Your hard drive capacity/space dictates how many programs you can install on your PC at one time, or how many files you can download, or whatever. It's your storage space! Putting files and downloads on your hard disk doesn't really slow your PC down (There are exceptions, but they're rare and irrelevant for the purpose of this discussion), but running lots of programs at one time does and that's where RAM/Memory comes in.
System RAM/Memory is a virtual scratch piece of paper; every time you load a program, the PC first tries to put its functions in system memory, because memory is very fast. Windows also tries to load as much of itself as possible in system memory, because that significantly accelerates the PC and the PC's operation. The more memory you have, the more applications you can load at one time, and the more Windows can load itself into memory. When you run out of room in this virtual scratch piece of paper, the computer starts using the hard drive's page file as the scratch piece of paper, and this is hundreds of times slower. The page file is a section of the hard disk on your PC set aside to function like memory when the PC runs out of RAM to use at the present time; it's so damn slow because the hard drive is a mechanical device -- it physically has to position a metal armature on a section of the hard drive. RAM is quick because it's all done electronically, it's as fast as physics and modern engineering lets it be.
I think you can see why having more RAM is definitely a good thing, but don't mistake it for having more room for programs and downloads.
That said, download a program called BelArc Advisor and run it on your PC. Copy and paste the results of the analysis back on this thread and we can help you pick the right memory for your PC.
I guess I need to know what you're truly looking for.
Is your computer pretty sluggish when you turn it on and try to run programs?
- OR -
Are you looking for more space to install programs?
If it's the former, yes that is system memory, and you'll install it in the long, horizontal black slots at the top of THIS PICTURE. Your motherboard, which is the brain of the PC, to which all devices in your PC are connected, will look very similar to this when you open your case.
Well, I might buy one of those items you suggested just to make my computer slicker. It's not too sluggish but it could do with improving.
What I'm really looking for though is more storage space which I'm guessing is more expensive. Can you suggest any products? I live in the UK too so I don't know if that would make any difference as to which products would be compatible.
Dan P, it looks like your hard drive is almost full. They become slower when they are so full. The problem is you have a very basic understanding of your computer so the easiest thing for you to do is add an EXTERNAL Hard Drive. All you have to do is plug it into a USB slot and you can add more stuff.
Later on you should add more memory like Thrax suggested. Also when you get the new Hard Drive try to move some of the junk from your main Hard Drive to the External one so its not so full.
Your right, my computer knowledge is not the best althougth I get there in the end with the help of this forum.
I liked the look of that external hard drive but from looking around on newegg.com, you can get double the memory for nearly the same price with an internal hard drive. So my question is, how hard is it to install a new internal hard drive?
Just an FYI, the places you want to be getting hardware from would be: Dabs, eBuyer, Scan and Komplett. You'll find they are up to 70% cheaper than places like "PC World" and other scam artists. There's no point looking on US sites like NewEgg.
Internal hard-drives aren't hard to install. It's just a case of open the case (eh) plugging the Hard-Drive into one of the Molex (power) connectors then putting it onto one of the IDE cables (assuming you're still on IDE rather than SATA). Only thing you may need to do it change that drive or something else from Master to Slave or Visa Versa (just involves moving a little pin jumper on the back of the drive). Takes about 5 minutes if that.
Dan P, I am not trying to critisize your knowledge but you should really get the EXTERNAL HDD till you know more about the inside.
To install one inside you need to know about ide cables, Jumpers, power lines and cooling.
One HDD will have to be the master (the old HDD) and the new one will have to be configured to slave.
Than the HDDs will have to be on 1 IDE cable and the CD rom's will have to be on another cable, BLablabla...
To tell you the truth I or someone here can probably take some pictures and walk you through it if you feel up to the challenge.
I will make a blog with pictures for you, You just have to tell me what computer you have and what new HDD ur buying and il take pictures and post them for you.
Packard Bell NEC Packard Bell Computer P700404601
All the system details are above.
I haven't decided what hard drive to buy yet.
What is the difference between IDE & SATA?
You wont be able to use Sata with ur motherboard unless you buy a Sata controller card.
just get a IDE but look for one with a 8MB Buffer(better) or a 16mb BUFFER (best) and definately 7200 rpm.
LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
edited May 2006
Dan, I think you have selected a good quality hard drive with plenty of storage capacity for a very good price. Most of the major brand hard drives - Western Digital, Maxtor, Seagate, Hitachi, if it's a retail purchase, come with an instruction guide and CD software to transfer your data and operating system from the old drive to the new. The software will also enable you to install the new drive as a second drive, leaving the old drive in the computer. It's really not very difficult. Most of these drives have very good instructions. If you plan on doing that, just make sure you aren't buying an "OEM" drive. An OEM drive is just as good as the retail version, it just doesn't come with instructions, cable, and software. If you have doubts as to if a drive is OEM or not, just post a link here.
If it makes you feel better I don't ever recall the first time I installed a hard drive(so nothing must have happened lol).... It's just two cables to connect and from what I have seen the "jumper" is usually set to Cable Select by default which is generally the best way to keep it IMHO.
Dan, I think you have selected a good quality hard drive with plenty of storage capacity for a very good price. Most of the major brand hard drives - Western Digital, Maxtor, Seagate, Hitachi, if it's a retail purchase, come with an instruction guide and CD software to transfer your data and operating system from the old drive to the new. The software will also enable you to install the new drive as a second drive, leaving the old drive in the computer. It's really not very difficult. Most of these drives have very good instructions. If you plan on doing that, just make sure you aren't buying an "OEM" drive. An OEM drive is just as good as the retail version, it just doesn't come with instructions, cable, and software. If you have doubts as to if a drive is OEM or not, just post a link here.
