More Megabyte RAM or more Gigabytes of space?

I have a really cruddy CPU. A dell that has a speed of 256 MB RAM and 40 GB of space. When your done laughing, please help me in my decision. I do not know what I should buy. More gigs or more RAM. My brother has an HP 512 MB RAM and stock 60 GB upgraded with 80 more. Its incredibly fast (for me) and fits my needs. My problem is that I probably wont be able to afford both RAM and Gigs, so I need to decide. Can anyone help me? I am told that more Gigabytes means that my PC will run more smoothly although I do not understand how that is possible. The RAM seems to make more sense but if my thoughts on this are wrong please correct me.

More gigs can mean more than one thing. Assuming you get a better Hard Drive as well, you will bump from a 5200RPM HDD to 7200RPM HDD. Thats assuming your HDD is already slow. If you are not running out of space though, I would say get more RAM. I also assume you are using Windows XP, and it recommends and needs more than 256MB of RAM. It should surely speed up your system. I would add a 512MB or 1GB if you can afford it.

-Cameron

You want more RAM. If your hard drive is full (to a point where Windows warns about it) you will gain some performance, but not much. If you're running Windows XP, the least RAM I would recommend having is 512MB, but I'd recommend 1GB if you can afford it. Windows 2000 seems to run very well on 256MB and... forget Windows ME.

I buy all my stuff from http://zipzoomfly.com . It's a pleasure to deal with them -- fast shipping, good prices. NewEgg.com sometimes has decent prices too.

Mags - RAM and GB of hard drive space are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to computers and not where you will gain the most performance increases either. The main things to look for when talking about speed are (in order of importance) the CPU speed (usually in GHz), the cache size (memory on the chip), the bus speed of the CPU, then the amount, type & speed of the RAM being used, the graphics card if you're gaming, video, or CAD type stuff and finally the size, type and the speed of the harddrive. I suggest you take some time looking around the web for explainations of what each of these means so that you can better understand what each can do for you. What you intend to use the computer for has a great deal to do with what kind of hardware and software you will choose.

The computer I am using right now is used for 3D solid modeling using Pro/Engineer and stress analysis using Pro/Mechanica (also ROCKS at running games) which is why this computer has the specs listed below (mind you this is a laptop purchased in January of 2005, which means there are better ones available now):

1.8 GHz CPU Pentium M (equal to a 2.8 GHz P4)
1 MB L2 cache (memory physically on the CPU)
2 GB RAM
80 GB (7200 RPM) hard drive
ATI Mobility Fire GL T2 graphics card with 128 MB of dedicated RAM

I would suggest you look around at the Dell, IBM, HP (Compaq), etc. web sites to brush up on what is available and what you can afford.

BTW - If you work anywhere that has an IT (computer department) they may be of use in explaining more in depth and faster than surfing the web.

Good Luck...

Agree on that if you aren't out of space, get memory!!!

But the last 'puter I had with 256 and 40 was a 486! This HP does everything (except CPF often) plenty fast! 512mb and 200gb!!!

Right, unless your hard drive is full there's no point in upgrading it. And CPU speed (MHz or GHz) is more important to computer speed than memory, although have to little RAM will seriously slow things down.

One thing most people overlook is the software on the computer. An old, buggy, or corrupt install of Windows, spyware, or just plain crappy software will slow a computer down more than low memory ever could. Even new computers come loaded with bad junk (Compaq, cough). Unless you're playing 3D games or CPU-intensive applications you'd be surprised how little a speed difference there is in daily use. Honestly, people get way to caught up in latest-and-greatest hardware. There's almost no way any computer that came with 256/40 is cruddy or slow unless you're really pushing it.

When I put a fresh software install on a 400-500 MHz box with ~128MB RAM and a ~10GB hard drive, it almost always feels faster than most near-new computers that have been in use for a while. Until you get into low Pentium II territory (<333 or thereabouts) for average use it's no problem. My everday machine is a homemade 1.53 GHz Athlon and after six months of careful use it's still faster than the 2.4+ Dells most of the local offices seem to buy.

