racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

Back when Apple computers were still running PowerPC chips, Apple fondly referred to the megahertz myth as an argument against Intel chips. Intel had ever-soaring clock speeds, but Apple computers said their slower-clocked PowerPC chips performed the tasks faster with better architecture. They say you can only go so high in terms of clock speed, and then beyond that, any increase in raw processor clock speed would only give marginal improvements.

Indeed, the processor is not the only defining point of a computer’s performance. And it’s not the raw clock speed that defines how well a processor chip performs, but also its architecture.

And so I now come to the “Gigabyte” myth. In this day and age, it’s not uncommon to see computers with 200+ GB hard drives. In fact, the minimum for notebook computers these days is 60 GB, I believe. Or even 80. And that’s on the low end.

Enter “netbooks,” or cheap ultraportable computers. Asus’ groundbreaking EeePC 700 series initially came with 4 Gigabytes of solid state primary storage. WTF? 4 Gigabytes? That’s anemic by today’s standards. But then you have to consider that this is an inexpensive ultraportable computer. So solid state drives were great to have, but we would have to make do with 4 GB, given cost concerns. And consider that people don’t usually use netbooks as a primary computer, but rather as a mobile computer for use when other portables are just too heavy.

And for me, this is just how I use my netbook. Mostly it’s an ultraportable computer I can keep in my bag for those times I need to go online while on the road or anywhere outside my home office or around the house . And because of this, I believe that bigger is not always better, when it comes to storage. I have a desktop Mac, and a standard-sized laptop, both of which have relatively larger hard drives. I don’t run iTunes on my netbook, and I don’t find the need to. So I’m content with the small amount of primary storage, which I could expand with SDHC anyway.

Of course the exception would be one of my netbooks, the HP Mini Note, which has 160 GB of storage (95% of which is unused), which is, in fact, the largest single piece of primary storage I have at home! But then again, the extra space is largely unused.

But back to my argument–Is it just me or does everyone else think bigger is better?

Most people I meet find my Asus EeePC 900 great, except for the small hard drive. 12GB? Could Windows fit in there, they ask?

But of course! Windows only eats up about 2GB or less. It’s a matter of optimizing the software. And the computer came bundled with Windows XP, so Windows could fit in there, for a fact! Even unoptimized, you can run your OS and your apps fine on a 4GB + 8GB setup, or some combination thereof.

A lot of online forums I visit find 4GB and even 20GB lacking, to the point that the relatively small storage space is a deal breaker. I guess those are the kinds of people who want to keep all their downloaded music on their netbook hard drive. Or their porn.

So my point is this–do you really need large storage space on a computer that is considered secondary?

Asus Philippines has done some research and found that most Filipinos would buy small notebooks as a primary computer. And so they didn’t launch the SSD-based EeePC 901 and 1000 here. Heck they didn’t even launch the 901 here. They did launch the 1000H, though, and that came with 30GB hard drives or larger.

But for me, I wouldn’t rely on a netbook as a primary computer. So I’m pretty much contented with a small drive that can hold my OS, and a handful of documents. Anyway, I could expand storage with SDHC cards. And I can burn archives to DVD anyway.

Sure, you never know when you’ll need the extra storage. Like, 20 years ago my PC-XT compatible had 20 Megabytes of storage, and I was ecstatic when I got the hard drive upgrade (where previously I just loaded everything off of 768 KB diskettes.

From my point of view, having a smaller SSD-based hard drive is better for these reasons.

• Less files to lose if your hard drive crashes, which is less likely because there are no moving parts with SSD based storage.
• You will learn to be more disciplined with what you store on your netbook. Therefore, you will have less clutter!
• You will learn to optimize your system for storage efficiency. In the process, you are likely also to learn to optimize for speed!
• Less security worries, in the unfortunate event your gadget gets lost or stolen.
• It’s a netbook, anyway. In a few months’ time, manufacturers will have better gadgets so you are most likely going to upgrade, anyway.

Bigger is better is a myth when it comes to storage–at least from certain perspectives.