How to improve my pc?

WayneSmith87

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Jul 10, 2013
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10,510
Hey guys im basiclly looking to improve the overall perfomance of my system. Not expecting miracles but wondering how i can give it a little bit more speed or what RAM you reccomend

Its running on windows 7
Has 4slots for RAM 2 are used
Here is full CPU-Z information:
http://prntscr.com/3nza9l

What would you reccomend? Do i need abit more ram? if so which would be compatible with my current set

 
Solution
First are you running Windows 7 32bit or 64bit?

With regards to memory, are you maxing out your memory? Your only running 4GB so if your gaming or doing image/video editing or 3D rendering you may be maxing out your RAM.

If you're running Windows 7 32bit, RAM wont matter since your maxed out at what it can address at 4GB. If your running 64bit, you can go up to the boards limit of 16GB pretty easily. According to your CPU-Z screen shots your using CM3X2G1600C9N memory which looks to be a Corsair DDR3 1600 Cas 9 1.5v memory. However I cant find that model actually listed anywhere. Mixing brands, speeds and timings is bad juju, so your not going to want to do that. So what you'd likely end up needing to do is completely swap out your...

avarice

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May 10, 2006
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you currently have 4GB memory - another 4 would be a good first step.

Also - adding a moderately sized SSD as your boot drive (say 120GB) would be very good.

The 8400GS video seems a bit dated - and may be the next upgrade after the previous two.
 

WayneSmith87

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Jul 10, 2013
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Do i need to have the matching RAM chips of the others in order to keep it safe or can i just buy 2matching ones and add those in?

I do have like 3harddrives but unsure how to make one into the boot system
 
First are you running Windows 7 32bit or 64bit?

With regards to memory, are you maxing out your memory? Your only running 4GB so if your gaming or doing image/video editing or 3D rendering you may be maxing out your RAM.

If you're running Windows 7 32bit, RAM wont matter since your maxed out at what it can address at 4GB. If your running 64bit, you can go up to the boards limit of 16GB pretty easily. According to your CPU-Z screen shots your using CM3X2G1600C9N memory which looks to be a Corsair DDR3 1600 Cas 9 1.5v memory. However I cant find that model actually listed anywhere. Mixing brands, speeds and timings is bad juju, so your not going to want to do that. So what you'd likely end up needing to do is completely swap out your memory for a new set of dual channel memory. G.Skill, Crucial and Corsair are the top 3 I'd recommend. You can pick up a dual channel set of 8GB (2x4Gb) DDR3 1600 Cas 9 1.5v memory for $70-$80. I like Crucial Ballistix but that's just my preference. Get two sets of 8GB (2x4GB) and you'll max out what your board can do.

To find out if your maxing out your memory, load up whatever program you want to use and look at your memory usage with system monitor. If your maxing it out, its time to upgrade your memory.

Also it could possibly be your hard drive. If its an old drive, it might just be time to put it to rest and get a new one. Especially if your using a IDE/PATA drive, which it looks like your board supports. You're board supports SATA drives so thats a super cheap fix, $70 will get you at least 1TB drive that will out perform your old drive if its as old as your CPU/Mobo. The only real difficulty will be cloning it all over if you don't have your data backed up and don't want to reload your OS. But there are a ton of utilities out there for that. A SSD drive will give you the biggest boot in drive performance but it'll cost a lot more than the traditional drives. You also wont be able to take full advantage of its speed since your using a max of SATA II, but it will help.

Now if your not hitting your RAM limit, or your HD isnt an issue, you may be hitting a bottle neck of having a first gen, 5 year old i5 CPU. I'm currently on a first gen i7 and am hitting that issue myself. Chances are your hitting that wall too. If that's case, you can upgrade your CPU and Motherboard to the current Haswell line (socket 1150). Bad news is, obviously, that's the most expensive options but that will net you a good performance increase. Good news is you can use your existing memory on the board. You can likely use all of your HD's (providing their SATA), video card, maybe even your PSU. Now since I have no idea where you can buy that same memory (as I mentioned before) if you intend on increasing your memory from the 4gigs, you'd be better off just chucking your existing memory rather than try and mix brands and timings.

Those would be top 3 ways to increase your performance if its hardware related.
 
Solution

WayneSmith87

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Jul 10, 2013
24
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10,510
Windows 7 64bit sorry :)

Well im a marketer and into my software's and i am always running softwares,proxie tools, and things in the background for scraping emails,ips,websites,

The psychical memory on task manager is hitting 94-95% mark. The cpu is like 30-40% at all times.

So i guess it is time to upgrade my ram. Do you know of any sites i can purchase from. I am in the UK also not familiar with $$$ but £££

Thinking ebay uk will have the right chipset for me? So i guess the first thing i should do as you say is get 2 x 4GB DDR3 1600 Cas 9 1.5v

If that doesnt totally solve my issue then a small Harddrive and set it to my boot system?

Thank you for the full detail though really great of you to post it :)
 


Ok yeah it sounds like your just running in to RAM issues. That's good, its much cheaper to fix than a new system. If you can find exact matching model (CM3X2G1600C9N) for your memory then go for it. Ebay may work, I just couldn't find anything that matched it in the US so that may be a regional issue. The specs for your current memory are DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Cas 9 and its 1.5v.

You might be able to mix sizes if its of the same type of memory but mixing and matching memory brands is never recommended. You can give it a try but it may not be stable.

Cost wise, over here in the US you can get 8GB (2x4GB) of the same speed and cas rating as the stuff you have for about £45. To go to a Cas 8 memory set would cost about £53. But I dont know if there are price increases or tax increases for buying in the UK.
 
I'd stick to 1.5v. Thats been the Intel spec for a while now so I try and keep to that.

As for the amazon link, thats laptop memory. You're using a desktop. Two totally different animals. I'd recommend something like http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-BLT2CP4G3D1608DT1TX0CEU-Ballistix-Tactical-Memory/dp/B005Y8C8JO/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1401458699&sr=1-1&keywords=Crucial+Ballistix+Tactical+ddr3+1600

Since it looks like you may be something of a novice (not trying to insult) it may be worth bringing it in to a shop and having them give you an opinion on upgradabilty if you want to match it to the memory you already have. Otherwise I'd go with a new set of memory.
 
Upgrading to 8GB I would recommend for sure, you're in need of it. I don't know if the programs you're running would benefit from beyond that 8GB, but RAM is fairly cheap and maxing out your RAM couldn't hurt since you're using a 64bit version of Windows. I just hesitate to anyone to throw money at something if its not guaranteed to fix what they're doing.
 

WayneSmith87

Honorable
Jul 10, 2013
24
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10,510
Awesome thanks ever so much. I will just max it out then that side of things is done. Then its a small harddrive to act as the bootsystem bla bla and should be golden. Thank you so much
 
Also something to note should you decide to upgrade later on down the road. DDR3 1600 is the non-overclocking standard for Intels current chipset (8 and 9 series). So if you wanted to rebuild your system with more up to date parts, you would be able to use this memory. However depending on the version of Windows 7, 16GB may be your max for your OS, even if your motherboard supports a higher ceiling.

Windows Home Basic maxes out at 8GB
Windows Home Premium maxes out at 16GB (the most common version people have)
Windows Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate max out at 192GB.
 
An SSD for a boot drive will help a lot for some things, just keep in mind you wont get its full performance from it due to the age of your motherboard (SATA II is your max). Samsungs Evo and Pro lines are consistently top notch and my personal recommendation when I build systems.