64MB of RAM, 20GB hard drive, or 128MB of RAM and a 10GB hard drive?
Well, RAM is random access memory. That’s the memory the computer works out of. The more of it you have, the more room it has to work in. The rest of the memory is where it keeps what it’s not currently working with. And since that memory’s getting cheap as dirt, I say get the bigger RAM.
Go with the RAM. 128mb is pretty much the standard these days, anyway. You can always buy a bigger hard drive later.
Yeah, but you can always buy more RAM later too.
It really all depends on what you’re going to do with the computer. Are you going to use it for surfing the internet? Word processing? Games?
This probably should be in IMHO, but I’d go with the bigger hard drive. I think it’s much easier to add RAM than add or change hard drives later.
In addition to what ace said, RAM is dirt cheap these days (to the tune of 128 MB for $30-$40); go with the larger HD.
Guh. And replace your name with OneChance’s. Sorry, it’s late.
Depends what you want it for really, but for demanding programs (like games) you really want to go for the RAM. 64meg RAM is quite small nowadays.(Also, unless you are playing games I cant really see why you would need 20 gigs of space anyway, unless its for storing a LOT of MP3s or something)
Is this for a new computer or are you upgrading? if you are upgrading and you have quite a slow processor (maybe 300 mhz or below [im not sure about that] then your system wont improve that much with 128 megs rather than with 64 because your processor will bottleneck the speed. However, if it is a new computer with 600 mhz+ processor, the 128 megs of RAM will really speed up the system when compared with 64.
I say go with the RAM
Ram affects how well your machine operates, HD space affects how much stuff, useful or junk, you can accumulate. You will notice too little RAM today but only run out of disk space as you accumulate more stuff over time.
Its kind of a pointless question as we don’t know if its a PC or a Mac.
The best computer is one that works.
I was wondering when handy would chime in with his standard shotgun response to just about all computer questions:
Q: Shoud my computer’s on/off switch be on or off for me to be able to use it?
A: Its kind of a pointless question as we don’t know if its a PC or a Mac.
In other words, yes handy we can answer many computer questions without knowing whether it’s a PC or a MAC.
I say go for the RAM. I agree with others who said what in the hell are you going to do with 20G hard drive? I have 3G from 6 years ago. It’s the only PC I have at home and I use it constantly & have loads of files on it, and to this day I still haven’t managed to fill up more than 2G, and a lot of that is probably trash anyway. Unless you plan on archiving MP3s or something, you will probably get the most use out of twice the RAM rather than twice the HD space.
I disagree with Attrayant completely. I ma a gamer, and mp3 listener, and I collect LOTS of stuff. Now, I admit, Attrayant did say that he doesn’t really archieve anything, but me on the other hand, no way. I have 2 40gig harddrives that are in raid formation, and they are always having to be cleaned because of lack of space. I say go with the ram unless you aren’t gonna be doing much more than basic applications (surfing the net, word processing). If you are a gamer, I say fork out an additional $100 and get both. Harddrives and ram are both so cheap now’a days, I wouldn’t think twice about it. Lemme tell ya, I have a pretty good deal of resources, but being the kinda user I am, it gets loaded up quick, sop like the others said earlier, it really depends on what you are planning to do. Take me for instance. I have this setup. [ul]
[li]Dual PIII 700 @ 932 a piece[/li][li]312 mb PC133 Ram[/li][li]2 40gb 7200rpm IBM deskstar’s in Raid Level 0 configuration[/li][li]32mb DDR Radeon All-in-Wonder[/li][li]Windows 2000 Professional[/li][/ul]
Now, this may seem like a lot, but I am aching for an upgrade. I am haevy into Adobe Photoshop, video editing and 3D intensive games. Get a bunch of stuff you need and you should be fine.
Hmmm, well if you’re on a dial-up, I say go for the RAM. It’ll take you forever to fill up 20 gigs.
OTOH, if you’ve got a decent xDSL or cable connection, go with the big drive and buy some RAM later. I hate my 6 gig drive. It’s simply not enough. But then, I’m in a constant state of download. I snag 1 to 2 gigs a day and burn everything onto CDs. I wish my drive was bigger so I didn’t have to burn so often.
Wow! I can’t believe that this post is generating so many responses! The last time I checked, the difference in mail-order prices between 10 gig drives and 20 gig drives was a whopping $9. Hell, for another $20, you can jump to a 40 gig drive!
I say, indulge, go crazy, SPLURGE!!! HDD capacity AND RAM have never been so cheap! For less than $150, you can have 128 megs of RAM AND a 40 gig HDD.
Go with the RAM 64Meg is not enough memory for modern operating systems and modern applications.
"Q: Shoud my computer’s on/off switch be on or off for me to be able to use it?
A: Its kind of a pointless question as we don't know if its a PC or a Mac. "
It is pointless because Macs don’t need 20 gig HD’s & they appreciate the extra memory.
PC’s don’t need 20 gig hard drives either. Users need storage. Machines don’t. (Beyond O/S install.) Storage is storage in my book. Do Macs have a magical compression utility that I’m unaware of?
And a PC built with current parts and a current O/S appreciates the memory every bit as much as a Mac.
Maybe for once you’d care to elaborate?
I’m with TBone on this one. Go for 128 megs and 40 gigs bare minimum. You’re saving so little by skimping on essentials.
What a thread… :rolleyes:
Why didn’t someone mention this earlier? $20 for a 40 gig hard drive, are you sure? Anyway, thats mail order, and aceospades still hasn’t been back so we dont know if he is upgrading or what.
Bolding mine for effect
I have a 20GB hard-drive, don’t download much of anything (maybe 15MB of .mp3s, I’m on 56K so it takes a while) and I have to clean old stuff off occasionally. If you are using the computer for games, I’d think about how many you plan to have installed at a time, and give yourself a gig for each one. True, most install for less than that, but many games also need a pretty big exclusive swap file, and some games (i.e. Baldur’s Gate) are quite a bit bigger than a gig.
I too am somewhat baffled by handy’s comment. Storage is storage, no matter what platform you are using. I have noticed that Macs tend to have much smaller HDs than PCs on average, though…