Is you computer faster if u have a larger memory and/or hard drive?

Question

im trying to upgrade my computer to afster speed cuz it really dand slow....... im buying a new computer soon

Answer 1

add more RAM, it's the processor memory that you need to add more for speed not the hard drive. Good memory size hard drive memory is for storage, if you need to choose one, get more RAM memory

Answer 2

Difficult question since we don't know your system specs. Assuming you're on a PC:

It's recommended that you have at least 1gb of memory. It would probably be best to get a bit more (+500mb) if you're running on Vista. As long as you have this much and you don't really multitask with resource hogs like Photoshop or video editing software, you should be fine.

In terms of the hard drive, you should be fine long as it's 7200rpm (which is standard nowadays) and has at least about 5gb free. When/if your computer runs out of actual memory, it will start to using this free hard drive space (called virtual memory).

What else you could do to make your computer run faster: 1) defragment your hard drive periodically, 2) disable unnecessary startup programs (that appear in your system tray) (this is sometimes tricky with some programs, so Google it if you need more info), 3) Last resort: if you've had your computer for over two years: it wouldn't be a bad idea to backup your data and reformat your drive and reinstall Windows. This clears out old junk in your registry (without having to buy a registry cleaner) and tends to speed everything up. I've gotten in the habit of doing this at least every year or so. It's somewhat annoying having to start all over again, but I find it refreshing!

All of these solutions don't require any money. If you want to shell out money and have the technical know-how, then the first thing to look into is probably getting a new motherboard and CPU.

Answer 3

Are you upgrading? or buying a new computer?

If you are buying a new computer soon, why upgrade the old one?

Any ways, a new hard drive or more memory will only speed it up so much. A hard drive speed doesn't increase the computer speed very much. The memory will be better then the hard drive, but it is pointless to get 4GB of memory if your processor is only 1.2GHz.

The problem? Like have a river run through a garden hose. The river is your memory ability, the garden hose is the processor. The small processor cannot keep up with the speed of the memory, and so your computer is still slow.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

It depends on what you mean by fast.
If you're trying to surf the internet, you'll need a blazing fast Processor (which honestly will help any computer)
If you're playing 3-d games, you'll want RAM and a nice graphics card.
More memory doesn't always help, but cleaning out your files and defragging your HD usually brings up the speed a bit

Answer 5

The RAM is more likely to have a noticeable effect, but only if you're already maxing out the existing memory. A bigger hard drive will let you have more virtual memory, but virtual memory is slower than physical in the first place, and it has a lot of programming overhead in the second place, so it can add to the amount of effective memory, but it won't do much at all about speed.

Answer 6

Ok, i'll tell you like I tell my costomers. Hard drive doesn't affect speed as much as one would think. Let's look at your computer like a car. You have the CPU = engine Memory = Intake and exhaust Hard drive = storage space in your garage. Your memory or intake and exhaust help the performance of your cpu or engine. Hard drive does not affect performance. Well it does, but very little until you get to moving big files and stuff like that. The reason I compare the Hard drive to garage space is because you can store as much **** in your garage as you want and it's not going to make your car any slower. Same with your hard drive. It's the extra 500lbs of dead bodies in your trunk that will make you drive slow. *500lbs of dead bodies = spyware/adware/malware/virus* Upgrading your memory will improve performance. Getting a larger hard drive will give you more room for games/music/videos/pictures/email.

If you click ctrl alt delete and go to task manager right after booting up, with windows 2000 and better you can see the cpu usage% and the memory usage% With windows XP if your CPU is over 10% average and memory is over 360mb You may want to check for spyware. At this point I suggest using hitmanpro which you can download free at http://www.hitmanpro.nl it runs all the major spyware programs with advanced features and cleans it all for you giving you a report at the end as to what it found. It also cleans temp files which is something you should do religiously. You also can tweak your start-up by going to start > run > type msconfig > press ok or enter > go to startup tab > uncheck anything that doesn't need to start with your computer! *basically anything other than your AV, mouse/keyboard software if you have it, sound software, and possibly your printers and stuff like that. Then restart and check the checkbox on the popup that comes up and press ok.* Hope this helps man.

A few minimum stats I suggest for XP
1.5ghz or better Pentium or AMD
512mb of memory *for internet and email, it's fine*
40gb hard drive
~~~~~For Vista~~~~~
-Dual core or better Pentium or x64 amd
-1-4gb of memory *1 is ok for web browsing etc, but still i say 2*
-80gb or better hard drive.

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I keep reading these comments you guys are leaving. A lot of you have a misconception that space=power. Get past that... Read my analogy to a car and hopefully you'll understand. If you have at least a GB or two free on your computer, a bigger hard drive won't make it any faster.
For all of you talking about virtual memory, yes it's needed, but memory can fix that, memory is 1000x faster than virtual memory. Imagine water going through a 10ft wide pipeline between the damn and the reservoir. That's the bandwidth between the CPU and memory. Now imagine a garden hose going from the reservoir to your house, that's the bandwidth of the hard drive in comparison. Relying heavily on VM sucks, it can cause premature hard drive failure and extremely slow performance. You should always have a good amount of memory. Even if it's overkill, memory is cheap, especially in comparison to a new hard drive, a rebuild of windows, and data recovery. Normally when a computer comes in with a dead hard drive we charge at my shop: 80-140 for the hard drive depending on the size 125 for a reload and 60 for 1gb and 5 per gig past that for data. Unless it's so corrupt that you need to go to one of those specialists that are like 3500 bucks... Memory... 50-60 bucks for a gig stick...

Answer 7

I suggest jsut to wait for a new computer. Making upgrades are expensive. Its ok if you will keep your old computer, but if you will junk it forget about the ugrades. Buying Memory will make your PC faster, also buying a new Processor that is compatible with you board(but don't buy it to expensive if you will just it after you get a new computer). Hope this helps

Answer 8

only thing that actually makes a comp faster is a faster a processor....

some people say that increasing RAM will increase the speed of the system, this is partially true...... increasing RAM increases the maximum load capacity of a system at the maximum speed

eg : say you have a 2 Gh processer and 256 MB RAM.....then say you can play winamp, nero and internet explorer simultaneously with good amount of ease.....

but to play even more applications which are even bigger you need more RAM so that they can simultaneously load their data in RAM.....

bigger hard disk does not increase the speed too......just be more reasonable and think of any good reason for how can a hardisk increase the processor speed. You wont find any.......only thing is that you can get a better hard disk in terms of speed of the disk like SATA over ATA hard disk...if you have sata1 then get SATA2,etc............

Answer 9

U can get a better processor or ram, that would boost up ur speed. Having more memory doesn't necessarily make ur comp go faster.. It might by a little..

Answer 10

it depends, why would u upgrade if you're buyin a new comp? more memory would be the first step, hard drive...maybe. you could change the processor but that might mean changing you mother board and stuff and you dont want to if your "buying a new one soon" anyway.