Memory vs. Storage: What They Are and What They Do

Hello guys,

Today, I want to expound on computer memory, storage and their various functions, so whenever you see or hear the word “Memory” or “Storage”, just know that they carry out specific functions on a computer.

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Memory is a term used to describe mainly two things on a computer, the first thing is your Random Access Memory (RAM), and the second is your Hard Drive storage (HDD or SSD). The two get jumbled up a lot in common context, so it's really difficult to understand what a person means when they say “I think you should get some more memory”

What's the difference between the two?

RAM or Random Access Memory, the real memory is some type of high-speed storage that your computer uses to power active applications. RAM comes in sticks that slide into your motherboard on your computer and provide a super fast solid-state storage for all of your currently running applications. It fills cells with transistors and capacitors that then lose their charge after a period of time but it allows a computer to super quickly populate some data into an array of cells and then read that data into active application contexts.

Am I getting a bit too technical for you?

Well, take a look at this picture below.

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As you can see, everything that's on the desk or the things that you would be immediately using, is what's stored in your RAM. In the cabinet below the desk is this storage or Hard Disk space of your computer, standard computers run a Hard Disk drive or an HDD, an HDD consists of spinning disks and a needle and that needle is allowed to touch the disks and create magnetic fields that alter what the disks are read. You get a bunch of binary bits that are on the disks and then the needle can read and write to those disks to give you long-term storage.

Storage is long-term

Eventually, you're going to put all of the stuff that you have on the desk into the cabinet but the issue with that is that there's a bunch of action that's required to take things off the desk, put them into the cabinet as well as take things out of the cabinet and put them onto the desk. That is the delay between when you access a file from your RAM and when you access a file from your Hard Drive. I won't get into virtual memory because that'd be a bit too technical but if you do want an article on it, let me know and I’ll be sure to make one.

Which memory do you need? How expensive is it?

If your computer is running slowly when you have a lot of applications open, for instance you're using google chrome with 15 tabs open and things are moving really slowly on your computer when you try to do other stuff or you're watching a movie and using Microsoft word and then you launch your internet browser and everything just slows down a whole lot, that means you need more RAM or Random Access Memory.

RAM is fairly expensive I might say, you would normally want 8 to 16 gigabytes of RAM in a modern day computer and that can run you anywhere from $25 to $100 depending on where you get it and what type of brand it is. If it's RAM for a desktop computer, it's going to be a bit cheaper than RAM for a laptop. That 8 to 16 gigabytes may not seem like a lot of space to you but remember that RAM is super quick acting storage and does not actually hold anything long-term.

I know it doesn't sound good when your standard Hard Drive has around 1 terabyte of storage space on it or 1024 gigabytes, if your computer starting up really slowly or when you launch an application and it's really chugging along or when you search for files in your computer and it takes a really long time, that delay is on your Hard Drive.

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Don't freak out my friend, you’re due for an upgrade.

That could mean purchasing a new Hard Drive and moving all your old content onto it. That new Hard Drive could have more storage space, so you can stick more files on it or the discs may spin faster so that you can access files and write into files a lot quicker or you could get an SSD which has no spinning disks and uses a technology completely different to store all your information.

If you guys want to learn more about the technology and the differences between an SSD and Hard Drive HDD, checkout my previous blogs.

A good amount of storage to have on a Hard Disk Drive is around 1 terabyte or anything above 1 terabyte. If you've already got the terabyte of storage and you filled it up all the way, you have two options: Your first option is to purchase a new larger drive and move all of your data on to that new Drive or you could purchase a second Drive of varying size and slide it into your computer as well and start putting data on that second Drive. A new 1 terabyte drive should run you around $50 and every additional terabyte should be around $20 to $25 dollars extra on top of that.

That's all the time I've got for today and I want to ask you guys a few quick questions:

How much storage do you have on your computer?
How much RAM do you have on your computer?
Are you due for an upgrade?

Let me know your answers in the comments on this post and I’ll be sure to participate and help you guys out with what you need to upgrade your computer. If you enjoyed the simplicity of this article, be sure to hit that upvote button.

Have a great weekend.

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References: 1 - 2 - 3

Image sources: 1 - 2 - 3

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_{GIF made by @foundation}

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Thanks to @camzy for this amazing toon.