Should I buy 2gigs of ram instead of 4gigs and use the money I saved to buy an S

[pertshire]

Hi,
I'm going to build a family PC and its going to be used for light applications and some gaming. I know for a fact that an SSD is the better performer vs 4gigs would ever hope for but my parents who is financing the build doesn't believe me and I need help convincing them. They seem to belive marketing hype. I'm thinking of the Kingston 64gb ssdnow v for £80 on ebuyer.
Pls I need help and budget is tight by the way.

 

[jones911]

I would personally go with the 4 gigs of ram. I do not see the point in purchasing a SSD if you are only doing some "light" gaming. But if you plan on getting a SSD go with something bigger than 64GB, not going to be able to put to many games on an SSD that small. I am also guessing you woud install your OS on the SSD so that would give you even less space.

 

[sminlal]

Where I live another 2GB of memory is less than half the cost of the 64GB Kingston drive. So it's not exactly an even choice.

While I agree that 2GB is probably OK for light use and beyond that an SSD is more likely to be a benefit - it's not a complete slam dunk. It really depends on your individual usage pattern.

If you're running relatively large games or if you have a fair number of programs open simultaneously, your system might benefit from more than 2GB. And a system that doesn't have enough memory is usually worse off than a system that has a slower disk.

You have to combine this with an understanding that the SSD will make the system boot and start up programs faster, but generally won't run things any faster once they've started up.

So I think it's a tough call to make. The best reason to go with the SSD might be that it will be an easier and cheaper upgrade to add another 2GB of memory later than it would be to switch to an SSD and have to completely reinstall the OS.

 

[WarraWarra]

For light gaming 2gb should be enough with a half decent video card like Ati 5770 or better.

Windows x32 will use 2gb max and can be fooled to use 3gb with a c:/boot.ini cheat " /3GB "
I would not use anything but windows XP 32 / 64 myself.

30GB is enough for win Xp + 15gb games (3x5gb) and 12gb free space including MS office installed on my laptop OCZ SSD. NO NOISE so very very nice.

64GB, Win7 / vista needs big drive or games on slow / old hard drive = mixed speeds results if your games works on Win7.

For what you might use I would really go for 2gb ram and later 4gb when you can and do the 32gb or 64gb ssd instead. Ram can always be added later if needed.

Keep in mind when you or your parents use the pc with a SSD it would seriously impress them to see win7x64 slower than turtles stuck in mud will likely boot in 15 secs or be usable in about 30 seconds. Same goes for other windows versions but might see real results on games / firefox / office program opening / loading.

No more start the pc, make coffee / tea, walk the dog and hope the pc is in widows by the time you get back from all that.

The extra 2gb ram would likely never be used or used so few times that it is just not worth it.

+ windows pagefile or fake ram / fake temp storage of frequent used programs will be on the SSD so will likely run at 250MB/s native SSD speeds where on a old SATA2 hard drive it would get to max 60mb/s about. This will compensate for gaming load times much more than ram would when using a SSD.

The good:
In english, the SSD is fast and feels fast / no real wait times for anything and compensates for lack of extra RAM.
No wait = less frustrations with pc or when bad norton anti virus scans files in the background. Ram can not give you this benefit, Intel I7 can not give me this benefit.
SSD is likely a better investment than buying a new motherboard / cpu and costs much less. Uses almost no power no noise and runs cold.

The bad:
Small space so will have to use your old hard drive as storage space and only use SSD for workspace and safe other files backup to old hard drive.
Win7X64 will waist at least 11GB to 20GB and this can be a problem on a 30GB SSD. It is 2.5" laptop drive size and not 3.5" so will have to creatively install it or use old floppy drive brackets if not with SSD in the box.

You would need a SATAII connection on the motherboard and maybe have the SSD as first hard drive with old hard drive as 2nd ide / ultra ata / SATAII storage space.

PS> some free programs like Western Digital Acronis true Image home or disktool something will clone your files directly from the old drive to new without needing to install anything other than Acronis free program from Western Digital.
Might just need to change cable on hard drives or in bios change drive boot order.
Very simple and convenient. IE: old hard drive = 1st and ssd 2nd , after complete change ssd to 1st and old to 2nd.

Kingston might have the same tools on the cd no idea. Looks for minm read 270MB/s / write 260MB/s speeds on the SSD as is now normal now.

Use newegg.com SSD section to get useful info on speeds / brands and read p on possible problems before buying.

Keep in mind it might only be labeled as 60GB instead of 64GB.
Sequential Access - Read: up to 280MB/s
Sequential Access - Write: up to 270MB/s
64GB / 60GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211485
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226151
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227542
40GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226168
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231397

Speed or space the choice is yours both 285MB/s and 200MB/s will knock your socks off. 30GB for half the price can work fine as well for windows XP.
Use www.xe.com to convert from USD$ to GBP.

Hope this helps.

 

[pertshire]

Wow thanks guys for the advise, now they will surely buy the SSD. Thanks.

 

[pertshire]

Best answer selected by pertshire.