Microgaming in particular used to be notorious for eating up entire hard drives
, but they have reorganised the structure of the downloads so that having, say, 3 MGS casinos installed is not 3x as much hard drive space used (It used to be EXACTLY like this, with each MGS casino gobbling up 2Gig
).
The shortcut to an instant play casino takes up the least space on the hard drive, however having to constantly load games, particularly the graphics, from the server can be tedious if internet speeds are slow. I remember it being routine for Lasseters games to take MINUTES to load each time I switched to a new one. This was WAY too slow, and would justify using the download version for me. Lasseters didn't have one, and have now closed down, so problem solved
Virtual memory, or RAM is a different matter. An instant play casino runs within your web browser, whereas a download casino is a software program in it's own right. Download casinos may put more strain on low spec PC's than instant play ones. The cheap PC's tend to come with relatively low amounts of RAM, but increasing RAM is the best way to breathe new life into a fading PC. I have done this myself, and have seen the visible improvements. The PC I did it on is STILL running, originally with 64Mbyte, I upgraded to 392Mbyte, which I was assured by a guide was optimum for Windows 98
My casino playing PC came with 2Gig of RAM, but can take 4Gig, and this will probably be the first thing I will upgrade - maybe it will fix the infamous "MGS jerk & stutter" when playing the slots