Helping a friend get better performance from micro ITX - best solutions for under $150

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
F

Franklin_4

Reputable
Dec 10, 2015
421
0
4,810
A buddy of mine bought a low end desktop less than a year ago. hes had massive performance issues compared to when he first got it.

Tonight i uninstalled a bunch of adware and some viruses and updated a few drivers, however, he would like to do a hardware update or two to make it better.

I was thinking of just suggesting a new AM4, Athlon, and 4GB DDR4 RAM, but this is going to be around $200 and im gonna have to relocate his windows 10 ownership because of mobo swap. something i havent done yet and dont want to try on a friends personal computer.


~~~~~
heres the question
~~~~

So his MoBo is the Iris-A6 by HP.

It has an m.2 slot, but this is in the m.2 slot right now "Realtek 8723BE." Can i remove this from m.2 socket, install a small SSD, and get him a USB wireless reciever instead? This would only be around 100$ and hed see some great performance increases.

https://www.impactcomputers.com/h000073590.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwx8fOBRD7ARIsAPVq-NkoJiHzCcAfLbn0SGU7-H_9_OozriYWWVUh-vFg-QjqVBRvT9Fb5O4aAjbTEALw_wcB

heres the m.2 internet receiver he has

https://support.hp.com/bg-en/document/c05176559

this is the desktop and MoBo he's working with.

any tips/help greatly appreciated

He only uses the computer for banking, web surfing, and email. the occaisonal youtube video.
 
Solution
T
Sort by date Sort by votes
T

tsnor

Splendid
Nov 20, 2008
3,702
2
24,965
Normal approach to updating is hard, no CPU upgrade possible, and no point in a GPU update for banking, web surfing, and email. the occasional youtube video, and no PCIe slot if you want to try.

I like your idea of moving to an SSD. He might enjoy the faster boot time, etc. Why not just use a Sata SSD ? From the photo it looked like there are two sata ports, one should be free. Or clone his current drive to the SSD and replace it.

Or junk the entire system for a cheap i5 refurb. It will run rings around the 15W cpu+video chip in your friends PC.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
F

Franklin_4

Reputable
Dec 10, 2015
421
0
4,810


Both sata ports are taken, one by a 1tb HD and the other by the DVD reader writer.

It doesnt look like socket 1, type A will accept SSDs as its primarily for networking cards and bluetooth stuff according to this website https://www.kingston.com/us/ssd/system-builder/m2_faq

i wonder if theres an adpater out there for socket 1 to 2/3. i cant find one, anybody?

So basically either im replacing the mobo+cpu+ram or working a SSD into his system somehow. I perfer to use the M.2 slot, but maybe we will go via SATA and just get rid of his harddrive. If this is the case the best option would be a clean install of windows 10 im guessing?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
T

tsnor

Splendid
Nov 20, 2008
3,702
2
24,965


If he is happy with his current system then CLONING is better than a clean install. It leaves everything exactly where it is, which is important when you are upgrading a computer for someone else.

If he is seeing software fails and "wants to start over clean" then yes a clean install is the way to go. Do go to the HP site and look over and drivers they might have. Some will be bloatware, others might actually be needed.

Aside, a USB--> sata adapter is really cheap and would allow his old spinning drive to be used to retrieve data after you install the SSD. If you think he'll use it a lot, then consider a USB enclosure for a SATA drive which is a bit more expensive.

GL
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom