Windows PC/laptop running slow? Older machine? Possible budget solution.

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Toni
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So my dear old Dell XPS is more than 6 years old now. It was a well spec'd machine when I got it, with quad core i7, 16GB, SSD etc and it's not disappointed me. But recently it's felt like it's been getting a little slower, getting hotter, working harder than I remember. I've been having to close all applications and do a proper re-start to clear memory before doing any Lightroom work, and when I exported images into another program like silverEfex of On1 then the fans would wind up and it would struggle a bit. Made me think than another year or 2 it would be time for an upgrade.

Came across an article recently about thermal paste drying our & becoming less efficient after a few years, and it made me wonder. Came across an offer for Arctic MX2 thermal compound, then read up about XPSs and thermal throttling & it seemed like a good idea to give remove any internal dust & replace the thermal compound. Took all of about 20min.

Now it's like a new computer when under load. I've been editing & uploading, got lightroom, On1 Photoraw, Luminar and firefox open at the same time & the fans have just become audible - before they'd have been whistling away by now & everything would be a little laggy through throttling. There's a fair bit of heat being generated, but the fans are just one notch above baseline. This has to be the cheapest peformance boost I've ever seen, and if you can tell, I'm seriously impressed.
 
So my dear old Dell XPS is more than 6 years old now. It was a well spec'd machine when I got it, with quad core i7, 16GB, SSD etc and it's not disappointed me. But recently it's felt like it's been getting a little slower, getting hotter, working harder than I remember. I've been having to close all applications and do a proper re-start to clear memory before doing any Lightroom work, and when I exported images into another program like silverEfex of On1 then the fans would wind up and it would struggle a bit. Made me think than another year or 2 it would be time for an upgrade.

Came across an article recently about thermal paste drying our & becoming less efficient after a few years, and it made me wonder. Came across an offer for Arctic MX2 thermal compound, then read up about XPSs and thermal throttling & it seemed like a good idea to give remove any internal dust & replace the thermal compound. Took all of about 20min.

Now it's like a new computer when under load. I've been editing & uploading, got lightroom, On1 Photoraw, Luminar and firefox open at the same time & the fans have just become audible - before they'd have been whistling away by now & everything would be a little laggy through throttling. There's a fair bit of heat being generated, but the fans are just one notch above baseline. This has to be the cheapest peformance boost I've ever seen, and if you can tell, I'm seriously impressed.
Dell XPS is a great machine, mine is about 9 years old and does everything I want it too ... a regular clean out works wonders.
 
Thanks for the heads up I also run an elderly XPS i7 , I think mine is older than yours too
I’ve upgraded to SSD a while ago as well as the memory and too out the blueray / cd drive etc and fitted two extra internal drives
I’ll redo the thermal paste that’s not something that I would have thought of before :)
 
I’m in IT and for years was a Retail IT field engineer. My biggest number of fixes where down to dust in cpu heat sinks blocking all airflow, dried up heat sink compound, knackered cpu fans and nearly or fully filled hard drives.
Most of us fall into the category of fix it when it breaks but really we should service our computers the way you would service your car.
i just had a problem with my pc where it decided my card reader wasn’t going to read cards. No matter what I did it didn’t want to play.
i have an extra drive that I can connect with a clean hard drive image. 15 minutes to clone it to my main drive and I’m back running.
Always nice to get a cheap quick fix
 
I recently replaced my stock cooler on my ADM processor with a massive silent cooler brick and used that thermal paste now goes like the clappers with hardly a wisper
 
I’m in IT and for years was a Retail IT field engineer. My biggest number of fixes where down to dust in cpu heat sinks blocking all airflow, dried up heat sink compound, knackered cpu fans and nearly or fully filled hard drives.
Most of us fall into the category of fix it when it breaks but really we should service our computers the way you would service your car.
i just had a problem with my pc where it decided my card reader wasn’t going to read cards. No matter what I did it didn’t want to play.
i have an extra drive that I can connect with a clean hard drive image. 15 minutes to clone it to my main drive and I’m back running.
Always nice to get a cheap quick fix


I remember being a field engineer a lot of years ago and had a box of replacement fans and coolers of all sizes in my boot, also the 10cm fans for psu s
 
Dust and heat are the biggest killers, especially of laptops.
Many customers put laptops on dining room table with a folded cloth underneath, to protect the table, blocking all the vents. I must advise about 3 a week.
 
I remember being a field engineer a lot of years ago and had a box of replacement fans and coolers of all sizes in my boot, also the 10cm fans for psu s

Me too, except I used to work on IBM PS/2's and 3268 dumb terminal equipment and carried a load of 3.5", 5.25" and 8" discs with me.

Those were the days.
 
Thanks for the heads up I also run an elderly XPS i7 , I think mine is older than yours too
I’ve upgraded to SSD a while ago as well as the memory and too out the blueray / cd drive etc and fitted two extra internal drives
I’ll redo the thermal paste that’s not something that I would have thought of before :)

Have now redone the thermal paste PC works a treat now and is now running cool
I didn’t check CPU temperature Before and after but it was starting to slow down and seems to be ok now
 
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