Question:
Poor performing newer computer - more RAM, SSD?
Tony Camonte
13 years ago
Hi there...
I have a PC I built a few months back. It has:
3 ghz AMD Athlon II X4 Propus
4 GB Kingston HyperEX Blu 1333 mhz RAM
2 TB 5400 RPM Samsung HD
Asus M4A88TD-M mobo with integrated ATI Radeon HD 4250 video
Windows 7 64 bit ultimate + Firefox 8 with adblock
Also a Blu-Ray reader and ancient IDE DVD-RW


Now this was just intended as a cheap computer for multimedia and web browsing, not a game machine or anything. But still the performance leaves something to be desired. There are two problems, really:

I like to have a lot of stuff open at once. Especially, lots of browser tabs open, Not infrequently, as many as 5-12 windows open, each with about 5-10 tabs per window. This really tends to kill performance, though. First, web videos like flash or youtube start skipping. Then everything gets sluggish and there's a lot of disk activity, until eventually it becomes super-annoying (like it takes 10 seconds to do stuff like switch programs) and firefox will sometimes crash. Oddly enough, the RAM rarely fills up completely, and often the slowdown starts even when RAM use is at 50% or less.

The other problem is video. I don't play video games on it but I do like to play 1080p video, both blu rays and mp4/mkv files on the hard drive. It tends to stutter, and there is also a problem of tearing the persists to a lesser degree even with vsync enabled (this also happens with low-res videos). It depends on the program, though. VLC, which I normally prefer, is terrible. MPC home cinema is a lot better, while WMP 11 is pretty smooth but I hate everything else about the program. And having lots of other stuff open worsens things it seems.

So...I have some money to make some improvements in the old system,,,given my uses for it, what would help the most? Upgrading the RAM? Buying an SSD? And would a better graphics card help the video thing? How much better would it need to be?

Thanks!
Four answers:
cgramer2
13 years ago
To me, your processor and RAM seem fine. Your hard drive is really slow. I'd get a Western Digital Caviar Black SATA3 (6 Gbps) drive, probably the 500GB version, onto which I'd install Windows and any apps. You can keep the Samsung drive as your data storage drive; that doesn't need to be really fast.



Also, integrated graphics are always a performance drain, even if you're not into gaming. I'd get a standalone video card, such as an NVIDIA GTX 460 1GB model (from EVGA or ASUS). That should help your video playback tremendously.



As for having lots of browser tabs or applications open, it wouldn't hurt to add another 4GB of RAM. Just make sure you get another set identical to the one you have now, assuming your current set is 2 x 2GB. That should aid in multitasking, though honestly I'm not sure it's necessary. Do the hard drive and video card upgrades first, see how things go, and then add more RAM if things are still a bit slow. RAM is cheap anyway these days. :-)



Hope that helped!
danielj2220
13 years ago
ok you have a allot of hard drive memory thats a plus but i would go up on your ram memory most systems that people use for allot of use get with 16GB ram or more but also for your speed maybe upgrade your processor also but make sure that your motherboard can be compatible together reason i say is i bought a new processor for my old computer and didnt fit it was to big so i got a new one cause motherboard would have been more expensive than a new computer to upgrade on that processor i had so i just got a new computer instead and now days they have the intel i7 processor and i have read that some people managed to overclock (some call that turbo boost) to over 4.0ghz speed of processor now that i dont know how they did because the ones i saw went nearly up to 4 ghz but that was already overclocked so im not that specifically good at that but mine works fine and i have several things run at the same time and those two things i would look into upgrading on just make sure your motherboard is compatible with your processor that you might get for it. just also find out how much more ram memory you can add and max it out also and yes i would get a better graphics card i have a gtx 560 TI graphics card and its ok but i am thinking about getting the newer one the 590 instead i hope this helps and i really love that computer you built very nice one already
Desert Flame
13 years ago
The tab problem is going to be your CPU.



The video problem has to do with the programs I think. Most people if not all, have problems running 1080p on VLC, MPC, WMP, UMP (including myself). If is not the program then most likely its the fact that you have a HDD and it might not be able to read all that data quick enough. I ended up just getting some DVDs and getting a copy of ConvertXtoDVD then burn them to the DVD and play them.
?
13 years ago
A 5400 rpm hard drive is not ideal for running your OS. You want to have at least a 7200 rpm hard drive for your OS. WD Caviar Black is very good.



If you were to spend the huge money and buy a SSD, then you'd see a huge improvement. But again, the $/gb ratio is not very good.



Everything else looks fine.



If your bluray is not performing to your liking, it could be software related. PowerDVD is what I run on my BD player and it's great.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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