Current mother¬boards can support a variety of memory chips, but make sure that the particular type you select works with yours. Don't bother with the ab¬solute fastest DDR3 RAM. Instead, spend your money on quantity: 4GB will be ample for Windows Vista or Windows XP Media Center. (And unfortunately, your operating system and hardware configuration might not recognize every last bit of it.

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But having 3GB of functional RAM is better than having only 2GB.) Also, go for a pair of the same 2GB DIMM chips. Many current motherboards take advantage of dual-channel architecture so that each DIMM can access the mem¬ory controller. The pair of middle-weight Crucial 2x2GB DDR2 PC2-5300 DIMMs that I chose strike a solid balance between price and performance.

Handle the RAM-as well as other components-only by its edges, and firmly push the chips straight into place rather than at an angle.