RAM (aka random-access memory) is made up of small, solid-state chips that take in this electric charge. Exactly how much RAM you need depends on what sort of tasks your computer performs. Roughly speaking, the average user needs at least 4 gigabytes (GB) of RAM to enjoy a snappy user experience with multitasking and multimedia playback. However, if your work or play frequently involves high processing requirements or lots of media content/applications running simultaneously, I would recommend 8 GB or 16 GB so you’ll have plenty left over for other things when one process hogs your system’s resources – like after installing something new and different to see how it works.