New PC or upgrade current?

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Kell
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Hi all,

First off, I'm happy to admit I know less than zero about PCs, but I'm after some advice about speeding mine up.

Like most people, it's probably full of stuff I don't need, but it's slowing down massively of late and is pretty much full now too.

Editing photos is painful as I press to make a change and have to wait a while for it to take effect. And while I don't edit video a huge amount, I do do it occasionally, and that's even more painful.

Current specs are:
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-4400 CPU @ 3.10GHz
  • Memory: 8.00GB
  • System Type: 64 Bit operating xystem, x64-based processor
However, currently I have only 10.1GB of space left on the 1TB storage.
The two biggest culprits are my pictures (though I now only keep the most recent on my PC dues to storage issues - the rest are backed up onto various external drives) and my music. I did originally have the music on an external drive, but it seems to kill disc-based hard-drives when you access it a lot. Could I move it to an SSD do you think and free up the 374GB that it's taking up?

Is it just a case of upgrading the memory (both storage and RAM) or is it worth looking into a whole new tower?

Needs to be a PC as all my programmes are PC based and I don't want the expense of having to buy them all again.

Thanks again for any advice.
 
Buy SSD drive to put windows system and programs onto and nothing else.

Then use other drives for mass storage and back-up.

Keep them separate.

SSD windows and programs / Hard Drive mass storage + back-up.
 
In terms of upgrading RAM. According to Speccy, There appear to be four slots and only two are being used.

Do I need to buy two more 4GB or remove the two 4GB ones and replace those with 2x8GB?
Unless you think you might upgrade to 32 g in the future ( if the MOBO will support it) just buy two more 4gb sticks, just make sure they are the same speed etc.
That is assuming you can still get similar memory ,i.e the existing is not too old-check first, it will be worth running a PC program to determine what is in your system unless you know the specs of your machine
 
Troutfisher is being slightly alarmist as your PC will have DDR3 RAM which is still freely available but is otherwise correct. CPU-Z is a very useful tool for this.
I also agree with the general sentiment that an SSD will hugely improve the performance of your PC for a minimal cost.
 
Troutfisher is being slightly alarmist as your PC will have DDR3 RAM which is still freely available but is otherwise correct. CPU-Z is a very useful tool for this.
I also agree with the general sentiment that an SSD will hugely improve the performance of your PC for a minimal cost.

It may not have DDR3 mine is 3 years old and has DDR4, its worth checking rather than assuming.
 
Im sure the done thing is to open the PC case and write down the model name of the RAM and get identical ones.

There is DDR3 with different this that and the other, I forget what they are called. Timings and voltages I think ?
 
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Im sure the done thing is to open the PC case and write down the model name of the RAM and get identical ones.

There is DDR3 with different this that and the other, I forget what they are called. Timings and voltages I think ?
Yes to fit more ddr3 but no need to check. The i5 ‘4’ series is code named Haswell and uses the LGA 1150 socket this will only accept ddr3 ram.

Ram timings can vary with ddr3 but likely the op has a bog standard motherboard rather than say a z87-z97 so any ddr3 ram will default to stock timings as the board won’t offer overclocking.
 
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I think the advice you have been given is good. More RAM will probably make a difference with photos and will almost certainly make a difference when editing videos. Don't worry about RAM timings and CAS latency, etc., the differences are small. Putting your OS and programs on an SSD will speed up everything, and there's almost certainly room to add another large HDD for photo storage. The other thing that might be useful is getting someone who knows PCs to see how much stuff you have that's loading at startup and running in the background. You could be wasting a significant amount of CPU cycles and memory running background stuff that just doesn't need to be there.
 
If you want to match your old and new ram sticks, Memtest86+ is a free utility that should give you the precise specifications of what you currently have fitted.
If you're also looking to upgrade the CPU, the 4GHz quad core HT i7 4790K can be picked up on ebay at anywhere from £50-£WTF.
 
Thanks for the comments.

Most of it went right over my head i’m afraid.

I downloaded Speccy to get more of an idea of how much I can upgrade.

I suspect the motherboard is bog standard. It says Lenovo Sharkbay ((Socket 0)

But I don’t know how i’m aupposed to tell how much RAM it will support.

