- Jul 15, 2013
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Hello friends - I'm currently running a home-built system that I assembled in 2009 for office work. I find most days that I'm doing lots of MSOffice/productivity + email + web browsing work. I don't play games, render video or do software dev though I listen to lots of digital music and watch some videos. Think of the guy with tons of programs/browsers open at any time - that's me. I'm finding that my system just starts bogging down and becoming less responsive. I'd like to keep my upgrade spend to $200-250.
I'm looking for your advice on how to improve the real-world responsiveness and multi-tasking capacity of this system. I'm pretty well convinced that upgrading to a SSD drive for OS/boot/programs is the next logical step; but what would you suggest I do next after that?
Here's what's currently under the hood
AMD AthlonII x4 630 2.8GHz
8 GB DDR2 800 (4 x 2GB) (current mobo can only handle DDR2 up to 1066)
ECS A780GM-A Ultra MOBO (powering two LCDs with the onboard video; one pushing HMDI signal, the other VGA)
1TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD for boot/OS/programs
running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Questions:
-is 128GB SSD big enough for boot/OS/programs?
-is it dumb to use an SSD with such an old motherboard? should I upgrade the mobo in conjunction with upgrading to SSD?
I don't believe that faster memory (DDR3 vs DDR2; this would necessitate a new mobo) would give me any real-world noticeable difference, but my gut tells me that getting to 12 or 16GB of RAM would improve my performance. DDR2 RAM is expensive, so I'm thinking that upgrading my mobo would allow me to realize the most speed gain from the SSD as well as allow me to step up to DDR3 RAM.
Would it be dumb to upgrade the mobo and use a mixed set of memory (4gb of DDR2 and 8GB of DDR3)?
Thanks friends for your advice!
Art
I'm looking for your advice on how to improve the real-world responsiveness and multi-tasking capacity of this system. I'm pretty well convinced that upgrading to a SSD drive for OS/boot/programs is the next logical step; but what would you suggest I do next after that?
Here's what's currently under the hood
AMD AthlonII x4 630 2.8GHz
8 GB DDR2 800 (4 x 2GB) (current mobo can only handle DDR2 up to 1066)
ECS A780GM-A Ultra MOBO (powering two LCDs with the onboard video; one pushing HMDI signal, the other VGA)
1TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD for boot/OS/programs
running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Questions:
-is 128GB SSD big enough for boot/OS/programs?
-is it dumb to use an SSD with such an old motherboard? should I upgrade the mobo in conjunction with upgrading to SSD?
I don't believe that faster memory (DDR3 vs DDR2; this would necessitate a new mobo) would give me any real-world noticeable difference, but my gut tells me that getting to 12 or 16GB of RAM would improve my performance. DDR2 RAM is expensive, so I'm thinking that upgrading my mobo would allow me to realize the most speed gain from the SSD as well as allow me to step up to DDR3 RAM.
Would it be dumb to upgrade the mobo and use a mixed set of memory (4gb of DDR2 and 8GB of DDR3)?
Thanks friends for your advice!
Art
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