Before you blow $50 on a new stick, it's a good idea to see if you actually need it, or if that money is better spent on another upgrade, like a solid-state drive. You just need to find a compatible stick (which may require some Googling), pop open your computer, and swap the RAM into its dedicated slot.
But if you have a desktop PC or an upgrade-friendly laptop, adding more RAM is usually quite easy.
Unfortunately, in the age of thinner and thinner devices, many modern laptops have their RAM permanently soldered to the motherboard, meaning you can't upgrade it without buying a whole new PC. The more RAM you have, the more projects and programs your computer can keep open at once without getting bogged down by taking things in and out of the proverbial filing cabinet.
Think of your hard drive as a filing cabinet where all your data is stored and the RAM like your desk, where you put the stuff you're currently working on. RAM stands for Random Access Memory, and it's a type of super-fast storage your computer uses to hold data it needs in the short term. If your PC is feeling a little sluggish-plagued by freezing, spinning wheels, or even error messages about 'low memory'-you might need more RAM.
