More RAM or SSD ??

[RRHODY]

Putting together a T430 as an upgrade for my wife. She uses a separate keyboard and monitor for doing WORD for email correspondence, internet and some games. Have the option of improving the hard drive to SSD or increase RAM. Either option looks nearly the same in $$ if I don't go overboard with either one. Any suggestions?

[brchan]

SSD. By far.

[Neil]

^^ +1 depending on what you want to accomplish. SSD will boot faster and load applications faster. More RAM won't have much effect on those two things, but will allow for more apps to be open at one time with several web browser tabs open and everything functioning smoothly, and the option of running virtual machines should that be a consideration.

[ajkula66]

If you have 4GB RAM or more, then get a SSD.

If you have less than that, upgrade the RAM first.

My $0.02 only...

[axur-delmeria]

^ I agree with ajkula66.

[Hans Gruber]

The SSD is the most important in my opinion. On windows 7 I think 6GB of ram is the sweet spot. I used 8GB on my thinkpads. With a SSD, 4GB is enough memory to have.

[RRHODY]

As usual for this forum - spot on helpful answers. Much appreciated.

[Temetka]

Seems like everyone beat me to the punch.

But yes, if the system has 4GB or more of RAM, then an SSD would be the best single upgrade you can do.

That being said, my T410 has 8GB of RAM and an SSD. This machine absolutely fly's running Windows 10.

[RRHODY]

Upgrade complete. Got 2 8GB Memory modules from B&H [$75.00] and a Samsung 850 Pro SSD for wife's T430. I put 8GB in her T430 and 8GB in my T420s. Both now have Samsung SSD's and 12GB RAM. Tried 16GB in my t420s [easier to get to both slots] and worked flawlessly. Didn't try 16 in the T430, too much work to swap the buried module; lazy me.

[Cigarguy]

Nice setup.