Not yet. I’m first considering an SSD machine because I would really like to change to SSD anyway. But money might make me do what you suggest.
Thanks, Rick
32 gb RAM is plenty of RAM, 2TB SSD is huge. Also, you planning a backup device? Just thinking out loud…doc
My current computer is 1TB and nearly full. That is why I want 2TB. I always seem to run out of room no matter how much I upgrade! Maybe I should get 4TB! I would, but too much money.
I backup to external HDD’s every day.
Thanks.
Why not just add more memory to your existing computer and buy an SSD drive and install it?
Andy
What sort of programs are you running when it is slow? I use excel a good bit, but nothing complex. My speed is almost always limited not by memory or CPU because most of the time I am in Firefox browsing the web. So most of the time it is my internet connection that limits performance. It would be possible for my home network to be an issue if it wasn’t set up right, but I’ve been pretty careful. (Ethernet rather than WiFi, gigabit switches, using SpeedTest now and again to verify it all.)
That was (is!) just as true on my old (assembled 2011) computer, which was helped a LOT by replacing C: with an SSD. I upgraded to a well-appointed laptop because of travel plans, not because the old one was underperforming for my simple usage.
I’m not a techie to that extent. Not even close.
I have the 2TB drive and 16GB of memory and I’ve been very satisfied. Yes, in my opinion you should buy as much memory as you can afford. Just make life easier.
As an aside this is the first thread on the “new” Fool that I have thoroughly enjoyed. I’m not a computer expert by any stretch but I understand the subject a lot better than some of the topics that are addressed on other boards (err … categories sorry).
Regards,
ImAGolfer
I get it RB, I bet if you bought the memory and ssd drive at bestbuy they would install it for free. Or if you buy it from somewhere else their geek squad would install it for a price.
Andy
Hmmm, maybe I’ll call Best Buy or another place. Thanks for the idea.
1 Like
What are the specs of your current PC?
A Dell PC should last 5-8 years, then replace. Replacement is for a simple reason: Stuff gets obsolete and you can’t get parts, newest add-ons, new comm ports maybe NOT supported by your current motherboard or CPU, and so forth.
Extra cooling for the SSD is rational and practical. All your activity will be on that drive because your OS and programs will be on it, so it heats up more quickly than you realize. My system runs 24 hrs/day and it is on a stand-alone 1000VA UPS. I use separate software to monitor all my drives (external drives are on a different UPS). The SSD hits 45C (113F = my chosen temp to report it is too hot) regularly when I use it. I also have a 4TB D drive (Seagate 5900rpm or HGST 7200rpm) in the box. Separately, I have five 4-8TB drives in individual USB 3.1 boxes. 2-3 drives are connected 24 hr via 7-port USB hubs–and the drive temp-monitoring software sees them all and shows their temp and status on a variety of factors. My 1TB SSD is now at 97% health after two years. Two external USB drives are used to make backups of the data on the C drive (no need to back up the software).
I use the basic MS Office (home and student version) mostly using Excel, a bit of Word, and not much more. Use it for 10 yrs (price = $150 to buy it at the store, maybe cheaper if you buy a PC or add-on items such as a HDD, etc–depends on the current promotion). There are enough changes over 10 yrs to justify buying it again, and that saves you the problem of obsolescence and “Does it work with my system?”.
The drive-monitoring software is maybe $50-$75 for 5 licenses. I have been using it for 10+yrs with no problems over 3 PCs (Vista OS, Win 8.1, and now Win10-11. It is from Hungary (?)–and is kept current via automated update.
I always get the Pro version of the OS. It offers a variety of extra features I prefer. If I can get a TV signal, then I use one of the external 4TB USB hard drives as a DVR. Software is Hauppauge.
Hi @RBMunkin,
This is the reason I ditched Windoze a lot of years ago and went to Linux.
Gene
All holdings and some statistics on my Fool profile page
https://community.fool.com/u/gdett2/activity (Click Expand)
I dropped Win, whatever it was after retiring, no need, still running this 2012 mac Pro, 32 Gb Ram, a 2Tb SSD and 3 other 2 2B spinners… Not the latest OS, but it stays on 24/7, sleep only… Was off when we went to Seattle a couple weeks ago… here’s the stats…
One day the old beast will have to be replaced, but for now it meets my needs, a bit of photo editing, occasional video fiddling, web, email, messaging… Dell 32" monitor will move onto whatever I find as a replacement…
weco (long AAPL, T, VZ)
Hi, I think the link you provided is a great computer. I think the important upgrade is the SSD. If you don’t have one already, it is the most important upgrade that is left for most computer owners. Not just SSD, but “PCIe NVMe”, which means it can communicate very quickly with the CPU. Similarly with memory, 64 GB is a lot of RAM, but the speed and bandwidth of communication with the CPU is critical, and “DDR5, 4400 MHz” is great.
