Essentially, RAM comes in small sizes (8, 16, 32 GB) but storage is in TB? Why is
this? Would more RAM be better?
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RAM modules are made from complicated circuitry that is difficult to make and miniaturize, while Hard Disks are traditionally spinning platters covered in oxide rust that are much easier to manufacture by comparison.
So getting more and more data on a spinning disk is a lot easier to accomplish from an engineering perspective that making RAM chips more dense. This is why hard drives are so large compared to RAM.
RAM though is much much faster than a hard disk, but it has the downside that it’s volatile. If you cut the power all the contents are lost so it isn’t suitable for long term storage.
Think of your RAM as your short term memory, fast and ready to go, while a hard drive is long term memory, big capacity but a lot slower.
SSDs are in the middle, they are made of circuitry and therefore a lot faster than Spinning Hard drives but slower than RAM.
But they still hold data when the power is cut off, which makes them great and high speed long term storage. But like RAM they are difficult to make, but the circuitry overall is simpler. Which is why SSDs are so much smaller in capacity than spinning hard drives. But they are catching up!
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