There are a number of reasons for wanting to know the specifications of a PC or notebook. This is especially true when you are wondering whether it is slow or should be upgraded. The same is true when buying or selling a laptop or when a computer is able to determine whether it can run a particular program or game.

Nevertheless, once you have left your PC or laptop box, it may be difficult to know the exact specifications.

Some PCs and laptops come with stickers that tell you the key specifications, but you do not have to be embarrassed. You can easily check your laptop or PC spec.

Understanding Laptop and PC Specs It

is very simple in Windows 10. Right-click the Start button (small window icon) and select Device Manager. This will give you a lot of information, including your processor and graphics card.

To find the RAM specification, right-click the Start button again and select System. This gives you a summary of the operating system and information about the installed RAM.

For Windows 8 users, hover over the upper right corner of the screen to see Charms. Then go to Settings> PC Info. Go to Control Panel> System and Security> System.

It is more difficult in Windows XP or Windows 7. Right-click My Computer and select Properties. Find the system in the Properties window. Now you can see the processor, memory, and operating system in your PC or notebook, no matter what version of Windows you use.

The processor tells you the CPU speed and the specific processor model. The entry for RAM tells you how much memory is available. There are more features, but if you are using a 32-bit operating system, you can only use up to 4GB of RAM.

Finally, the system type entry tells you which version of Windows is running. The latest version of Windows tells you whether it is 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor. 64 bit is more common in recent years.

I recommend Piriform’s Speccy to download and find a small app. The free, unsupported version also analyzes all computers running Windows and summarizes specifications such as motherboard and monitor manufacturer, model name, hard drive and USB connection storage, and temperature.

What graphics card is on your PC?

If you can not open the Control Panel in any version of Windows, or if you can not find it, search the Start menu and search for Device Manager.

Now open the display adapter in the search tree. From there you can see which graphics card your PC or notebook is using. You can also expand the processor to see how many cores the CPU has. For example, a processor may have a virtual core that supports Hyper-Threading.

Understanding Mac Specifications
Apple’s computer and notebook specifications are easier to see. In OS X, click the Apple icon and select About this Mac.