RAM - Random Access Memory are used in many places - the main usage are slots in your computer. These days you get DDR 1/2/3 etc...type ram. These are dynamic memory used to store data for fast access during the system's operation. Non-permanent data is stored there. The CPU has internal cache that is extremely fast, but with only small amounts. The RAM is a bridge between this and the hard disk. It takes many (talking about thousands to millions) of CPU cycles, measured in hertz to access data on the hard disk compared to about hundreds or thousands on RAM.

The speed of RAM contributes greatly to the speed of your computer. Important and often used data including the operating system are loaded onto RAM on startup. The more RAM in your computer means for multi-tasking and having applications with a lot of data, disk access is reduced, and the faster the speed of your RAM means faster load times. The importance is, no matter how fast a CPU can process data, it needs to get data and store data after the operation and here is where the importance of RAM kicks in.

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