What is the difference between computer memory and computer storage?

[atticusclaw2]

Im trying to buy a new computer and upon checkout I get the opportunity to add memory (from 8GB to 16 or 32) and/or to add more storage (from 1TB to 3TB). what is the difference between memory and storage

Memory is what the computer uses short term to function - keep multiple apocations open and run lots of different processes in the background. Memory doesn't retain long term information.

Storage is where your stuff actually gets saved to. You an retrieve documents, pictures etc. from it.

That should have been multiple applications.

You can buy storage very cheaply to add later - external drives etc.

Before you ask USB flash drives are a sort of hybrid of the two.

It's the equivalent of long and short term memory.
Unless you're gaming then you don't need piles of ram. If you store music and photos then you want more storage.

So if Im mainly using standard office stuff like word outlook and excel and not running any fancy apps then the storage is presumably much more important than the memory?

Yes mostly. As wasabi says external storage is cheap too. 8Gb of RAM and a 1Tb hard drive should be fine

Fab, thanks both that's really helpful

Before you ask USB flash drives are a sort of hybrid of the two.

Quite the opposite - removable drives are only ever going to be used for storage by the operating system; a small portion of fixed storage may be used for system memory (virtual memory/paging).

You also need an external drive of some kind for backing up your valuable data. If you have a limited amount of data to save a usb stick or the cloud would do, but if you are keeping lots of info required for a business or similar then an external hard drive is needed.