An extra bit of memory can breathe all new life into your computer, and make heavy tasks like gaming and multi-tasking a breeze. With enough RAM, you won’t need to worry about leaving a couple extra browser tabs open. So why don’t you take a look at our guide to the best RAM prices and deals.
Even if you’re thinking of buying a new Mac, MacBook or pre-built PC over this Black Friday period, you can save even more cash by not adding additional memory at checkout. This can work out quite an expensive way to add memory, and instead it’s far cheaper to purchase RAM separately, especially if you can find the best RAM deals like we have found below.
GeIL EVO Potenza 32GB 3000MHz DDR4: $87.99 at Newegg
This isn’t the prettiest RAM on the market, but it’s got the speed and capacity going for it. If you just need 32GB of RAM, it doesn’t really matter what it looks like, and the GeIL EVO Potenza is more than fast and capacious enough to get the job done.
Best DDR4 RAM deal
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4
High performance DDR4 memory
Specifications
Speed: 2,133 MHz
Timing: 13-15-15-28
Memory Type: DDR4
Voltage: 1.2V
Dimms: 2x8GB
Reasons to buy
+Great value+Fast performance+Effective cooling
DDR4 RAM is the fastest memory that came on the block just a few years ago. At first, it was prohibitively expensive for anything but the most extreme gaming PCs, but now you can find it in many mainstream laptops or desktops. The Corsair Vengeance LPX is among one of the most solidly reliable kits of RAM you can purchase. It’s low-profile form factor makes it an easy fit for most PC builds, and its 2,400MHz starting speed is plenty quick too.
Best DDR3 RAM deal
HyperX Fury
Impressive power and value
Specifications
Speed: 2,400 MHz
Timing: 15-15-15
Memory Type: DDR4 SDRAM
Voltage: 1.2V
Reasons to buy
+Automatic overclocking+Energy-efficient DDR4+Sleek design
DDR4 RAM might be the fastest and hottest memory on the market now, but more than a few PCs aren’t designed with the right slot for it. Fear not, though, with DDR3 RAM going on its way out, you’re bound to find even more amazing deals on it, like this set of Kingston HyperX Fury memory. Like the Corsair kit above, Kingston makes solidly reliable RAM and they also feature low-profile designs to work with most PC builds.
Best gaming RAM deal
Corsair Vengeance RGB LED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3000
Premium performance at a reasonable price
Specifications
Speed: 3,000 MHz
Timing: 15-17-17-35
Memory Type: DDR4 SDRAM
Voltage: 1.35V
Dimms: 2x8GB
Reasons to buy
+Excellent Value+Variety of color choices+Impressive overclocking
Gaming requires a higher-class of memory, and this usually means higher frequencies, bigger capacities and a better cooling solution to keep it running, especially if you’re overclocking it. With all this in mind, you should check out the Corsair Vengeance RGB, which features a taller heatsink, a faster 3,000MHz frequency and RGB lighting over the DDR4 set of Vengeance LPX memory we pointed out earlier.
Best Mac RAM deal
Crucial 16GB Kit (8GBx2) Memory for Mac
The most affordable way to upgrade your Mac systems
Specifications
Speed: 1,600 MHz
Timing: NA
Memory Type: DDR3 SDRAM
Voltage: 1.4V
Dimms: 8GBx2
Reasons to buy
+Compatible with Mac Systems+Reliable performance
Adding extra memory to any Mac is notoriously expensive. Instead of throwing Apple a few extra hundred bucks, you could simply double or even triple the amount of RAM on your system with an inexpensive kit. Crucial is another proven RAM maker, and you’ll definitely want to check out its 16GB or 32GB memory kits that will cost far less than the corresponding upgrades provided through the Apple Store.
Best laptop RAM deal
Timetec Hynix IC 16GB Kit (2x8GB) DDR3
A great budget option for mid-range gamers
Specifications
Speed: 1,600 MHZ
Timing: NA
Memory Type: DDR3L-1600 SDRAM
Voltage: 1.35V
Dimms: 2x8GB
Reasons to buy
+Affordable price+Impressive power
MacBooks aren’t the only laptop that you can add extra memory to. As long as they aren’t glued together, like a Surface Laptop, upgrading your RAM is one of the easiest things you can do to improve the performance of your notebook. TimeTic makes relatively inexpensive kits of Hynix IC RAM that could seriously bump up your memory capacity.
What is RAM?
RAM is an acronym for Random-Access Memory. It is one of the fundamental pieces of the computing puzzle alongside the processor (or CPU) and classic storage (usually coined as ROM for Read Only Memory).
RAM is needed in order to facilitate data transfer to and from your system storage (can be hard disk drive or solid state drive). The processor is the one that does the compute, the calculations etc and just next to it sits the cache, which is a super fast version of RAM but only available in tiny amounts (up to a couple of hundreds of MB at most).
Then comes RAM (usually around 16GB on standard computers) and beyond that system storage. The further they are from the processor, the cheaper they are per unit storage and the slower they become.
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