October 1, 2008: RAM and Disk Costs of Vista
I hear a fair number of complaints about the ‘bloat’ in Vista, so I decided to do a little bit of pricing research. I conclude that in most cases, the extra RAM and disk needed to run Vista will be $50 or less. The assumptions I used were:
- You are upgrading a system with at least a 2gHz processor, and therefore do not need to upgrade the CPU or motherboard. (Vista is actually running well on my 1.7gHz processor, but I rounded up to 2gHz just for the heck of it.)
- You do not need Aero, and therefore do not need to upgrade your video card.
- You will replace your existing RAM with 2GB of new RAM.
- You will replace your hard drive, but only charge the first 40GB of the new drive to the Vista upgrade. This is a generous estimate: the C:\Windows directory my Vista Ultimate system, running for months now, is using a total of 15.1 GB (including all subdirectories).
- You’re not buying so-called “high-end” parts, like RAM with chrome heat spreaders and so on; you shop on specifications and best-deal prices.
All prices from http://www.pricewatch.com and are current as of the minute I write this article.
Desktop memory (DDR2, all ‘2GB kit’ prices):
41.00 - ddr2-1066 pc2-8500 2gb kit
61.98 - ddr2-1000 pc2-8000 2gb kit
26.73 - ddr2-800 pc2-6400 2gb kit
25.92 - ddr2-667 pc2-5300 2gb kit
25.69 - ddr2-533 pc2-4200 2gb kit
36.99 - ddr2-400 pc2-3200 2gb kit
Notebook memory (DDR2, single 2GB stick):
32.99 - so-dimm ddr2 pc2-6400 2gb
29.45 - so-dimm ddr2 pc2-5300 2gb
29.48 - so-dimm ddr2 pc2-4200 2gb
69.00 - so-dimm ddr2 pc2-3200 2gb
Disk (500GB, 3 flavors, plus a 250GB ATA drive):
53.99 - sata 500gb 3.5” ($0.11/gig)
65.95 - ultra ata 500gb 3.5” ($0.13/gig)
160.16 - notebook 500gb SATA 2.5” ($0.32/gig)
99.99 - notebook 250gb ATA 2.5” ($0.40/gig) (I was unable to find a 500GB ATA drive; had to go to Newegg to find this 250GB drive)
So, the worst case here is a notebook system using ATA hard drive and PC2/3200 RAM. You’d spend $99.99 for a 250GB hard drive and $69 for the RAM upgrade, for a total of $170. But if we assume you really only needed 40 GB for the Vista install, that’s $16 in disk costs ($0.40/gig * 40 gigs). So the upgrade cost required by Vista is $85. All the other RAM/disk costs, using this same method (full cost of RAM + cost of first 40 gigs of disk) are $48.99 or lower.
For a desktop system using 3.5” internal drives, the worst case would be a SATA 500gb drive ($160.16) and PC2/800 RAM ($61.98). That’s a total cost of $222.14, but the 40GB needed for Vista costs $12.80. So the upgrade cost required by Vista is $74.78. All the other desktop RAM/disk costs are $53.80 or lower (again via the ‘full cost of RAM + first 40 gigs of disk’ method).
Conclusion: in most cases, the costs of extra disk and RAM for Vista will be less than $50, if you are buying new parts and shopping smart.
