Rather than storing data permanently like in large capacity hard drives, RAM provides a temporary cache that your system uses to store the data that you are currently using. This makes accessing the most relevant data much faster, because accessing RAM requires much less time than your hard drive. In fact, most systems are configured to use the hard drive as a substitute for RAM when the RAM is being overloaded with data. This can bring your PC to a crawl, however, and is why having enough RAM is crucial.

DDR3 RAM has been the predominant RAM technology for a good few years now, and its cheapness and high performance are the reason. However, with DDR4 nearly here, and well set to become the motherboard standard, the remaining lifespan of DDR3 RAM is ever shortening.

With a total memory of 16GB, the Corsair CMY16GX3M2A1866C9R Vengeance Pro Series 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1866Mhz CL9 XMP Performance Desktop Memory Kit Red has the capacity to help run a huge array of applications or a very effective server. It goes above and beyond any gaming or general PC usage requirements, and can push the performance of applications like Photoshop - that can utilize a huge amount of designated memory - to the extreme. This Corsair DDR3 RAM has a speed of 1866MHz. RAM speed is not a crucial feature, but it does contribute significantly to PC games and certain applications like video-editing software. 1866MHz is quite fast, so this RAM should have no trouble with either of these.

The CL RAM timing, or CAS latency, for this RAM is 9. This is the time it takes to send a column address and get a response. Generally speaking, the lower the latency the better, but there are other contributing factors such as clock speed.