Why advertise bits instead of bytes?

Question

Why do business company that sells computer components internet providers advertise the bandwidth and speed of a computer component or internet speed to bits instead of bytes? Isn't that a little dishonest for the consumers. Most people, i mean even the first time i build my gaming PC, i bought a hard drive, and wow this hard drive is fast and cheap, figured why it was slow. Did some research, instead of Mega Bytes, its Megabits so why? Is it that buyers are so clueless and ignorant? I mean come on, it was 3 years ago, now I'm well experience PC builder and can fix computers.

Antonio · Accepted Answer

Well, bits is more accurate. a BIT more accurate. lol I go by the bit. they've got the 32bit and 64bit processors. 192bit buses, ect. You don't ever see a 3Megabyte processor or stuff like that lol.
Megabytes and above just makes it easier to represent much larger chunks of data.

DeMoNsLaYeR575 · Answer

Bandwidth is ALWAYS in bits and storage volume is always in bytes, 
bits are instantaneous while bytes take time... so it is more accurate to use bits when dealing with bandwidth

it is not dishonest because it is still accurate. it is like saying 12 inches rather than a foot... same distance different name

so to sum this up 
bits are always small b in mesurments Gbps (gigabits per second) and are a single measurement of time, plus the larger number sales better...

bytes are always large B GBps (gigabytes per second) and are several measurements and is more useable

Anonymous · Answer

A byte is 8 bits and used to measure memory, so 1KB is 1024 bits.
Network throughput is base 10 so 1Kb is 1000 bits.
They are two different things being measured. Its like measuring weight vs. volume.

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Why advertise bits instead of bytes?

3 Answers