Slow PC: Upgrade hard disk or RAM?

arnislin · Oct 29, 2018

Hello. I have a HP Compaq 6005 Pro SFF (2 GB RAM DDR3, 250 HDD Seagate). It's 5 years old, and it's starting to get slow, very slow. Here's how OS'es perform:

Ubuntu 18.10 lags everywhere, however the apps start quickly
Ubuntu 18.04 is like 18.10, just doesn't lag so much
Ubuntu 16.04 is perfect, might get slow at some times
Ubuntu 14.04 is a bit outdated, but everything is just perfect
Windows 10 with transparency (blur) is very slow
Windows 10 without transparency (acrylic) is somewhat OK, might lag

What I usually do with my PC is browse the web (like 7-8 tabs), talk on Discord (a chatting platform), and probably do some little coding.

The issue might be with the GPU, but I don't really want to spend lots of hundreds of dollars for a new GPU and I also don't want to experience the trouble replacing the GPU etc.

I want to get rid of the lag, and what I suspect is the HDD. It's 5 years old and whatever button you click on the PC, I hear a weird noise in the HDD. Since there is no option for me to buy a new PC (for now), I might instead just purchase some new components. Do you have any ideas, should I upgrade a HDD to a SSD, or just upgrade the RAM?

P.S. If you suggest me to upgrade a HDD to SSD, suggest me a good model (if you can). 120 GB is enough for me.

P.S. If you suggest me to upgrade my RAM, suggest me how much RAM should I get. My RAM is DDR3 PC3-12800.

Aeacus · Oct 29, 2018

SSD would give you far faster read/write times on a drive which considerably lowers OS boot up, shut down and application loading times. Great SSD to go for would be Crucial MX500 (250GB) since it has the best price to performance ratio there is. Sadly, there's no 120GB MX500 drive, smallest is 250GB,
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/4mkj4D/crucial-mx500-250gb-25-solid-state-drive-ct250mx500ssd1
general SSD vs HDD comparison video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j84eEjP-RL4

I too have Crucial MX500 SSD in use in my Skylake build but mine is 1TB in size (full specs with pics in my sig). Also, once you've gotten used to having OS on SSD, you do not want to go back having OS on HDD (i don't).

As far as RAM goes and if you plan to upgrade it, for best compatibility, pull out the RAM you have in your system, read and write down it's model number and buy the exact same model (size, speed, timings) RAM.

Do note that the RAM amount you have is minimum spec for Win 10 and Ubuntu 18, so don't be surprised if you'll see slow performance out of newest OSes. That, and your CPU is old and slow as well. My old AMD build (full specs with pics in my sig) has the exact same performance CPU as you do (i have Athlon II X2 250 while you have Athlon II X2 B24) and i'm running Win XP Pro SP2 32-bit on it and not the latest OS(es). If the SSD won't fix your slow OS issue then i suggest you look towards new PC completely. Or at least new CPU-MoBo-RAM combo while reusing the rest of the components.

arnislin · Oct 29, 2018

Aeacus :

SSD would give you far faster read/write times on a drive which considerably lowers OS boot up, shut down and application loading times. Great SSD to go for would be Crucial MX500 (250GB) since it has the best price to performance ratio there is. Sadly, there's no 120GB MX500 drive, smallest is 250GB,
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/4mkj4D/crucial-mx500-250gb-25-solid-state-drive-ct250mx500ssd1
general SSD vs HDD comparison video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j84eEjP-RL4

I too have Crucial MX500 SSD in use in my Skylake build but mine is 1TB in size (full specs with pics in my sig). Also, once you've gotten used to having OS on SSD, you do not want to go back having OS on HDD (i don't).

As far as RAM goes and if you plan to upgrade it, for best compatibility, pull out the RAM you have in your system, read and write down it's model number and buy the exact same model (size, speed, timings) RAM.

Do note that the RAM amount you have is minimum spec for Win 10 and Ubuntu 18, so don't be surprised if you'll see slow performance out of newest OSes. That, and your CPU is old and slow as well. My old AMD build (full specs with pics in my sig) has the exact same performance CPU as you do (i have Athlon II X2 250 while you have Athlon II X2 B24) and i'm running Win XP Pro SP2 32-bit on it and not the latest OS(es). If the SSD won't fix your slow OS issue then i suggest you look towards new PC completely. Or at least new CPU-MoBo-RAM combo while reusing the rest of the components.

Thanks for the detailed reply! Can I just ask you, if you'd be me and you could upgrade the RAM or the HDD to SSD, what would you do? (I can't upgrade both)

jaslion · Oct 29, 2018

arnislin :

Aeacus :

Thanks for the detailed reply! Can I just ask you, if you'd be me and you could upgrade the RAM or the HDD to SSD, what would you do? (I can't upgrade both)

Considering 4gb of ddr3 can be had for as low as 15$ on ebay and a 240gb ssd (that isn't a crappy one) is cheap you can do the whole upgrade for under 100$.

arnislin · Oct 29, 2018

jaslion :

arnislin :

Aeacus :

Thanks for the detailed reply! Can I just ask you, if you'd be me and you could upgrade the RAM or the HDD to SSD, what would you do? (I can't upgrade both)

Considering 4gb of ddr3 can be had for as low as 15$ on ebay and a 240gb ssd (that isn't a crappy one) is cheap you can do the whole upgrade for under 100$.

But isn't the RAM model-specific? Wouldn't you need a specific model?

jaslion · Oct 29, 2018

arnislin :

jaslion :

arnislin :

Considering 4gb of ddr3 can be had for as low as 15$ on ebay and a 240gb ssd (that isn't a crappy one) is cheap you can do the whole upgrade for under 100$.

But isn't the RAM model-specific? Wouldn't you need a specific model?

You hp will do fine if you get a single 4gb stick and swap it out with the 2gb one (you might even be able to keep the 2gb one but mixing ram doesn't always work). Just don't get ecc ram and crazy fast ddr3 and you'll be fine.

arnislin · Oct 29, 2018

jaslion :

arnislin :

jaslion :

But isn't the RAM model-specific? Wouldn't you need a specific model?

You hp will do fine if you get a single 4gb stick and swap it out with the 2gb one (you might even be able to keep the 2gb one but mixing ram doesn't always work). Just don't get ecc ram and crazy fast ddr3 and you'll be fine.

Thanks for your help! I will mark your answer as the solution. Have a great day!

Aeacus · Oct 29, 2018

Out of the two, i'd get SSD first since benefits from SSD are far greater and more noticeable then benefits from more RAM.

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