Help me settle an office dispute... SSD or RAM?

[JustinBieber]

Hey All,

 

Got a dispute happening in the office at the moment, I am asking our sales guys to quote new PC's with an SSD instead of an extra 4GB of RAM (They come with 4GB pre-installed from HP) and an extra 4GB HP Branded RAM is around the same price as a 256GB SSD here in the UK.

 

I think we will get a much better performance boost out of the PC's by upgrading the SSD rather than the RAM and have a much happier client in the long run... the sales team here disagree so i was hoping a poll of what you guys think may help settle the dispute.

 

If you could vote, that would be great

 

Thanks

 

Edit - PC's will be used for general office work, using all Microsoft Office Applications, Internet Browsing, Sage Accounts (Data located on a server).

[Vacsol]

What will the PCs be used for?

[rikyz97]

Depends on the use you are giving to the computers.

[zappian]

Ram is more important on my book.

 

SSD is so insignificant compared to the added bonus of extra ram to open tabs and programs.

[Faceman]

What kind of work is being done in the office? What specific programs?

[JustinBieber]

What will the PCs be used for?

 

Sorry forgot to add that i have edited the post, PC's will be used for general office work, using all Microsoft Office Applications, Internet Browsing, Sage Accounts (Data located on a server).

[Faceman]

Sorry forgot to add that i have edited the post, PC's will be used for general office work, using all Microsoft Office Applications, Internet Browsing, Sage Accounts (Data located on a server).

Buy 60GB SSDs for the OS and rest of money for 8GB of RAM. If that's not feasible, then just the RAM.

[ForFour]

so it'S 4GB ram and 256gb ssd vs 8GB of ram and a hdd?

if yes i would go with the latter option

[luisbvs]

For office use, they are both really unnecesary in my opinion. However, if there is to have a choice, my technical perspective says memory is more important, however, from experience, I would go for the SSD.

I know this does not clarify much, but I have been using a lot of business computers and not many have more than 4GB, but the ones with SSDs are so much sweeter... so my vote goes for SSD.

[JustinBieber]

so it'S 4GB ram and 256gb ssd vs 8GB of ram and a hdd?

if yes i would go with the latter option

 

Yup thats the options  

[soup]

"The greatest single upgrade to a computer is to put an SSD in it."

 

Mind you there may be many other considerations such as :-

adding RAM costs us $10 but using SSD instead of HDD cost us $15.

Or we want to use as much RAM as possible to get us into a different price bracket.

Or we want to keep our SSD supplier sweet

Or...

So quite possibly what is technicaly 'best' may not be the way to go.

[Faceman]

Find a compromise to get a smaller size SSD and 8GB of RAM.

[SIGSEGV]

SSD, obviously, especially in an office environment it can save you precious time and help you get more done, 4GB is usually enough for anything basic

[ForFour]

imo even for office work 4GB is getting too low considering you can fill it up with just a few chrome tabs. for something more lightweight than windows (linux looking at you) it could be enough but looking at the task manager in windows i have filled up 4GB with only 7 tabs of chrome and a few programs like skype,thunderbird steam ... ,none of which are using more than 100MB

[JustinBieber]

imo even for office work 4GB is getting too low considering you can fill it up with just a few chrome tabs. for something more lightweight than windows (linux looking at you) it could be enough but looking at the task manager in windows i have filled up 4GB with only 7 tabs of chrome and a few programs like skype,thunderbird steam ... ,none of which are using more than 100MB

 

Good point on the Chrome, i guess we will try and go for a smaller ssd and the 4gb RAM.

 

Thanks for the feedback though everyone, appreciate it  

[i_build_nanosuits]

Find a compromise to get a smaller size SSD and 8GB of RAM.

^^THIS you only need a 64GB SSD to install windows 8 and some softwares for example...

Try to find a way to squeeze both a small SSD and 8GB of RAM...cause you will face situations in which 4GB is simply not enough and when that happens you're screwed...especialy if the machines are used in a network of some sort and will have anti-virus and all sort of crap running you'll quickly hit 4GB of RAM usage.

[Cheddle]

8gb ram at a minimum.

4gb is not enough.

[ThomasD]

Right this moment, for a desktop RAM is a better bang for the buck, as RAM prices are not trrending down like SSD prices are.

 

For a laptop I'd say the opposite, if only because the added battery life of not having a spinning platter.

[Faceman]

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/zDKwK8
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/zDKwK8/by_merchant/

Memory: Team Elite 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (£20.50 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 64GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£33.54 @ Aria PC)
Total: £54.04
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-19 20:39 GMT+0000

 

At wholesale prices, you will easily be able to fit a 64GB SSD + 4GB of RAM in that 50 quid per PC budget.  This is your best option, its a no compromise, compromise. Best of both worlds.

[soup]

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/zDKwK8

Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/zDKwK8/by_merchant/

Memory: Team Elite 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (£20.50 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 64GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£33.54 @ Aria PC)

Total: £54.04

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-19 20:39 GMT+0000

 

At wholesale prices, you will easily be able to fit a 64GB SSD + 4GB of RAM in that 50 quid per PC budget.  This is your best option, its a no compromise, compromise. Best of both worlds.

Remember you will need to remove the price of the HDD so even better than it looks.

[Faceman]

Remember you will need to remove the price of the HDD so even better than it looks.

I'm confident that the HDD is not involved in this at all.  HDDs are generally pretty standard, and inexpensive. If I'm wrong, then this needs to be rethought.

[IMPERIUS]

Ram, you can't live witout it but you can live without a ssd

[soup]

@Faceman

 

Selling a working lappy .

do they change to SSD or more RAM

if they go SSD they will no longer need the HDDs so either a huge pile of them or get them without HDDs and so a TOUCH cheaper.

[Jumper118]

Find a compromise to get a smaller size SSD and 8GB of RAM.

64gb ssd's are incredibly slow. they are barely faster than a good hdd.

[Faceman]

@Faceman

 

Selling a working lappy .

do they change to SSD or more RAM

if they go SSD they will no longer need the HDDs so either a huge pile of them or get them without HDDs and so a TOUCH cheaper.

I'm not sure if he is buying a laptop or HDD, either way, 60GB is not enough storage.