Advantages

• When used in a system with an adequate amount of RAM installed, virtual memory allows the end user to extend the system's capabilities by creating more resources than are actually installed in the system. In cases where huge spreadsheets are being constructed or large CAD files are being worked on, this is crucial to allowing the user to complete the project, where otherwise the system would have returned an "out of memory" error and crashed.
  
  

Disadvantages

• To fully comprehend the cost to system performance when using virtual memory to replace RAM memory it is necessary to understand that RAM memory is exponentially faster than the fastest hard drive technology available. In layperson's terms, if an operation would normally take one second when it is performed in RAM, that same operation would take over a minute and a half to complete using virtual memory space. Now, given that each click of the mouse could translate into that one operation mentioned previously, the net effect that using virtual memory has on a user's computing experience can be fully understood.
  
  

Costs Analysis

• Add to the performance differential the fact that RAM is relatively inexpensive to upgrade and that doing so will increase almost every aspect of the computer's performance, and the concept of using hard drive memory in place of RAM would appear to be a losing proposition. At today's pricing structure, mid-2009, a gigabyte of RAM can be purchased for between $12.50 and $17.00 with that cost expected to continue to decline moving forward. The typical system sold in today's marketplace is expandable to 4 gigabytes, with some of the better units being able to accommodate 8 gigabytes of RAM.
  
  

Misconceptions

• It should be noted that virtual memory's capacity to extend the system's working memory is often used by the inexperienced user to load too many programs into memory during the boot process, rendering the system nearly incapacitated when it finally boots up. One symptom to watch for is if your system experiences continuous or near continuous hard drive activity during routine operation.
  
  

Warnings

• The overuse of memory resident programs being loaded at start-up will create a situation in which all of the available systems resources are taken over at log-in time leaving the system's capabilities degraded.