Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!blkcat!f421.n109.z1.fidonet.org!Martha.Schaefer
From: Martha.Schaefer@f421.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Martha Schaefer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: hard drive vs. RAM
Message-ID: <3674.27C89A26@blkcat.fidonet.org>
Date: 25 Feb 91 00:01:45 GMT
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Organization: FidoNet node 1:109/421 - The Twilight Clone, Paul Heller
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About 10 days ago, I posted the following question:
 
   I'd like to ask people for some free advice. :)  I am the happy owner
   of a cube, recently upgraded to '040 and 2.0, with 8 Mb ram, an OD, and
   a 40 Mb swap disk.  My question is this:  for best performance, am I
   likely to be better off by installing a (at least 210 Mb) hard disk, or
   by adding 4 - 8 Mb of ram?  Actually two questions, the other being:
   If I get the hard disk, what are the specs necessary for it to fit 
   inside the cube, and will I have to remove the current swapdisk?
 
I received several replies which, remarkably, all agreed!  Everyone said I
should get a hard drive first (and more RAM as soon after as I could manage).
Basically, the access time of the optical drive is something like 90 ms, while
hard drives these days are running closer to 15 ms.
 
I did get a hard drive this week, a 210 Mb Quantum from Alliance Peripheral
Systems (1-800-233-7550).  It formatted to 199 Mb, JUST enough for the system
2.0 extended, and required nothing fancy to install.  It is -much- faster than
the OD.  The price was less than $850.
 
Thanks again for the info.


--  

        Martha Schaefer, Martha.Schaefer@f421.n109.z1.fidonet.org
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