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    PC upgrade advice please

    Since getting my new MSI laptop last week, which is so quick and fast, going back to my desktop i have noticed just how slow everything is, even more so than i realised. Where my laptop wakes and goes straight into Windows with no delay, it literally takes my desktop minutes to do the same and even then still is laggy as hell at times. My PC specs are as follows

    Intel i5 6400
    8GB DDR4 2133 RAM (ONE stick)
    Nvidia GTX 1070
    1TB 5400rpm HD

    Now i am obviously aware the GPU is decent but im thinking the reason my machine is so slow is down to the RAM and the HD. Would simply adding an SSD and upgrading the RAM make a huge difference in terms of performance? In terms of the RAM would i benefit from adding 2 sticks of 4GB making 8GB or would i benefit from going up to 16GB? I dont really want to spend huge amounts so im wondering if these upgrades will be hugely noticeable. I both for games and just general use.
    Last edited by gambit6613; 18-02-2019, 13:35.

    #2
    Sounds like you need an SSD.

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      #3
      Sounds like you need to check how many programs you've got running on start up.

      Although the HDD is a 5400, it still shouldn't takes minutes to boot into Windows - the machine specs aren't bad, even though dual band memory would be preferable - but your specs wouldn't be a causing a difference of seconds turning into minutes.

      Also bear in mind that your laptop is probably booting from sleep mode rather than from a cold boot, which makes things faster.

      So my first thing to do would be look at what's in your start up.
      Last edited by MartyG; 18-02-2019, 15:37.

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        #4
        Yeah i have cleaned up the HD and checked everything that loads with start up. When i start my PC its from sleep aswell, im running a de-frag now to see if that makes any difference. Its just so sluggish. Some times when it wakes it runs ok but 99% of the time its just seams so much worse than the laptop.

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          #5
          Aside from others recommending a SSD (which is very worthwhile and a 240GB SATA SSD can be had on Amazon for about £30 now), I'd probably also look at replacing your single stick of RAM for a dual channel kit. Although double the bandwidth won't exactly double the performance, it's certainly a bottleneck for your system and you should see a noticeable improvement in more intensive apps/games.

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            #6
            Gaming Nexus tested single vs dual channel RAM and found it makes little difference: https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/1...channel/Page-3 - it definitely won't make a noticeable difference to boot times. You'd probably see more difference overclocking the RAM than swapping an 8GB stick for two 4GB sticks, but the ability to do that'll depend on the mobo chipset of course. It won't hurt to stick another 8GB in there - but I wouldn't go out of my way to swap it out.

            An SSD would be my first point of upgrade, but I suspect there's more going on here than just issues with PC specs.
            Last edited by MartyG; 18-02-2019, 15:38.

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              #7
              Didn't realise modern Intel setups are affected so marginally by single vs dual. Reading around suggests AMD Ryzen setups are impacted more noticeably.

              I'd still say SSD is the way to go, I don't have the patience for a setup with a mechanical hard drive for the OS any more. Aside from looking at what you have running as suggested, perhaps check your CPU speed/temps. If it's throttling quite badly due to overheating (bad cooling or loose/incorrectly fitted heatsink) you may see symptoms as you describe.

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                #8
                First upgrade: SSD, go with a Samsung one if you can.
                Second upgrade: Add another 8gb of RAM, preferable from the same manufacturer with the same timings.
                Third upgrade: Go with an i7 instead of an i5.

                No matter what you do, don't forget to tweak your Windows installation like mentioned above.

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                  #9
                  Thanks for all your advice guys, I have defraged the HD this afternoon, hopefully that will help. Think I’m going to get an SSD for now and see what differince that makes.

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                    #10
                    How much space is left on the HDD? If it's more than 90% full, things could get slow while it hunts around for space to do stuff.

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                      #11
                      I upgraded my 4690k with a 8086k (and more ram and new motherboard) but to be honest was not really much a difference as i hoped

                      Getting a SSD though made a massive difference, if you have a m.2 drive and depending what type you may be able to get a NVMe drive if supported

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                        #12
                        Only just reading this but yep, an issue with the HDD rings most true to me too. My PC is down to one 8GB RAM stick after the second one died and it didn't make any difference to performance at all, mine uses a HDD as well as for OS and when I turn the PC on it's literally about 3 seconds till it's booted. It doesn't seem like an SSD should make that much difference under normal circumstances unless you have too much stored on it. I have a separate HDD and an SSD for storage from the OS drive to keep that pretty clear

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                          #13
                          I've put an SSD in quite old machines and seen a massive difference in responsiveness and overall feeling of performance. An SSD really does wonders for any machine.

                          I like to have the OS on a 128GB SSD and use a good quality HDD for storage. Having a 'clone image' of the OS stored on the standard HDD is a good idea, as you can always restore the OS drive to a clean state if things start feeling slow or problems arise.

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