Here's what it says:

Manufacturer LENOVO
Model SHARKBAY (SOCKET 0)
Version 31900058 STD
Chipset Vendor Intel
Chipset Model Haswell
Chipset Revision 06
Southbridge Vendor Intel
Southbridge Model H81
Southbridge Revision C2
System Temperature 30 °C
BIOS
Brand LENOVO
Version IEKT20AUS
Date 04/12/2013
Voltage
CPU CORE 2.960 V
MEMORY CONTROLLER 2.960 V
+3.3V 2.672 V
+5V 4.489 V
-5V -10.304 V
+5V HIGH THRESHOLD 3.683 V
PCI Data
Slot PCI-E
Slot Type PCI-E
Slot Usage In Use
Data lanes x16
Slot Designation J6B2
Characteristics 3.3V, Shared, PME
Slot Number 0
Slot PCI-E
Slot Type PCI-E
Slot Usage In Use
Data lanes x1
Slot Designation J6B1
Characteristics 3.3V, Shared, PME
Slot Number 1
Slot PCI-E
Slot Type PCI-E
Slot Usage In Use
Data lanes x1
Slot Designation J6D1
Characteristics 3.3V, Shared, PME
Slot Number 2
Slot PCI-E
Slot Type PCI-E
Slot Usage In Use
Data lanes x1
Slot Designation J7B1
Characteristics 3.3V, Shared, PME
Slot Number 3
Slot PCI-E
Slot Type PCI-E
Slot Usage In Use
Data lanes x1
Slot Designation J8B4
Characteristics 3.3V, Shared, PME
Slot Number 4


As for the current RAM sticks, they say the following:

Memory slots
Total memory slots 4
Used memory slots 2
Free memory slots 2
Memory
Type DDR3
Size 8192 MBytes
Channels # Dual
DRAM Frequency 798.1 MHz
CAS# Latency (CL) 11 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD) 11 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 11 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 28 clocks
Command Rate (CR) 1T
Physical Memory
Memory Usage 64 %
Total Physical 7.95 GB
Available Physical 2.82 GB
Total Virtual 25 GB
Available Virtual 3.49 GB
SPD
Number Of SPD Modules 2
Slot #1
Type DDR3
Size 4096 MBytes
Manufacturer Ramaxel Technology
Max Bandwidth PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
Part Number RMR5030EF68F9W1600
Serial Number 1110187661
Week/year 07 / 14
Slot #2
Type DDR3
Size 4096 MBytes
Manufacturer Ramaxel Technology
Max Bandwidth PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
Part Number RMR5030EF68F9W1600
Serial Number 1111891597
Week/year 07 / 14
 
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I remember when I first upgraded to an ssd drive and wow what a difference. Even Windows startup time was immensely reduced and I've noticed that it doesn't start to slow down over time but stays consistently fast. Definitely worth it and if you use one of those free clone programs it makes transferring the os very easy.

Ram upgrade will help as well, especially when editing large or many photos at once.
 
He’s not assuming he’s seen the Haswell cpu and he knows that takes ddr3.
Exactly. i5-4400 needs DDR3, just like the i5-4690T under my desk.

Thanks for the comments.

Most of it went right over my head i’m afraid.

I downloaded Speccy to get more of an idea of how much I can upgrade.

I suspect the motherboard is bog standard. It says Lenovo Sharkbay ((Socket 0)

But I don’t know how i’m aupposed to tell how much RAM it will support.

Here's what it says:

<snip>


As for the current RAM sticks, they say the following:

Memory slots
Total memory slots 4
Used memory slots 2
Free memory slots 2
Memory
Type DDR3
Size 8192 MBytes
Channels # Dual
DRAM Frequency 798.1 MHz
CAS# Latency (CL) 11 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD) 11 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 11 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 28 clocks
Command Rate (CR) 1T
Physical Memory
Memory Usage 64 %
Total Physical 7.95 GB
Available Physical 2.82 GB
Total Virtual 25 GB
Available Virtual 3.49 GB
SPD
Number Of SPD Modules 2
Slot #1
Type DDR3
Size 4096 MBytes
Manufacturer Ramaxel Technology
Max Bandwidth PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
Part Number RMR5030EF68F9W1600
Serial Number 1110187661
Week/year 07 / 14
Slot #2
Type DDR3
Size 4096 MBytes
Manufacturer Ramaxel Technology
Max Bandwidth PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
Part Number RMR5030EF68F9W1600
Serial Number 1111891597
Week/year 07 / 14
It will probably support 32GB RAM so taking it to 16GB should be easy. Speccy shows that you have the commonest speed so a set like this should be all you need.
 
