer of the RAM.
The motherboard in the image above is a P55-USB3 board manufactured by HP. Use a search engine to find the motherboard manufacturer's homepage. It is usually enough to search for the manufacturer and model, e.g. HP 183E.
After searching, you will end up on a page where you can find the specifications that list the supported RAM types.
The motherboard used in our system states
The important information is that it supports up to 8 Gb of system memory, and that it supports DDR3 RAM. If you search a little further you will also find the MHz supported such as 2200, 1333, 1066 and 800 MHz.
If the manufacturer's website does not list the information you need, you will need to download the motherboard manual.
