Stoopid Windows 10 questions- help needed

[Kingcreek]

Ok so I needed a new laptop and didn't want to spend much right now. Doesn't need to be more than basic. No gaming or anything special but I need a touch screen and notebook type is nice.
I bought an Asus transformer notebook with Windows 8.1 and 4 gig of memory.
I hate the 8 and want to free upgrade to 10 but it's a 3 gig download!
Does that include utilities and stuff that isn't filling my HD after install? I thought 4 gig would be fine when I bought the notebook ($300 for refurb like new)
Will it work ok once the Windows 10 is in or should I just learn to hate 8 a little less?
Thanks

[Perd Hapley]

The 3-gig download doesn't take up any of the 4-gig of memory. Those 3 gigs will go on your hard drive, which is probably a few hundred gigs, at least.

The 4 gigs of memory have to do with how quickly the computer can process information, and have nothing to do with how much information it can store.

[Fly320s]

What he said.

"Memory" is the current term for RAM, Random Access Memory.  Hard Drives are more often called "storage" or just HDs.

[Kingcreek]

Thanks!

[KD5NRH]

The 3-gig download doesn't take up any of the 4-gig of memory. Those 3 gigs will go on your hard drive, which is probably a few hundred gigs, at least.

Well, unless he puts in a terabyte of RAM and sets up a nice RAMdrive...

Sounds crazy, but I remember back in the days when 8Mb was a lot of RAM and 1Gb HDDs were huge, and one of our clients put a gig of RAM in a Mac, and had it load all her usual stuff onto a 512Mb RAMdrive at startup.  Startup took a while, but once it was done, Photoshop loaded in about the time Calculator usually takes.

[Ben]

Perhaps before you go to 10, try installing classic shell and see if you like 8 better. Otherwise, no reason not to download 10, since neither of them are Win 7. 

[HankB]

. . . Sounds crazy, but I remember back in the days when 8Mb was a lot of RAM and 1Gb HDDs were huge, and one of our clients put a gig of RAM in a Mac, and had it load all her usual stuff onto a 512Mb RAMdrive at startup . . .

You're a young'un.

My first home PC was an Atari 130 XE, which had TWICE the ram of the then-popular Commodore 64.

Once I graduated and got a real job, I started work on an IBM mainframe in a timeshare environment . . . and it was a luxury when I got a PC . . . it had a 386 chip PLUS a math co processor, with a massive 4MB of RAM . . . 

[KD5NRH]

My first home PC was an Atari 130 XE, which had TWICE the ram of the then-popular Commodore 64.

Mine too.  I think I even saw it in storage when I was moving some stuff around in there.  I found a box of floppies that had Silent Service and a few other games for the 130XE.

Once I graduated and got a real job, I started work on an IBM mainframe in a timeshare environment . . . and it was a luxury when I got a PC . . . it had a 386 chip PLUS a math co processor, with a massive 4MB of RAM . . . 

I know there's a genuine Wyse terminal somewhere in storage, and maybe the case from my first 8086.  I skipped the 286 and 386, though, and went straight from the XT to a 486SX/25 then a 486DX4/120.  A friend did the unthinkable and built a Pentium 133 into an old XT case, complete with wiring the Big Red Switch into the hot lead of the AT power supply so he could still turn the damn thing off even when it was locked up bad enough to ignore a long press on the power button.

[AJ Dual]

Mine too.  I think I even saw it in storage when I was moving some stuff around in there.  I found a box of floppies that had Silent Service and a few other games for the 130XE.

I know there's a genuine Wyse terminal somewhere in storage, and maybe the case from my first 8086.  I skipped the 286 and 386, though, and went straight from the XT to a 486SX/25 then a 486DX4/120.  A friend did the unthinkable and built a Pentium 133 into an old XT case, complete with wiring the Big Red Switch into the hot lead of the AT power supply so he could still turn the damn thing off even when it was locked up bad enough to ignore a long press on the power button.

