New computer

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fixitflav

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Thinking of buying a new one

Current one says 1 TB HDD, and File explorer says 465 GB on C, 465 GB on D, so that sounds about right. I've only used about 150 GB on C and next to nothing on D.
And 4 GB RAM.

The one I'm considering has 512 GB SSD, which should be plenty for my usage. And 8 GB RAM.

An elementary question - what are the different functions of the RAM and the hard drive? Does a bigger RAM make much difference?

Also I seem to remember at one time computer specs used to refer to speed or something, in so many MHz or GHz, but I can't see anything like that on the current stuff

Grateful for any education!
 
Hard drive is for storage of the operating system, programs and anything you create such as documents, photos and so on.
Not particularly relevant for most people, as even 'small' drives these days are vast, and additional storage can easily be added later in the form of USB drives, cloud storage and so on.

RAM is what is used to actually run the operating systems and programs / apps. How much will have a significant effect on performance.
4GB is the absolute minimum for Windows 11 to actually run and cannot be recommended for any normal use.
8GB+ would be the sensible minimum. More required if you intend to run multiple programs/apps at the same time or use things which require large amounts of RAM such as video editing.

Speed of the processor was a major factor once, but is less relevant today.
Modern processors have multiple cores and total performance is dependent on many factors.
Compare various options here: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleCompare.php
you will need to enter various types from the computers that you are looking at buying.

A couple of random examples: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/5213vs3877/Intel-i3-N305-vs-Intel-i3-1115G4
although similarly named, the performance difference is substantial (CPU Mark, higher is better).
 
fixitflav said:
An elementary question - what are the different functions of the RAM and the hard drive? Does a bigger RAM make much difference?
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Depends on your usage really. Do you multi-task? If so, 16GB will not only be good for you, but it will be future proof.

I currently got 64gb ram (don't ask why) and I rarely use more than 6 gigs of it.
 
flameport said:
Not particularly relevant for most people, as even 'small' drives these days are vast, and additional storage can easily be added later in the form of USB drives, cloud storage and so on.
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If 'most people' excludes gamers :)
A large NVMe SSD for your Steam library is pretty desirable!

@fixitflav , can you post the full specs, or a link to the machine you are looking at, and we could venture an opinion?
 
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RandomGrinch said:
If 'most people' excludes gamers :)
A large NVMe SSD for your Steam library is pretty desirable!

@fixitflav , can you post the full specs, or a link to the machine you are looking at, and we could venture an opinion?
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Thanks. I was looking at this one, PC world but might go for something more ambitious following comments on here.
 
fixitflav said:
Thanks. I was looking at this one, PC world but might go for something more ambitious following comments on here.
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I'm not a PC man nowadays have moved to Apple Mac's some time ago, however did use a (Microsoft) PC for many years.

Just how badly do you want a new PC? If the present machine cannot run Win11 then OK, maybe it's worthwhile considering a new machine. But if the main use is as you say Browsing the web, word an excel then a good investment is to increase the RAM size to 16Gb that will will speed up the PC and improve its reliability as the machine will not be swopping data between RAM and hard drive so much.
If the machine can run Windoze11 then I think there is little to be gained from changing the machine just increase the RAM to 16Gb.

Looking at the spec of the PC you have ID'ed isn't too bad. I'd definitely strongly recommend you ask about doubling or more the size of the RAM, as that will both speed up the Machine and make it easier when you have several programs/Apps open. I see it comes preloaded with Windoze11 and some other MS Apps that after a month you have to pay for. You may may not need to buy the Anti-virus package, your ISP provider may supply as part of their service (BT certainly does). The Office package / App can be replaced by Libra Office (or Open Office - but that doesn't have so much ongoing development).

Think you can do better elsewhere, there are several PC builder businesses (in the UK, e.g. Novatech, Chillblast, Scan ).

Interesting on your existing machine you have a partitioned (C & D drives), Was the reason for that ever explained to you? The idea with a multiple drive (or portioned single drives) is separate off the variable data, you files, documents, spreadsheets, etc on the 'D' drive with the operating system and apps that reside on the 'C' drive. It is done for many reasons including data integrity but does ease data backups and help when changing machines.
 
RandomGrinch said:
If 'most people' excludes gamers :)
A large NVMe SSD for your Steam library is pretty desirable!

@fixitflav , can you post the full specs, or a link to the machine you are looking at, and we could venture an opinion?
Click to expand...
Another option is ACER Aspire TC-1780 Desktop PC

Just for background, current one is Acer/Packard Bell, from PC World, just over 6 years old. Had all sorts of problems, took it back 4 times. Attachments give a flavour! But when eventually it was sorted it was fine, until about 6 months ago, when it started getting very slow, to boot up and to open apps. And lost Audio output, as in a different thread. Could that be a problem with the RAM, and is there any way to fix it? I've tried Ccleaner but no improvement.

The initial problems make me a bit wary of Acer, I don't know whether HP would be a better bet. I suppose they're all made in China anyway.
 

Attachments

fixitflav said:
The initial problems make me a bit wary of Acer, I don't know whether HP would be a better bet. I suppose they're all made in China anyway.
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I'd say a lot of your problems can be / are caused by the limited amount of memory on the machine.
 
Thanks for that, yours came in as I was posting my latest.
Diver Fred said:
Just how badly do you want a new PC? If the present machine cannot run Win11 then OK, maybe it's worthwhile considering a new machine.
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The current one is getting painfully slow, and lost audio output, which no experts (including MS taking control) have been able to fix. I don't know how W11 differs from W10, I don't particularly want to change, but I assume a new computer will be W11.
Diver Fred said:
If the machine can run Windoze11 then I think there is little to be gained from changing the machine just increase the RAM to 16Gb.
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How do I increase the RAM, open it up and plug in a new strip? Are they readily available?
Diver Fred said:
I'd definitely strongly recommend you ask about doubling or more the size of the RAM,
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Would PC World do that? Maybe your other links would, I'll definitely try them.
Diver Fred said:
I see it comes preloaded with Windoze11 and some other MS Apps that after a month you have to pay for.
Click to expand...
I've got Word and Excel etc without paying so far, hope that will carry on. I'm retired and though I wouldn't be without them I don't use them enough to want to pay.
Diver Fred said:
Interesting on your existing machine you have a partitioned (C & D drives), Was the reason for that ever explained to you?
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I don't remember it being explained, but I assumed it was the norm, to avoid having 2 separate discs. I keep mainly photos on D, but I can move anything between C and D.
 
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