RAM.

I'm on a lappy with only 40 Gigs and I do fine. RAM determines how much your computer can do (generally) and with 256 MB... My lappy has around 768 (or whatever it is) MB RAM and it runs fine.

If you need space, HD's are cheap nowadays, so a decent sized 250 gig drive shouldn't run you over 100 bucks. Much less if you buy it in the right season.
But first update your ram. Your ram is probably whats killing your system right now.

If your computer is too slow though, you might want to think of an upgrade. CPU is extremely important also. Dell sell cheap computers (yes, I know people hate dell), but they run well.

RAM. My laptop's got only 10 gigs of HD space (total!) Of course, I do have an external HD (160gb), but that is a recent purchase, which I made after discovering Bit Torrent. Before Bit Torrent and P2P, though, 10 gigs was just fine for basic computing (internet use, namely, CPF and eBay shopping) It's an older 1Ghz P3, but it does pretty good for an old girl. My last installation of windows (xp pro) was kinda buggy (no use of flash/SD drives (including my camera) or my DVD burner), but I'll get that sorted out, eventually. Oh yeah, I've got 1 gig of RAM. Memory helps, especially if you're in the habit of running lots of stuff at once. My computer used to lock up when I had only 256mb. After I upgraded to 512mb, the lock ups went away. They seemed to happen when I had a bunch of windows open. Anyway, RAM, RAM, RAM!

Just in case there's a real problem, what is the CPU (you say it's crap, but don't mention what it is!), and what kind of RAM is it? In the not-too-rare case (if it's a few years old) of a Pentium 4 (Celeron 1.7GHz or higher, as well) and SDR SDRAM, it's almost hopeless. More RAM could help, but it would still be very slow.

If it's a PII or PIII (Celeron up to 1.4GHz) with SDR SDRAM, you're good to get more RAM. Similarly, if it is a P4 (or Celeron 1.7GHz or higher) w/ DDR, you're fine to just get more.

If you're running Windows XP with only 256MB RAM, you simply need more.

Also, think about backing up your data, getting your program CDs together, and wiping the thing. Windows can easily get junked up.

Here's how it works with storage/speed:
CPU<->RAM<->HDD
The CPU works on data it gets. It has its own internal memory, cache, that is very fast--but very small! It attempts to figure out what it needs next, and what it no longer needs, and load and unload the cache. If it fails to figure out what it needs to load into that fast memory, or you something that moves too much in and out too fast, it must go out to main memory, RAM. RAM is much slower than the CPU's cache, but with enough cache, and speedy RAM, that slowness is typically hidden.

If you go over the amount of RAM you have, it must swap out chunks of data in RAM to space on the hard drive. While the RAM may be slow compared to the CPU, the hard drive is hundreds, often thousands of times, slower (likewise, it can be that much larger in capacity). So, in the case of Windows XP w/ 256MB RAM (it will typically idle around 200MB, IME, for major OEM boxes), you are very often doing this swapping. You're going from the CPU taking nanoseconds to access data, to it taking milliseconds. S L O W.

If it is a laptop, a faster hard drive can help; for a desktop, the difference is minimal, unless your PC is a desktop old enough to be using a 5400 RPM drive. For basic desktop uses, it's usually all about lots of RAM.

Finally, being a Dell, it doesn't have Norton Internet Security Suite, does it? If it does, wipe that OFF (it turns anything into a snail), after doing some Googling for personal firewalls (several good free ones, nowadays), and get a nice little AV client, like Avast!, ClamWin, or AVG.

What carrot said, and I'll add pricewatch.com as an excellent source of cheap computer parts.

A final thought... You're probably running a PII box... instead of spending the money in upgrading it, you could also save up for a bit and get a more modern box. You can get a really decent system for $400-500 these days (more than enough for school, internet, and basic graphics/multimedia). By the time you pay for a new hard drive (for storage) and/or new memory (for performance), you'd be dishing out about half of that anyway - and that's assuming you can find memory for your older system at a decent price.

