Your opinions please: buy more RAM, or time for a new PC?

[Gaz1701]

Hi guys, I'm in a bit of a quandry and I'm not sure what to do next. I've had my desktop PC since 2007, and over the years I've increased by RAM from 2GB to 4GB, and got a new [for its time] graphics card (the one I'm using in my specs now) - and I got Windows 7 [64-bit] when it came out. But now my computer is still going quite sluggish at times, and I was wondering if getting extra RAM would help matters; I know you'll probably say "yes!" to this, but - not knowing much about the CPU - I don't know if my aging CPU [being only duel-core which was OK back in the day] can also affect a computer's performance. I do enjoy playing games, but I'm not sure if my motherboard and CPU [and I doubt my HDD has enough space for any more games] would be able to cope with any more. I guess getting extra RAM would be a good bet, but would it be best to start again and buy a new computer, or can I manage for now? I'm on a tight budget, so I don't know if buying a new PC outweighs the pros of buying more RAM for the sake of keeping the old girl going. Any suggestions would be of great help to me.

 

[whs]

RAM is the last thing I would upgrade. 4GB is plenty. You can get a faster CPU for the AM2 socket - e.g. a 5800+ but the best investment would be a SSD for the OS. This morning they sold a 128GB SSD for $49 at Newegg. But they are all sold out. Newegg has sales like that more often. so be on the lookout.

 

[Gaz1701]

a 128GB SSD would be no-where near enough room to fit all my stuff [games mainly] on! I've got a 400GB HDD and I've only got 84 GB space left! Would my motherboard be able to handle a faster CPU? I wouldn't want to try and put a new CPU on myself, I'd need professional help to do that, but don't know what to do about it.

 

[carwiz]

That would have been a great deal! Newegg has this type of sale often for a limited number of items. And, you do have to watch and read the ad carefully. They will often empty their "returns" shelf with these sales. The item may be new or open box (return). So read, read, read.

 

[Gaz1701]

Sorry, please see my above post (you must've posted it as I was asking the question/commenting on how that wouldn't be enough room for all my stuff).

 

[whs]

The SSD is only for the OS. You still keep the HDD for all the other stuff.

 

[Gaz1701]

Hmm, I've been wondering about that recently actually... how does that work with the two working together? I mean like when it comes to something like Steam, which has the games in the Program Files folder? I thought everything had to be installed on the same drive as the OS for them to work...?

 

[whs]

Nah, you can move program folders to the HDD. I leave it to a Steam expert to tell you thge details on how it's done.

 

[Layback Bear]

Millions of people use a SSD and a Hard drive in combination. It does work well.
Steam has more to do with internet speed if I'm thinking correctly.

Because the price of SSD's have went down drastically I know of no good reason not to have one or more SSD's.

 

[Gaz1701]

That's sounding like a good idea the more I think about it, thanks a lot! I guess I'll need to reinstall[?] Windows to be able to get it to work? Do I uninstall Windows on my HDD first, or do I install another copy of Windows on my SSD - and then uninstall it from my HDD? I'm a little confused still (sorry!)

 

[whs]

I clean install would be the best option. But it is also possible to transfer you current OS to the SSD. That, however, would require a bit of work to make it fit - but it is not impossible. That solution is a bit finagle though.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I wouldn't invest a dime on anything new UNLESS that new piece can be carried over to an all new PC.

To do otherwise would be to buy oats for a (nearly) dead horse---seven or eight years old.

That CPU scores 1139 on the Passmark benchmark. That's poor by today's standards for anything beyond doing email, browsing the web, and any other minor tasks.

By way of comparison:

An 8 or 9 year old Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 scores 1557

A 4 year old Intel i5-2500 scores 6206.

A current $230 Intel 4690K scores 7778.

An SSD could be carried over.

Your RAM is antique and could not be carried over.

I'd assume you could upgrade the CPU and graphics capability, but that's throwing good money after bad. I wouldn't do it if my primary intent was gaming performance.

What you have now is adequate for whatever it can now do to your satisfaction. The benefit of adding new money to it for anything more than an SSD is minimal. And the SSD by itself won't do wonders for gaming performance---it will mostly be noticeable in booting and application loading times.

 

[whs]

Ignatz is right. The only salvageable upgrade would be the SSD. For all the rest it is a waste of money. But the SSD should have a very positive performance effect.

 

[Gaz1701]

I wouldn't invest a dime on anything new UNLESS that new piece can be carried over to an all new PC.

To do otherwise would be to buy oats for a (nearly) dead horse---seven or eight years old.

That CPU scores 1139 on the Passmark benchmark. That's poor by today's standards for anything beyond doing email, browsing the web, and any other minor tasks.

By way of comparison:

An 8 or 9 year old Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 scores 1557

A 4 year old Intel i5-2500 scores 6206.

A current $230 Intel 4690K scores 7778.

An SSD could be carried over.

Your RAM is antique and could not be carried over.

I'd assume you could upgrade the CPU and graphics capability, but that's throwing good money after bad. I wouldn't do it if my primary intent was gaming performance.

What you have now is adequate for whatever it can now do to your satisfaction. The benefit of adding new money to it for anything more than an SSD is minimal. And the SSD by itself won't do wonders for gaming performance---it will mostly be noticeable in booting and application loading times.

That is really helpful to know what the scores of by specs are, thanks a lot; and like you said, now I know where NOT to waste my money on my PC. So here's my situation so far (I don't know why I can't space by paragraphs out on here. Is it a subscription-only thing you can do?)... I've recently bought a new Windows 8.1 laptop 1 1/2 weeks ago (a HP 15-g094sa, FYI), and that's been fine for webbrowsing and watching videos, etc. I'm not that big a gamer really (I'm not into games like the Call of Duty series, GTA V, Crysis or other heavily graphical games; a lot of them don't really interest me that much - I've mostly been playing the LEGO games [lol] and Skyrim. But there will definitely come a point when I'll eventually want a new PC (maybe sooner rather than later), but for now, I think an SSD sounds like a good idea. This PC I bought was basically a custom-made one, and obviously looking back I've made some awful mistakes in my choices - simply because I didn't know the difference in the CPUs. I've spent quite a lot of money this year so far (new laptop, and holidays booked up), so after the next several months I'm going to need to save a lot of money up before I'll think of buying a new PC.