If all of these things are true, consider buying memory:

 Users are complaining about performance

 The total size of the MDF files on the SQL Server’s hard drives is more than 2x memory
 Page Life Expectancy is averaging under 300 during end user load times (typically
weekday business hours)
 The server’s running a 64-bit version of Windows
 The server has 32GB of memory or less
 Additional memory will cost under $1,000
 You’ve got no SQL Server DBA on staff
 I know, that’s a lot of qualifications, but I’m trying to give you a no-brainer window
where the limited investment in memory is very likely to pay off in increased
performance. 16GB of memory for most modern servers comes in at $500 or less, and
can make an unbelievable performance difference on a SQL Server. I see a lot of SQL
Servers running on boxes with just 4-16GB of memory, trying to support 100GB of
databases, and the sysadmin just needs a quick, easy, and risk-free fix. Memory is
usually that fix.
 If Page Life Expectancy is already over 300 – say, in the tens of thousands – then SQL
Server probably has enough memory to cache data. (DBA readers – yes, I know, I’m
generalizing here. Give your poor sysadmins a break.) That doesn’t mean you can
reduce the amount of memory in the server, either.