I agree with the Green guy -- a new basic system is so inexpensive now it makes little sense to spend much on the upgrades you're talking about.

I've been shopping for a laptop but have seen some desktop deals with lcd monitor, printer and XP os for under $400 (after rebates).

If your still a little confused by RAM and hard drive space and processor speed, you can think of it this way.

Lets say you have an office, just a single room with a desk, a file cabinet and you.

The file cabinet can be thought of as your hard drive space. Its where all your stuff gets stored, you can't see all of it at once, but if you need something you can go get it. The larger the file cabinet the more files you can store, and equivelantly the larger your hard drive, the more files you can store.

The size of your desk can be thought of as your RAM. Its the space that holds everything you are working on right now. The larger the desk or RAM, the more stuff you can lay out and be working on, and equivelantly the amount of programs you can be using at once.

The speed of your processor can be thought of as how fast you can do things yourself. How fast you can process data, and equivelantly how fast your computer can process data.

So if any one of these things is severly small or low, you won't be able to work effectively, just like your computer won't be able to work effectively. If all of them are big and fast, you can get lots done quickly, just as your computer will be very fast.

Hope this helps.

-Blake

Sorry I didnt add more information before. Yes it is a P4, its a PC, and it runs on Windows XP. From all Ive collected so far, it seems that RAM is the way to go. My only problem is finding out all the stats of it. I cant find the original papers on the computer and properties of "my computer" wont give me the info I need to find the correct RAM product for my PC.

Sorry I dont know too much about computers so please forgive me for my slow-ness.
These are the only stats I could find.


Dell DIMENSION DIM3000
Intel(R)
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80 GHz
2.79 GHz, 256 MB of RAM



Edit again
System:
Microsoft Windows XP
Home Edition
Version 2002
Service Pack 2

Mags said:

Sorry I didnt add more information before. Yes it is a P4, its a PC, and it runs on Windows XP. From all Ive collected so far, it seems that RAM is the way to go. My only problem is finding out all the stats of it. I cant find the original papers on the computer and properties of "my computer" wont give me the info I need to find the correct RAM product for my PC.

Click to expand...

If you have the model number of your PC, a quick trip to Dell's support website might tell you what you need-- I know that this was the case for my parents' Compaq. Or you could try Googling the model number with a few choice keywords.

My computer knowledge is pretty basic, but it seems that your system has the basic capabilities to be worth upgrade rather than replacement.

Max out the ram. The older the machine is, the cheaper more ram will be. Whenever I build or buy a machine I always do it with the intention of maxing out the ram and running it a few years before moving up to a faster cpu.

I know that MS and Intel have tried to convince everyone that they need to buy a box with the fastest CPU and the least memory available and then dump it and do it all over again when a faster cpu comes along -- but they're nuts. Pssst, don't tell anyone else.

Your hdd is almost the slowest part of your box. What good does it do to have some whiz-bang-fast cpu if it spends most of it's time waiting for hdd writes because it's in swap hell?

By and large, memory is cheap.

As usual, the Orange One has the right (mis)information. :nana: Yup, he's good.

Last time I bought extra memory for my XPS, I went straight to to crucial.com and used their memory chooser app. It's on their main page, just choose from the drop-down menus - it'll sort it out for you. Usually crucial had very decent prices for memory too.

Don't forget to pop open your box to check how many memory slots you have available.

you've got a fairly current machine, so upgrading RAM is always good.

but I suspect something else is going on. a PC loaded with spyware and other free-loading software hogging memory. will run slower than molasses.

if you have not done so, download clamwin an excellent free anti virus. also download spybot, also free.

you should be running a free firewall like sygate.

if you have not done so, enable win XP updates.

did you notice FREE in solutions posted

I would try the free solutions first to make sure that it is not software that is bugging your computer down before you spend the money for more ram, although more memory is always good. Along with the anti virus software, try getting ad aware, spybot and probably CCleaner. These are what I use at least. All of them are free.

That computer isn't even slightly cruddy. Properly set up, something that speed should be useful for years unless you get into bleeding-edge games.

Add Microsoft's Anti Spyware program, too.