I was wondering if you could make a Pentium i7 run a TTL monochrome monitor, just for the perversity of it... then I went and priced some TTL monitors... $400+ ouch. $200-250 for a PCI TTL card.

I guess they're priced to exploit people with some sort of horrid legacy need like an old point of sale system, or industrial equipment that uses them as a display. 

[Perd Hapley]

Mine too.  I think I even saw it in storage when I was moving some stuff around in there.  I found a box of floppies that had Silent Service and a few other games for the 130XE.

I know there's a genuine Wyse terminal somewhere in storage, and maybe the case from my first 8086.  I skipped the 286 and 386, though, and went straight from the XT to a 486SX/25 then a 486DX4/120.  A friend did the unthinkable and built a Pentium 133 into an old XT case, complete with wiring the Big Red Switch into the hot lead of the AT power supply so he could still turn the damn thing off even when it was locked up bad enough to ignore a long press on the power button.

Oh yeah? Well, I'm so old school, I can still remember when we counted on our fingers, and wrote math problems on paper! With wooden pencils!

[aside] I showed him.

[Kingcreek]

Thanks guys. I wasn't thinking, just panicked when I saw a 3 gig download.
I finally stumbled around enough in Windows 8 to find that I have disc space for 146 gig but am currently using 57% of memory. I think it will be fine when all the bytes settle. I thought I would just do the 8-10 upgrade before putting anything on this new notebook.

[Phyphor]

You're a young'un.

My first home PC was an Atari 130 XE, which had TWICE the ram of the then-popular Commodore 64.

Once I graduated and got a real job, I started work on an IBM mainframe in a timeshare environment . . . and it was a luxury when I got a PC . . . it had a 386 chip PLUS a math co processor, with a massive 4MB of RAM . . . 

Ye Olde 80387! I remember learning how to actually access that damned thing in Assembly language....

[Ben]

Pfft. Amateur new guys.

[Jim147]

I think I still have some 30 pin simms around here if someone need a memory boost.

[Phyphor]

What, no SIPPS?

[lee n. field]

What, no SIPPS?

I remember SIPPs.  Only worked on one computer ever that had them.  That was right about when I started in the field.  Older stuff came in with socketed ICs, new stuff had simms.  SIPPs were for when the board was too cheap for the maker to install a simm socket.

[HeroHog]

Cheap is when ya desolder all the pins off a SIPP to make it into a usable SIMM... so I've heard.

[KD5NRH]

Cheap is when ya desolder all the pins off a SIPP to make it into a usable SIMM... so I've heard.

Or solder pins onto a SIMM because some cheapskate won't replace the board.  Done that one.

[RocketMan]

I think I still have some 30 pin simms around here if someone need a memory boost.

I have some leftover 4k 16 pin chips from a memory upgrade to my TRS-80.

[bedlamite]

I have some leftover 4k 16 pin chips from a memory upgrade to my TRS-80.

I have a punch card around here somewhere.

[HankB]

I was using a slide rule in high school Chemistry to solve gas-law problems . . . I think I still have one around here somewhere.

And then there was the trusty abacus . . . 

[Kingcreek]

Well, since this thread has veered completely off track...
I just realized that the Texas Instruments scientific calculator I bought in 1974 cost more than this new computer. And that was with the super discount deal our high school advanced math teacher got us.

[RoadKingLarry]

I've still got a full Amiga 500 system including monitor and Okidata printer up in the attic. I splurged and got.the 512k ram upgrade and 2nd fdd, It was my 2nd computer.

[Perd Hapley]

I was using a slide rule in high school Chemistry to solve gas-law problems . . . I think I still have one around here somewhere.

And then there was the trusty abacus . . . 

An abacus? You had it easy. All we had was...

[KD5NRH]

I was using a slide rule in high school Chemistry to solve gas-law problems . . . I think I still have one around here somewhere.

I used a Pickett ES500 on both a ham radio license test and a college algebra test.  Passed both.  Also started carrying spare batteries for my calculator after those.