RAM

Zach's dad is getting him a new computer. What should he get? Leo says that an i5 processor with at least 8GB or RAM and a 256GB SSD drive will set Zach up nicely.

Dan has a 24" screen because he's into music recording. Should he buy a new video card? Leo says not for that screen. At 1920x1080, any video card is going to handle it. Leo says that the processor and RAM are more important for editing music than a video card. But it he requires a set manufacturer like Nvidia, a low end card will work just fine.

Neal would like to get a new computer, but he doesn't know what size MacBook he should get. Leo says that the 13" MacBook Air with 4GB of RAM is more than adequate for what Neal needs it for, and with 13 hours of battery life, it's a great deal. The only limitation is that it has a smaller 128GB hard drive. But that's big enough for basic work. He can get an external drive to store all of his data and move it over from the old computer.

Bill is looking for a new laptop that he can use for his business. He has an older MacBook Pro with Aperture, but he doesn't like it. Leo says the good news is that Apple has killed Aperture and most photographers actually use Adobe Lightroom. He can buy it outright or use the Adobe Photographers CC package for $10 a month. Most serious photographers use both. And at $10 a month, he can't really beat it.

Jonathan has a laptop running Windows 7 and wants to double his RAM to 4GB. Leo says that's a good idea but he wouldn't go beyond that if he's running 32 bit. Online sources include Crucial.com, TigerDirect, MicroCenter, there's plenty of others. But Crucial will help him pick the right memory for his specific computer and has tools to help him install it.

Dave is about to buy Carbonite and SpinRite. But he's finding that with his older Intel Core 2 PC, he can't transcode video and use Carbonite at the same time. Carbonite took over and left him powerless to do anything.

Jim wants to add more RAM to his 2009 MacBook Pro, but he doesn't know how much he can put into it. Leo says to go to EveryMac.com and look up his particular model. It will then tell him how much RAM he can put in it. Then go to OtherWorld Computing (Mac Sales) and order it.

Chris is still having issues with OS X Mavericks and wonders if upgrading to 8GB of RAM would help it's performance. Leo says not really unless he's doing video or photo editing. If the Mac is running slow, it won't hurt to double the RAM. 8GB is a bit of a sweet spot, though, and it could help if he's having performance issues with the OS. But the real issue could be Mavericks itself. It's filled with bugs and Apple needs to fix it. The chatroom also says to go into the activity monitor and view his RAM usage. That could show him where the issue really lies.

Dan is looking to get a Lenovo Ultrabook for home use, but wants to know what model he should get and how much RAM to put in. Leo says for everyday use, an i5 Ultrabook with 4GB of RAM would be ideal. The only reason he'd want 8GB of RAM would be for media applications like Photoshop or video editing. For that, he'd want not only 8GB of RAM, but the i7 processor as well.

Dave is going to get a 13" MacBook Pro with Retina display, and is wondering how much RAM he will need. Leo says that 4GB is just fine with the base models. If he wants to spend another $100, he can double the RAM, but it's not necessary. He could put that towards an SSD.