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Solved: External Memory & Hard-drives vs. Internal

1K views 13 replies 4 participants last post by  DoubleHelix 
#1 ·
Is external hard-drive or memory the easier way to boost speed and performance for those who have limited tech knowledge?
 
#4 ·
it depends. I've got a 1 tb internal and a 1 tb external that I only use for weekly backups. The internal will be quicker, if that is what you are asking. Externals are only used (in general) for portability and backup purposes.
 
#5 ·
An external drive is usually going to run slower than an internal drive. This is due to a few reasons;
1 Interface. Generally external drives use usb to connect. This is going to be slower than a sata internal connection
2 Rotational speed of the drive. Many externals use a slower spinning drive so they use less power. This makes the access time slower.
3 Even if the external uses e-sata which is pretty fast, the external enclosure's chipset may cause it to run a little slower than an internal sata.

What is it exactly you are trying to accomplish?
 
#7 ·
Well, I am in charge on a non-profit organizations which has recently rec'd several computer donations. I've had most of them formatted, but I was just wondering if 1) a larger capacity HD would create more efficient speed/performance. 2) If so, to save some service cost to use an ext. HD.

On one system I installed two memory boards that I purchased online from the same seller, but they do not match (look the same) + different manufacturers. After the second one was installed a week after the first one was, the computer's performance diminished...so my plan was to exchange one so they both matched. Do you know if two memory boards should match?

Thanks
 
#8 ·
Hard drive capacity does not affect performance unless a drive is nearly full. You can't run Windows on an external hard drive, so that's not an alternative.

By "boards" do you mean physical RAM chips? Yes, they should look the same. Otherwise they won't physically fit into the slot. The type, speed, and configuration of memory chips depends entirely on the specifications of the computer and/or motherboard.
 
#9 ·
Thank you. They are memory boards are specifically for my computer...they fit in the slots Ok, but they look different. The one (by Samsung) that looks like the original ones has about 6 magnet-looking modules (for lack of an accurate term), but the second one I ordered hada completely different configuration (by Kingston).

After I replaced the first one, the computer ran much better, then I decided to get another so I could have the max. memory...but, after installing number 2, the computer started w/various issues?

Thanks
 
#10 ·
The speed of the drive along with the amount of cache will have a marked effect on performance however just having a larger drive in and of itself is not going to effect performance. Modern hard drives are quite a bit faster than drives a few years old. As an example a modern 7200rpm drive with 32meg of cache is actually faster than 1st or 2nd generation raptor drives. I used to use a gen2 raptor [150gig] and was very surprised that a more modern 750gig WD black drive benched faster.
 
#12 ·
What are these computers going to be used for? Since this is a non-profit and the computers were donated, is the marginal performance increase going to be worth dropping ~$100/computer for a new hard drive? You're not going to see any noticeable performance increase for basic, average activities.
 
#13 ·
I just learned that I was mistaken about the hard-drives...we really need to add more memory...which I learned to do.

Do you know if you can add 2 seperate 1GB memory boards to the same computer, but from different manufacturers and have totally different modules (or whatever the things that look like magnets are called)?
 
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