I'm going to disagree with upgrading this that and the other, check out a new tower intended for photo/video work with good video card and ample ram ready to go.
Generally you will only move the processing bottleneck to something different especially for video.
A powerful new tower will keep you happy for ten years, use the old one for backup and web browsing so the fast machine stays clean and minimal.
 
If most of what has been mentioned went over your head then I would be tempted to follow 4wd's advice and look at new machines to be honest.

Alternatively you can look up the 2 specific upgeades suggested, which are both very simple:

1) add more RAM (just get 2 of the same sticks as existing)
2) add an SSD, install Windows and your programs on it, and use your existing HDD for storage only
 
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@Kell Before you think about upgrading or buying a new one. You really need to think about doing a major spring cleaning of your own software and your own current computer.

Software spring cleaning: We're talking about uninstall programs you never used at all, using Disk Cleanup, and Defragmentation, and any other useful tools that comes with Windows. You need to get rid of any junk files. Do you release how much temporary files the computer could have left on the hard drive. I understand that you do not know anything about computers, but most of them are mainly done by Right-click on your C:\ drive to bring up a Properties box. Plus there may be some free download software that would help clean up your hard drive.

Hardware spring cleaning: You need to unplug the computer, and open the case. I'm sure you'll notice there are layers of dust in it. You need to clean them, use a soft painting bush to brush the dust off and suck them out with a vacuum cleaner. You need to clean the fans too. In most cases, a computer gets slowed down if it is overheating.

You would find it a surprise that sometimes most people did not know that giving their computer a big major cleaning up, both software and hardware, and in some cases, some of them decided to reinstall Windows (I would NOT advise you to do that as you would not know what to do, and could risk losing your personal files), can often give their computer a little better boost.

My mother once had a 10 years old computer with 10 years worth of dust inside, and 10 years worth of junk files on hard drive. Asked me if I could get rid of it and get a new one. But instead of getting rid of it and getting a new one, I opt to give it a spring cleaning. When my mother tried to use it, she found it like as fast as when it was new in the first place. Asked me how did I fix it, and I told her that I only just cleaned it up.

If you still want a new machine or upgrade your own, then that is fine, it is your choice.
 
An SSD and more RAM will improve the speed, but I agree with the above.

PCs accumulate loads of temporary and unnecessary files that take up space. I used CCleaner yesterday to clear out the temp files. since then I've edited a few photos, written a few emails and surfed the net a bit. I ran CCleaner about 2 mins ago and it found around 5Meg of temporary/unnecessary files. 5meg isn't a lot but that was within about 12 hours. There are a number of free programs (CCleaner being only one) that will do the dame and check what is being loaded when you start the PC. You might find over the years a number of programs you hardly ever or never use are being loaded. As said above defragging a hard drive can help too.

You might find all of this doesn't give you the performance you want but it free, so worth a try.

Dave
 
A new tower would be the ultimate solution, but then a 500+GB SSD drive and extra ram plus even having it fitted and the operating system transferred by a local computer shop should be no more than £150 max. Compared to a decent tower I reckon he could buy a pretty good lens for the difference! :)
 
Lack of disk space is a a serious problem. Sort that out first as it costs nothing to do.

8GB RAM is also a problem as manipulating images and particularly video needs RAM. Lack of it will mean paging to disk which slows things down a lot, even more so if there is no free disk space to page to. Video manipulation is also processor dependent, but don't think of upgrading that until you've dealt with other problems.

SSDs help with Windows boot times and software start times, but once a program is loaded and running the disk should not be accessed (aside from loading and saving data which should never be a bottleneck), so their effect on execution speed when processing stuff is limited.

Generally with NTFS fragmentation is not a problem, we aren't living in 1994 any more, but on a disk that's 99% full it can be, so sort out the lack of disk space.

You can use Task manager while performing tasks that you perceive as slow and see which parts of the system are working at or near 100%. For a more detailed view of which program is consuming resources there is the Resource Monitor. Both applications are built into windows
 
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