While talking to customers about their computer upgrade options, the conversation usually ends up with a discussion about memory and hard drives. 

To answer this question we must first talk about the differences between memory, also called RAM, and hard drives.  Simply put, RAM is the working information store of the computer while the hard drive is the long term storage of the computer.  If you imagine that you are the computer and you are working on some files.  Your filing cabinet would be considered the hard drive and the space on your desk would be considered the RAM.  The filing cabinet is accessible, however it takes longer for you to get up from your desk and get a file and bring it back to your desk than it does to access the file sitting on your desk.

This example should illustrate how RAM is faster than your hard drive.  It also should allow you to see how you can store vastly larger amounts of information on your hard drive than in memory.  2 things it does not cover are the volatility of RAM and the usage of hard drive space as Virtual Memory.  RAM is known as volatile storage because if the computer loses power, you will lose all information in the RAM.  This is how some files can become corrupt if your computer abruptly loses power or is not shut down correctly.  Virtual Memory is hard drive space that is used to augment RAM.  The amount of Virtual Memory available to you is directly related to the amount of RAM installed in your computer.  For example, if you have 1GB of RAM installed in your PC, you will have approximately 1.4GB of Virtual Memory created on your hard drive for a total of 2.4GB of available memory.  The Virtual Memory should not be viewed as memory that you want to use on a regular basis, but as a buffer so that if you are performing heavy duty tasks, you do not run out of memory.  Back to the example, your desk has a limited amount of space to handle files so you must use part of the filing cabinet to store some of your working files.  Obviously it will take you longer to access the files in the filing cabinet, but it will allow you to get the job done.

So the question still remains, do I need more memory or a bigger hard drive.  The answer is: It Depends.  If you are recieving errors related to memory or virtual memory then you should probably invest in more RAM.  If you are recieving Disk Space errors or cannot save files to your hard drive, then you likely need a larger hard drive.  Either way, we would recommend that you consult one of our computer repair technicians to give you an accurate recommendation.