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Upgrade: RAM or SSD?

genexis_x
By genexis_x
in New Builds and Planning
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Upgrade: RAM or SSD?  

18 members have voted

  1. 1. Upgrade: RAM or SSD?

    • RAM
      13
    • SSD
      5

Posted

Currently I have 4GB RAM and 1TB HDD installed in my laptop. Due to limited budget, I can only either add 4GB more RAM or add a 120/128GB SSD. Which should I upgrade first?

Desktop specs:

Spoiler

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB Gigabyte B550M DS3H mATX

Asrock Challenger Pro OC Radeon RX 6700 XT Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (8Gx2) 3600MHz CL18 Kingston NV2 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD

Montech Century 850W Gold Tecware Nexus Air (Black) ATX Mid Tower

Laptop: Lenovo Ideapad 5 Pro 16ACH6

Phone: Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro 8+128

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Posted

RAM for sure

Snorlax: i7 5820k @4.5ghz, Asus X99 Pro, 32gb Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666, Cryorig R1 Ultimate, Samsung 850 evo 500gb, Asus GTX 1080 ROG Strix, Corsair RM850x, NZXT H440, Hue+

Smallsnor: Huawei Matebook X

 

Canon AE-1 w/ 50mm f/1.8 lens

Pentax KM w/ 55mm f/1.8 SMC lens

Zenit-E w/ 58mm f/2 Helios lens

Panasonic G7 with 14-42mm f/3.5 lens

Polaroid Spectra System

 

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Posted
5 minutes ago, shadowbyte said:

RAM for sure

Why

I have the same problem but i will for sure upgrade the HDD first. I remove it and replace it with a slightly smaller SSD.

 

Depends, how you use the Laptop. 4 GB are enough for my laptop usage ( university, streams, videos, office... )

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

Why

I have the same problem but i will for sure upgrade the HDD first. I remove it and replace it with a slightly smaller SSD.

 

Depends, how you use the Laptop. 4 GB are enough for my laptop usage ( university, streams, videos, office... )

If you look at his specs in his signature you can see that 4gb ram is holding him back.

 

I would definitely upgrade RAM first, and you'll have a pretty nice gaming experience.

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Posted

I would go with SSD if you're not reaching above 90% ram usage on whatever you do with it, and if you do pass the 90% usage of ram mark then that's what you should go for

Personal Desktop":

CPU: Intel Core i7 10700K @5ghz |~| Cooling: bq! Dark Rock Pro 4 |~| MOBO: Gigabyte Z490UD ATX|~| RAM: 16gb DDR4 3333mhzCL16 G.Skill Trident Z |~| GPU: RX 6900XT Sapphire Nitro+ |~| PSU: Corsair TX650M 80Plus Gold |~| Boot:  SSD WD Green M.2 2280 240GB |~| Storage: 1x3TB HDD 7200rpm Seagate Barracuda + SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB |~| Case: Fractal Design Meshify C Mini |~| Display: Toshiba UL7A 4K/60hz |~| OS: Windows 10 Pro.

Luna, the temporary Desktop:

CPU: AMD R9 7950XT  |~| Cooling: bq! Dark Rock 4 Pro |~| MOBO: Gigabyte Aorus Master |~| RAM: 32G Kingston HyperX |~| GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX (Reference) |~| PSU: Corsair HX1000 80+ Platinum |~| Windows Boot Drive: 2x 512GB (1TB total) Plextor SATA SSD (RAID0 volume) |~| Linux Boot Drive: 500GB Kingston A2000 |~| Storage: 4TB WD Black HDD |~| Case: Cooler Master Silencio S600 |~| Display 1 (leftmost): Eizo (unknown model) 1920x1080 IPS @ 60Hz|~| Display 2 (center): BenQ ZOWIE XL2540 1920x1080 TN @ 240Hz |~| Display 3 (rightmost): Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 3840x2160 IPS @ 60Hz 10-bit |~| OS: Windows 10 Pro (games / art) + Linux (distro: NixOS; programming and daily driver)
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Posted

If the specs in your description are your laptop, get more RAM first.   Sure the hard drive will be slower for now, but you can upgrade that later.  A lot of games require at least 8GB of RAM, so best to get that there first.

Currently focusing on my video game collection.

It doesn't matter what you play games on, just play good games you enjoy.

 

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Posted
  • Author
32 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

Why

I have the same problem but i will for sure upgrade the HDD first. I remove it and replace it with a slightly smaller SSD.

 

Depends, how you use the Laptop. 4 GB are enough for my laptop usage ( university, streams, videos, office... )

 

25 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

I would go with SSD if you're not reaching above 90% ram usage on whatever you do with it, and if you do pass the 90% usage of ram mark then that's what you should go for

During gaming about 80% RAM used

Desktop specs:

Spoiler

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB Gigabyte B550M DS3H mATX

Asrock Challenger Pro OC Radeon RX 6700 XT Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (8Gx2) 3600MHz CL18 Kingston NV2 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD

Montech Century 850W Gold Tecware Nexus Air (Black) ATX Mid Tower

Laptop: Lenovo Ideapad 5 Pro 16ACH6

Phone: Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro 8+128

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Posted
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31 minutes ago, alca said:

If you look at his specs in his signature you can see that 4gb ram is holding him back.

