Is adding SSD same as upgrading RAM?

kopite

Could anybody tell me if adding a Solid State Drive would have the same effect as upgrading the RAM. I was considering an SSD for my laptop anyway but my RAM is maxed out at 2GB. Apart from the lack of RAM I am happy with my laptop and would prefer not to replace it.

sink

kopite wrote: »

Could anybody tell me if adding a Solid State Drive would have the same effect as upgrading the RAM. I was considering an SSD for my laptop anyway but my RAM is maxed out at 2GB. Apart from the lack of RAM I am happy with my laptop and would prefer not to replace it.

It will help alot with paging i.e virtual memory. When the OS runs out of primary memory (RAM) it uses your hard disk as secondary memory. If your hard disk is an ssd, paging will be alot faster. However it still won't be a match for more ram.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paging

PogMoThoin

Cutting back on programs running at startup is the answer here, get startup inspector and turn off whatever you can giving you more available ram. (ccleaner also has a startup manager if you already have that use it instead)

Saadyst

kopite wrote: »

Could anybody tell me if adding a Solid State Drive would have the same effect as upgrading the RAM. I was considering an SSD for my laptop anyway but my RAM is maxed out at 2GB. Apart from the lack of RAM I am happy with my laptop and would prefer not to replace it.

First, without knowing anything about your computer - for most users, getting an SSD as the primary OS drive is the single biggest improvement they can make to their computer.

With that said - it is impossible to know what your computer performance is like in comparison with your system hardware.

Further, SSDs and RAM are completely different components... I'm not sure entirely what you mean by "the same effect"... maybe you can say what you feel is not right with your laptop and what you would like to improve on?

Slutmonkey57b

1) How is your laptop limited to only 2GB of memory? Have you just run out of slots, or is it a design limitation? I can't imagine any laptop sold in the last 5 years is limited technically to 2GB in the bios.

2) Don't use an SSD for your paging file unless you have to.

3) You need to run Windows 7 to get the best out of an SSD, or set up Steady State to prevent the OS thrashing the SSD with unnecessary writes.

Jonny7

An SSD improves loading times, e.g. Windows should load up much quicker, programs load up quicker, etc. SSDs are generally much faster than normal mechanical harddrives, but are much more expensive.

Ram is slightly different - its all about having "enough" ram for the programs you are running - each program and backround service and process eats up a portion of the ram you have. If you don't have enough ram, then the PC will slow, if you have enough or more than enough, then it will run optimised (hence adding 100 gigs of ram to a machine generally won't make it any faster)

Once you have enough RAM and an SSD, then its up to your other components and their max speed e.g. the processor - to perform and not create a bottleneck in the system.

At the moment - 4 gigs of ram is optimal for win 7 for just about everything, 2 gigs is okay, especially when just surfing and browsing.

kopite

Saadyst wrote: »

Further, SSDs and RAM are completely different components... I'm not sure entirely what you mean by "the same effect"... maybe you can say what you feel is not right with your laptop and what you would like to improve on?

I might be wrong, and please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong as I'm a novice, but from what I've learned when RAM reaches its capacity it accesses the virtual memory on the hard drive. This isn't ideal because it takes longer to read from a hard disk than RAM. But SSD read times are much faster and the only delay that I can see is through the cable.
My laptop is fairly old and I've updated pretty much everything else on it but the max amount of RAM my motherboard supports is 2GB. This is fine for most applications that I use but, for memory intensive programs such as Autocad, it's not enough.

Slutmonkey57b

1) you need Win 7 to use an SSD. Previous versions of windows don't support them properly.

2) Win 7 needs more than 2 gigs of ram to work well.

3) Why are you trying to use autocad on an ancient laptop with 2 gigs of ram?

4) Why waste money updating the parts on such an old laptop when a much better, newer, more powerful one can be had for ~€400?

Saadyst

kopite wrote: »

I might be wrong, and please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong as I'm a novice, but from what I've learned when RAM reaches its capacity it accesses the virtual memory on the hard drive. This isn't ideal because it takes longer to read from a hard disk than RAM. But SSD read times are much faster and the only delay that I can see is through the cable.
My laptop is fairly old and I've updated pretty much everything else on it but the max amount of RAM my motherboard supports is 2GB. This is fine for most applications that I use but, for memory intensive programs such as Autocad, it's not enough.

Alright well, an SSD won't help here in the way you imagine it would I think. Don't get me wrong, it'll make a difference alright, but not for what you need it to do.

If your motherboard is limited to a maximum 2GB as you say, then I'd agree with Slutmonkey here and point you toward getting a new system. SSDs are still quite expensive and you'll see a bigger difference with a newer machine.

ScumLord

I'd be surprised if your old laptop will be able to use an SSD effectively. I only recently got the full effect of my SSD in my new PC with 6GB(data transfer) sata ports. It didn't even dawn on me that I wasn't getting full speed on the old sata ports.

I think you've maxed out your current laptop.

wampyrus77

SSD is just next evolution generation of Hard drives so basically just using Virtual RAM or Virtual memory to give you more memory but since SSD cost twice to three times price of average Hard drive really depends how much free space you have left on the SSD.

G-Money

I can't give you an apples to apples comparison, but I recently upgraded my 4GB Insipron laptop to an SSD drive and it's much faster. From pressing the power on button to loading IE was 31 seconds and shutting down now takes about 2 or 3 seconds whereas before it was running for a lot longer. Unfortunately this laptop of maxed out at 4GB so I can't install any more RAM.

wampyrus77

No. SSD is just next evolution generation of Hard drives so basically just using Virtual RAM or Virtual memory to give you more memory but since SSD cost twice to three times price of average Hard drive really depends how much free space you have left on the SSD.

If you improve your get more RAM DIMM for computers, SODIMM for notebooks/netbooks/laptops but you need to know what type of RAM it is for example is DDR1 or DDR2, DDR3, what model number also import too because if you nstall wrong model number in your system The RAM wont work. Too find out what type of RAM you've and it's model number download speccy from http://www.filehippo.com/

wampyrus77

No. SSD is just next evolution generation of Hard drives so basically just using Virtual RAM or Virtual memory to give you more memory but since SSD cost twice to three times price of average Hard drive really depends how much free space you have left on the SSD.

If you improve your get more RAM, going have to add more RAM for your system, DIMM for computers, SODIMM for notebooks/netbooks/laptops but you need to know what type of RAM it is for example is DDR1 or DDR2, DDR3, what model number also import too because if you nstall wrong model number in your system The RAM wont work. Too find out what type of RAM you've and it's model number download speccy from http://www.filehippo.com/