Best way to improve speed cheaply?

SamSpade

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
On my kid's computers, I easily saw that the best way to improve their machine's overall performance was to max out the memory. They surf the web and play a lot of online games - and I frequently have to flush out all the crap they load - but memory is the lynchpin.

I'm looking to upgrade my primary workhorse, the big one I do my work on, but lack the funds to just out and out replace it.
I'm at my office and can't speak to what it has, but I think it has about 8G of memory - a lot at the time I bought it - and your standard run of the mill
2T hard drive.

I keep getting offers online for solid state drives and of course memory. What do you think will gain me the most bang for the buck?
 
SamSpade

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
GURPS said:
SSD will speed up file access ..... more memory makes for a bigger ' work space'
Click to expand...

THANKS! That scan thing was great - helps a lot of my machines. As a general rule, more memory has been the cheapest upgrade.

One of the biggest logjams on my big computer is the occasional hard disk thing where SOMETHING monopolizes all of the disk
movement - I find performance completely consumed. I suspect it's mostly my security software, which I stand behind. We got hit
with ransomware last year on another work laptop, and it was more or less rendered useless until we wiped it.

What do you know about hybrid drives? Worth the money? Since I upgrade my computers infrequently, I'm always hyper cautious about
storage space, because by the time I get around to upgrading, the need is great.
 
SamSpade

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
Ok. Now I've run it on the big guy, my main work computer. It claims that 8G is the maximum. I got to Dell. They say the same.

I go to Dell community - and a half dozen say they've all installed 12-16 G with NO problems.
So my gut tells me the Quick Scan must identify the machine and does a lookup on some database for values.
It doesn't "know" if it will take more.

Why might Dell say no more than 8 if it will accept more without any problem?
 
GURPS

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
SamSpade said:
Why might Dell say no more than 8 if it will accept more without any problem?
Click to expand...


The computer was not designed for more than 8 at the time ... not all memory modules are ' the same ' so there is NO guarantee Part A will work, in Slot B

if you decide to go this route ... by the same modules as the people saying 16 gb wiorked
 
PeoplesElbow

PeoplesElbow

Well-Known Member
Your bios may need updated to access more than 8GB, there could be more than one version of the motherboard for a retail computer that is almost transparent to the end user.

RAM is always a good upgrade, but nothing seems to speed up a computer like a SDD can. I kept my HDD as a backup drive (its now D:) and the SDD is the one with the OS on it and the computer boots from.
 
SamSpade

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
PeoplesElbow said:
Your bios may need updated to access more than 8GB, there could be more than one version of the motherboard for a retail computer that is almost transparent to the end user.

RAM is always a good upgrade, but nothing seems to speed up a computer like a SDD can. I kept my HDD as a backup drive (its now D:) and the SDD is the one with the OS on it and the computer boots from.
Click to expand...

Hmm. It's been so very long since I ever had a computer with more than one drive. It hasn't been necessary in a long time.

But it also used to be a really simple thing to do - grab the HD cable and slap on the extra link that was there - grab an extra link from the power supply - and set the pins for master slave and so forth.

I no longer have any clue how to set them up - or if my current machine will take any drive I buy.
Plus, I know I'd like my new drive to at least run the OS - I can't even begin to figure out how to add one and have everything run right.
Ideas?

I am giving serious thought to just starting over completely.
 
PeoplesElbow

PeoplesElbow

Well-Known Member
SamSpade said:
Hmm. It's been so very long since I ever had a computer with more than one drive. It hasn't been necessary in a long time.

But it also used to be a really simple thing to do - grab the HD cable and slap on the extra link that was there - grab an extra link from the power supply - and set the pins for master slave and so forth.

I no longer have any clue how to set them up - or if my current machine will take any drive I buy.
Plus, I know I'd like my new drive to at least run the OS - I can't even begin to figure out how to add one and have everything run right.
Ideas?

I am giving serious thought to just starting over completely.
Click to expand...
It is even easier now with SATA drives. You simply tell it which one you want to be which in the BIOS, do your formatting and that's it.

I fought with master/slave with IDE ATA drives before and couldn't get certian drives to be slaves to others, ever since SATA became the main stream (15 years ago?) it has been so simple.
 
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