RAM

Stands for "Random Access Memory," and is pronounced like the male goat. RAM is the stuff that software programs run off of. Everytime you open a program, it gets loaded from the hard drive into the RAM. This is because reading data from RAM is extremely fast, whereas reading data from the hard drive is substantially slower. Running programs from the RAM of the computer allows them to function without any lag time. The more RAM you have, the more data can be loaded from the hard drive into the RAM, helping to speed up your computer. In fact, adding RAM can even be more beneficial to your computer's overall performance than upgrading the CPU.