Recently, I was on the Canadian Dell website customizing a laptop.  This particular notebook I wanted to get 2 GB of RAM.  Just as I was going to check out I noticed that the RAM was only 533 MHz but the front side bus (FSB) of the processor was 667 MHz.  Finding that there was no option, I went on the live help and asked one of the Dell sales people if I could get the better RAM as an option.  The response they gave me is the following:

“Sorry sir, but the motherboard does not support the faster RAM and it is not an option.”

Now you might ask what would that mean to me, right   Well, by not putting the right speed RAM with the right processor, what has been created is a bottleneck.  A bottleneck is a place on the computer that slows down, or hinders the machine from working at its fastest possible speed.  Think of this analogy:

“You go to a motorcycle dealer and they sell you a motorcycle with four wheel drive.  When you take the motorcycle home and try to use it, you realize that you can’t: the motorcycle only has two wheels.”

Needless to say I didn’t buy the laptop because it ended up that it wasn’t a very good deal.  Just do yourself a favor and make sure to check that the RAM speed is the right one for your CPU.