I would agree with the other commenter that trying to replace your existing drive with an SSD might be a good idea if you can find a shop that you trust to do it. It can make a big difference.
A really frequent reason for poor performance is malware. Windows Defender is solid and running an offline scan after updating virus definitions is probably a good idea. Good luck!
ps - to belatedly answer your question, past a certain point, more memory won’t make a system faster. 16 or 32 GB is more than sufficient for almost all purposes.
2 Likes
How do I find the specs of my current PC?
It’s a Dell XPS, about 6 years old.
Mine also runs 24/7 and is on a UPS.
I’m using MS Office also, although mine is from 2007 (old but works fine for me).
What should I consider relative to Win pro? I guess I should compare.
Type ‘msinfo’ in the search field, then on the system summary page you should see all the specs. Click on Edit / Select All, then copy/paste to your reply. The only things not in the summary are the drives and graphics, but those can be found in the Components branch of the info tree. Here are pics of what my trusty old Dell Inspiron 15 has:
1 Like
I use a free program from Belarc: Belarc Advisor - Belarc, Inc.
It will tell you everything including if your drivers are up to date. I’ve used it for years and its safe…doc
1 Like
Cool. Thanks. So you just did the display and drives of the components, so I’ll do the same.
| OS Name | Microsoft Windows 10 Home |
|---|---|
| Version | 10.0.19043 Build 19043 |
| Other OS Description | Not Available |
| OS Manufacturer | Microsoft Corporation |
| System Name | DESKTOP-7H1O20T |
| System Manufacturer | Dell Inc. |
| System Model | XPS 8900 |
| System Type | x64-based PC |
| System SKU | 06B8 |
| Processor | Intel(R) Core™ i5-6400 CPU @ 2.70GHz, 2712 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s) |
| BIOS Version/Date | Dell Inc. 2.7.1, 11/22/2019 |
| SMBIOS Version | 2.8 |
| Embedded Controller Version | 255.255 |
| BIOS Mode | UEFI |
| BaseBoard Manufacturer | Dell Inc. |
| BaseBoard Product | 0XJ8C4 |
| BaseBoard Version | A00 |
| Platform Role | Desktop |
| Secure Boot State | On |
| PCR7 Configuration | Elevation Required to View |
| Windows Directory | C:\WINDOWS |
| System Directory | C:\WINDOWS\system32 |
| Boot Device | \Device\HarddiskVolume1 |
| Locale | United States |
| Hardware Abstraction Layer | Version = 10.0.19041.2251 |
| User Name | DESKTOP-7H1O20T\rickb |
| Time Zone | Pacific Standard Time |
| Installed Physical Memory (RAM) | 8.00 GB |
| Total Physical Memory | 7.90 GB |
| Available Physical Memory | 1.40 GB |
| Total Virtual Memory | 16.9 GB |
| Available Virtual Memory | 6.83 GB |
| Page File Space | 9.00 GB |
| Page File | C:\pagefile.sys |
| Kernel DMA Protection | Off |
| Virtualization-based security | Not enabled |
| Device Encryption Support | Elevation Required to View |
| Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions | Yes |
| Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions | Yes |
| Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware | Yes |
| Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection | Yes |
| Name | Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 |
|---|---|
| PNP Device ID | PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1912&SUBSYS_06B81028&REV_06\3&11583659&1&10 |
| Adapter Type | Intel(R) HD Graphics Family, Intel Corporation compatible |
| Adapter Description | Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 |
| Adapter RAM | 1.00 GB (1,073,741,824 bytes) |
| Installed Drivers | C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\ki125694.inf_amd64_1331072a649f62e0\igdumdim64.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\ki125694.inf_amd64_1331072a649f62e0\igd10iumd64.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\ki125694.inf_amd64_1331072a649f62e0\igd10iumd64.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\ki125694.inf_amd64_1331072a649f62e0\igd12umd64.dll |
| Driver Version | 23.20.16.4849 |
| INF File | oem43.inf (iSKLD_w10_DS section) |
| Color Planes | Not Available |