Nothing wrong with buying OEM. Just means it comes in a white box rather than a pretty one and normally ends up costing a nice amount less.
0
LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
edited May 2006
Right you are, Enverex. I had recommended a retail driv to Dan P because of the instructions and drive transfer software CD that comes with the package.
Depends on who it's from. I've ordered OEM before and on occasion still got cables/manuals/free games with them... which seems a bit odd, leaving the only thing that stays constant is the fact that it doesn't come in its proper box
Looks fine. Anything from the current 250GB+ Hitachi, Seagate, Western Digital or Samsung range would be fine. I just bought two of the Hitachi 250GB drives myself actually...
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LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
edited May 2006
I am a big fan of the Hitachi DeskStars - fast and very quiet, and very competitively priced. I used to partial WD and Maxtor, in that order. I'm now shifting to Seagate and Hitachi.
Comments
My RAM capacity is 256MB
Hard Disk: 72.57 GB
I just want to be able to store more things on my computer without it running slowly but I don't where to start as far as buying more memory.
As far as my budget, I'ld say about $100 but I would spend more if it was worth it.
Your hard drive capacity/space dictates how many programs you can install on your PC at one time, or how many files you can download, or whatever. It's your storage space! Putting files and downloads on your hard disk doesn't really slow your PC down (There are exceptions, but they're rare and irrelevant for the purpose of this discussion), but running lots of programs at one time does and that's where RAM/Memory comes in.
System RAM/Memory is a virtual scratch piece of paper; every time you load a program, the PC first tries to put its functions in system memory, because memory is very fast. Windows also tries to load as much of itself as possible in system memory, because that significantly accelerates the PC and the PC's operation. The more memory you have, the more applications you can load at one time, and the more Windows can load itself into memory. When you run out of room in this virtual scratch piece of paper, the computer starts using the hard drive's page file as the scratch piece of paper, and this is hundreds of times slower. The page file is a section of the hard disk on your PC set aside to function like memory when the PC runs out of RAM to use at the present time; it's so damn slow because the hard drive is a mechanical device -- it physically has to position a metal armature on a section of the hard drive. RAM is quick because it's all done electronically, it's as fast as physics and modern engineering lets it be.
I think you can see why having more RAM is definitely a good thing, but don't mistake it for having more room for programs and downloads.
That said, download a program called BelArc Advisor and run it on your PC. Copy and paste the results of the analysis back on this thread and we can help you pick the right memory for your PC.
Cheers.
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 1 (build 2600)
2.40 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache
77.92 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
11.93 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8240B [CD-ROM drive]
HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8161B [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]
WDC WD800AB-00CBA1 [Hard drive] (80.03 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WCAA52284900, rev 04.07B04, SMART Status: Healthy
Standard floppy disk controller
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
SiS PCI IDE Controller
SiS 7001 PCI to USB Open Host Controller (2x)
Board: NEC COMPUTERS INTERNATIONAL SiS650 1.0
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 3.0B 11/02/2002
192 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot '0' is Empty
Slot '1' has 256 MB
c: (NTFS on drive 0) 77.92 GB 11.93 GB free
Is your computer pretty sluggish when you turn it on and try to run programs?
- OR -
Are you looking for more space to install programs?
If it's the former, yes that is system memory, and you'll install it in the long, horizontal black slots at the top of THIS PICTURE. Your motherboard, which is the brain of the PC, to which all devices in your PC are connected, will look very similar to this when you open your case.
What I'm really looking for though is more storage space which I'm guessing is more expensive. Can you suggest any products? I live in the UK too so I don't know if that would make any difference as to which products would be compatible.
Thanks for your help so far.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144381
Later on you should add more memory like Thrax suggested. Also when you get the new Hard Drive try to move some of the junk from your main Hard Drive to the External one so its not so full.
Also dont forget to Defrag your Hard Drive.
Your right, my computer knowledge is not the best althougth I get there in the end with the help of this forum.
I liked the look of that external hard drive but from looking around on newegg.com, you can get double the memory for nearly the same price with an internal hard drive. So my question is, how hard is it to install a new internal hard drive?
http://www.dabs.com
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/home/
http://www.scan.co.uk
http://www.komplett.co.uk
To install one inside you need to know about ide cables, Jumpers, power lines and cooling.
One HDD will have to be the master (the old HDD) and the new one will have to be configured to slave.
Than the HDDs will have to be on 1 IDE cable and the CD rom's will have to be on another cable, BLablabla...
To tell you the truth I or someone here can probably take some pictures and walk you through it if you feel up to the challenge.
All the system details are above.
I haven't decided what hard drive to buy yet.
What is the difference between IDE & SATA?
just get a IDE but look for one with a 8MB Buffer(better) or a 16mb BUFFER (best) and definately 7200 rpm.
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=18843410810&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3NwZWNpZmljYXRpb25z&product_uid=52159
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=18843559126&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&product_uid=81595
Well I was going to buy this one
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=18843559126&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&product_uid=81595
but it says OEM at the end.
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/108778
Or maybe this;
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=18846606290&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&product_uid=74135
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/108778