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Below is my cpu information and i run ubuntu OS with 1 GB RAM with 80GB HDD. Currently i am happy with the performance of Ubuntu 11.04. I am planning to upgrade to 500GB or 1TB HDD. Is it good idea to upgrade to 500GB HDD with this configuration? How this will affect the performance of ubuntu?

cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor   : 0
vendor_id   : GenuineIntel
cpu family  : 15
model       : 4
model name  : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
stepping    : 1
cpu MHz     : 2800.038
cache size  : 1024 KB
fdiv_bug    : no
hlt_bug     : no
f00f_bug    : no
coma_bug    : no
fpu     : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp      : yes
flags       : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc up pebs bts pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl tm2 cid cx16 xtpr
bogomips    : 5600.07
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 128
address sizes   : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

2 Answers 2

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Because hard disks have become faster over the years, an upgrade might slightly speed up boot time, launching applications and loading files. I would not expect any radical improvement, but it definitely will not become any slower.

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  • As a sidenote, what do you think would be more beneficial: just to use a faster disk OR to put the system on the smaller/slower disk and /home partition on the bigger one and this way parallelize the I/O?
    – arrange
    Sep 25, 2011 at 13:03
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Yes, a faster hard-drive will likely improve boot-up a bit and the launching of applications, and any new hard-drive is probably faster than your old one. I assume you're running out of room, too, and having more storage is always a good thing.

You might see some improved performance, too, since with 1 GB of RAM you are probably using the swap file a fair amount, and since your new hard drive will almost certainly be faster than your old one, you might notice a bit of improved performance there.

However, even the fastest hard-drives are far slower than RAM, so an eventual addition of more RAM will provide a much more noticeable performance boost. I don't know if you can add more RAM, but if you can I doubt you'd regret it; even 1 MB more would make a significant difference. But since you are happy with the present performance, adding a new hard-drive sounds like a very good idea.

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    1GB shouldn't cause lots of swapping with normal use. Sep 25, 2011 at 7:06

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