| Color Table Entries | 4294967296 |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 x 59 hertz |
| Bits/Pixel | 32 |
| Memory Address | 0xDD000000-0xDDFFFFFF |
| Memory Address | 0xC0000000-0xCFFFFFFF |
| I/O Port | 0x0000F000-0x0000F03F |
| IRQ Channel | IRQ 4294967289 |
| Driver | C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERSTORE\FILEREPOSITORY\KI125694.INF_AMD64_1331072A649F62E0\IGDKMD64.SYS (23.20.16.4849, 11.91 MB (12,485,056 bytes), 12/8/2017 1:36 PM) |
| Name | NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 |
| PNP Device ID | PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1287&SUBSYS_10831028&REV_A1\4&34F8990A&0&0008 |
| Adapter Type | GeForce GT 730, NVIDIA compatible |
| Adapter Description | NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 |
| Adapter RAM | (2,147,483,648) bytes |
| Installed Drivers | C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvdd.inf_amd64_1c87277d30438bde\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvdd.inf_amd64_1c87277d30438bde\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvdd.inf_amd64_1c87277d30438bde\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvdd.inf_amd64_1c87277d30438bde\nvldumdx.dll |
| Driver Version | 23.21.13.9125 |
| INF File | oem14.inf (Section044 section) |
| Color Planes | Not Available |
| Color Table Entries | Not Available |
| Resolution | Not Available |
| Bits/Pixel | Not Available |
| Memory Address | 0xDE000000-0xDF0FFFFF |
| Memory Address | 0xD0000000-0xD9FFFFFF |
| Memory Address | 0xD8000000-0xD9FFFFFF |
| I/O Port | 0x0000E000-0x0000EFFF |
| IRQ Channel | IRQ 16 |
| Driver | C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERSTORE\FILEREPOSITORY\NVDD.INF_AMD64_1C87277D30438BDE\NVLDDMKM.SYS (23.21.13.9125, 16.73 MB (17,538,104 bytes), 6/4/2018 3:35 AM) |
| Drive | C: |
|---|---|
| Description | Local Fixed Disk |
| Compressed | No |
| File System | NTFS |
| Size | 917.98 GB (985,677,029,376 bytes) |
| Free Space | 393.67 GB (422,700,339,200 bytes) |
| Volume Name | OS |
| Volume Serial Number | 4E223760 |
| Drive | D: |
| Description | Removable Disk |
| Drive | E: |
| Description | Removable Disk |
| Drive | F: |
| Description | Removable Disk |
| Drive | G: |
| Description | Removable Disk |
| Drive | H: |
| Description | CD-ROM Disc |
| Drive | I: |
| Description | Local Fixed Disk |
| Compressed | No |
| File System | exFAT |
| Size | 4.55 TB (5,000,669,429,760 bytes) |
| Free Space | 1.97 TB (2,162,563,219,456 bytes) |
| Volume Name | Backup Plus |
| Volume Serial Number | 5A513BC8 |
| Drive | J: |
| Description | Local Fixed Disk |
| Compressed | No |
| File System | FAT32 |
| Size | 15.00 GB (16,106,127,360 bytes) |
| Free Space | 5.93 GB (6,366,187,520 bytes) |
| Volume Name | Google Drive |
| Volume Serial Number | 19831116 |
| Drive | K: |
| Description | Local Fixed Disk |
| Compressed | No |
| File System | NTFS |
| Size | 1.82 TB (2,000,396,742,656 bytes) |
| Free Space | 1.37 TB (1,510,836,666,368 bytes) |
| Volume Name | Aegis Portable |
| Volume Serial Number | 7008321F |
I used Belarc Advisor over 15 years ago, and it seemed ok, but I thought it was slow and tried to do too much. On a whim, I just downloaded and tried System Information Viewer from http://rh-software.com and like it so far. Extremely fast and informative even if the interface is a little idiosyncratic. Both it and Balarc Advisor are among the list of 10 tools featured in https://www.techcommuters.com/best-free-system-information-tools/
2 Likes
Task manager reports 2.1 GB Memory in use on my computer (W10 with no apps running). Click the Processes tab and sort by Memory to see what is using memory.
1 Like
Just so you are aware here’s a little story about what happened to me related to MS Office. I bought a new PC a couple of years ago and had a copy of Office with the “key” that I had purchased for the previous machine. I figure no problem I have the disc and the key so I’m home free. Guess what? No dice. MS in it’s infinite wisdom forced me to buy an annual fee recurring copy of Office 360 (or whatever they call it). Something like $70-$80 per year.
Regards,
ImAGolfer