 

I would definitely upgrade RAM first, and you'll have a pretty nice gaming experience.

 

22 minutes ago, kaiju_wars said:

If the specs in your description are your laptop, get more RAM first.   Sure the hard drive will be slower for now, but you can upgrade that later.  A lot of games require at least 8GB of RAM, so best to get that there first.

I only play Dota 2 and CSGO. Is 4GB enough?

Desktop specs:

Spoiler

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB Gigabyte B550M DS3H mATX

Asrock Challenger Pro OC Radeon RX 6700 XT Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (8Gx2) 3600MHz CL18 Kingston NV2 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD

Montech Century 850W Gold Tecware Nexus Air (Black) ATX Mid Tower

Laptop: Lenovo Ideapad 5 Pro 16ACH6

Phone: Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro 8+128

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Posted

RAM is definitely your priority right now. 

Eien nante naito iikitte shimattar  /  Amarinimo sabishikute setsunai deshou
Dare mo ga hontou wa shinjitai kedo  /  Uragirarere ba fukaku kizu tsuite shimau mono

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Posted
Just now, ZM Fong said:

 

I only play Dota 2 and CSGO. Is 4GB enough?

I mean, with your specs (minus RAM) you could play all current titles at 1080p.  But if those two games is all you'll ever see yourself playing and they're enough now, then yeah, that'll be good.

Currently focusing on my video game collection.

It doesn't matter what you play games on, just play good games you enjoy.

 

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1 minute ago, ZM Fong said:

 

I only play Dota 2 and CSGO. Is 4GB enough?

Yes it is enough and you Will feel more boost in performance and responsiveness from the SSD, I actually did a similar upgrading on my mother's work notebook with a i5 6300u 4gb and 1tb HDD, the first thing I did upgrade was it for 8gb ram, it helped in multi-tasking and programs when they were open already, however the slow windows responsiveness, slow boots, slow start up of programs from the HDD made it almost feel like no upgrade was made at all, after I put a 240gb SanDisk Plus on it though it felt like a jet from how much faster everything felt.

 

Therefore despite the majority here advising RAM, I out of personal experience would still adivise SSD.

Personal Desktop":

CPU: Intel Core i7 10700K @5ghz |~| Cooling: bq! Dark Rock Pro 4 |~| MOBO: Gigabyte Z490UD ATX|~| RAM: 16gb DDR4 3333mhzCL16 G.Skill Trident Z |~| GPU: RX 6900XT Sapphire Nitro+ |~| PSU: Corsair TX650M 80Plus Gold |~| Boot:  SSD WD Green M.2 2280 240GB |~| Storage: 1x3TB HDD 7200rpm Seagate Barracuda + SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB |~| Case: Fractal Design Meshify C Mini |~| Display: Toshiba UL7A 4K/60hz |~| OS: Windows 10 Pro.

Luna, the temporary Desktop:

CPU: AMD R9 7950XT  |~| Cooling: bq! Dark Rock 4 Pro |~| MOBO: Gigabyte Aorus Master |~| RAM: 32G Kingston HyperX |~| GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX (Reference) |~| PSU: Corsair HX1000 80+ Platinum |~| Windows Boot Drive: 2x 512GB (1TB total) Plextor SATA SSD (RAID0 volume) |~| Linux Boot Drive: 500GB Kingston A2000 |~| Storage: 4TB WD Black HDD |~| Case: Cooler Master Silencio S600 |~| Display 1 (leftmost): Eizo (unknown model) 1920x1080 IPS @ 60Hz|~| Display 2 (center): BenQ ZOWIE XL2540 1920x1080 TN @ 240Hz |~| Display 3 (rightmost): Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 3840x2160 IPS @ 60Hz 10-bit |~| OS: Windows 10 Pro (games / art) + Linux (distro: NixOS; programming and daily driver)
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Posted
16 minutes ago, ZM Fong said:

 

I only play Dota 2 and CSGO. Is 4GB enough?

 

Yeah I think it's enough. If you upgrade to 8gb RAM you could play most AAA titles. Good luck :)

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Posted
1 hour ago, Teddy07 said:

Why

I have the same problem but i will for sure upgrade the HDD first. I remove it and replace it with a slightly smaller SSD.

 

Depends, how you use the Laptop. 4 GB are enough for my laptop usage ( university, streams, videos, office... )

4gb of RAM just isn't enough anymore for gaming

8 is the minimum now, and imo, 16 is ideal because you can run background apps at the same time

 

Snorlax: i7 5820k @4.5ghz, Asus X99 Pro, 32gb Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666, Cryorig R1 Ultimate, Samsung 850 evo 500gb, Asus GTX 1080 ROG Strix, Corsair RM850x, NZXT H440, Hue+

Smallsnor: Huawei Matebook X

 

Canon AE-1 w/ 50mm f/1.8 lens

Pentax KM w/ 55mm f/1.8 SMC lens

Zenit-E w/ 58mm f/2 Helios lens

Panasonic G7 with 14-42mm f/3.5 lens

Polaroid Spectra System

 

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