I am looking to increase my computer's performance. Will upgrading my RAM by 12GB or upgrading to a 7,200 RPM Hard Drive increase my computer's performance more? I can only do one, which one will make my computer run faster? Please cite something in your answer for my own confidence. Thanks!
Open a terminal window and run the command
free
It will show you if your hard disk is used for memory caching (which is slow, and should be minimised). The value you should read is Swap x used. Normally, if you have over 3GB, the Swap that is used should be 0, that is, not used at all. So, with 6GB or more RAM, you definitely do not use the disk for swapping.
The other thing is the hard disk, which are slow compared to an SSD disk. If you want to invest on a faster computer, then you can get an SSD disk, and install Ubuntu on this fast disk. You can still use your existing hard disk for storage of files. The SSD will be blazing fast and Ubuntu will boot + run very fast. It makes a big difference.
UPDATE
You can replace your existing laptop hard disk with a 2.5" SSD disk. These SSD disks are more expensive than traditional hard disks, but they are blazingly fast. You can convert your old laptop hard disk into an external hard disk by buying a 2.5" external USB disk case.
