Memory advice

[VWD]

Not as an older person, but for my PC.

I'm running W7 /64 and at times , I think I'd benefit from  a bit more RAM ( AS baaarbera said to her female sheep  mate).Current RAM is 4GB Corsair one chip XMS3 .

So do I just get a basic 1x4GB Corsair or go for another XMS3 

[sparckzero]

More RAM is never a bad thing - unfortunately, RAM prices are rather high at the moment!

 

There are many different types of XMS3 memory - do you know what speed your RAM is currently running at? It'll be something like "DDR3 1333MHz".

[Yetiherts]

A bit of extra ram a small improvement, if you can replace the hard drive for a ssd with fresh Windows install.

[VWD]

Bit of a difference on what RAM is supposed to run on, and actual speed. Did a Crucial update, to find Ram is DDR3 DRAM 4GB 1600, but bios says it's running at 1333 .

[io1901]

Motherboard or cpu might only support 1333mhz. It doesn't make thst much differencd anyway.

Edited 15 October, 2017 by io1901

[sparckzero]

Something like this would work for you, @VWD: http://amzn.eu/391FEKd

 

Although @Yetiherts is correct - an SSD upgrade would drastically improve the performance of your machine, moreso than a RAM upgrade. Let me know if you need any further information on that - I'm happy to assist!

[Aspman]

+1 It'll help to go up to 8Gb but not that much. SSD will make a big difference but can be a biggish (Pain in the arse) job to move the stuff over if you're not technical.

[KenONeill]

@VWD - Everyone else might be right; who is right will depend on whether your current usage is RAM bound, processor bound, disc access bound or internet access bound.

[VWD]

On 10/17/2017 at 13:55, Aspman said:

+1 It'll help to go up to 8Gb but not that much. SSD will make a big difference but can be a biggish (Pain in the arse) job to move the stuff over if you're not technical.

Technical - I built the PC, partitioned the HDD into 4 ( XP:32/ w7:64 /W10:64 / store). So moving to SSD ,would not be much of a problem, but I'm looking to do it with memory. On my spare HDD, I've a similar setup, but with fewer programs installed, hence why I'm looking at more memory, and getting FSB up to 1600

[Aspman]

If you've one memory module in running at 1333 if you put in a second that is capable of more it'll just step down to match the slower one.

 

Speed difference between the two would be negligible really so I'd just get the cheaper 1333. Having more space will make more of a difference.

[VWD]

module is a 1600, so any extra would be at that speed. Not really any price differential.

[VWD]

Problems mostly noticed on internet, so as I;m due to re contract ,managed to get an upgrade to FTTC for only a few £ more to keep me. Stil a bit sluggish at times, so contemplating a RAM upgrade., but still wondering if my free Macafee is slowing me down , with memory close to W7 minimum.

[SWBoy]

10 hours ago, VWD said:

 wondering if my free Macafee is slowing me down

The only AV program I've ever had any problems with is McAfee - I suggest uninstalling it and trying either MalwareBytes or Avast (I run both on all our PCs without any problems including a pair of W10 tablets which have very limited RAM).

[Aspman]

I have Macafee (coz it was free) if I can muster the effort I'll dump it.

 

It likes to regularly go on a CPU binge for no real reason. It's like it fires up the scanning engine but doesn't bother to scan it just uses cycles.

It's probably mining Monero Crypto currency.

 

If I change I'll pay for ESET.

 

I've tried most of the free ones over the years and eventually they've all done something to **** me off.

 

I'm back to thinking about a new PC anyway. My old i3 is really struggling to get going these days and that's with 8Gb ram and an SSD. W10 is getting fat again.

thinking about going back to the AMD fold with a Ryzen 7 but the bloody bitcoin miners are driving up the gfx card prices.

[sparckzero]

7 minutes ago, Aspman said:

thinking about going back to the AMD fold with a Ryzen 7 but the bloody bitcoin miners are driving up the gfx card prices.

 

It really is the worst time to build a new PC. I was thinking of doing a big upgrade (mobo, CPU, RAM, gfx) this winter, but it just doesn't make sense given the silly prices of memory and graphics cards at the moment.

[Aspman]

1 hour ago, sparckzero said:

 

It really is the worst time to build a new PC. I was thinking of doing a big upgrade (mobo, CPU, RAM, gfx) this winter, but it just doesn't make sense given the silly prices of memory and graphics cards at the moment.

 

Yeah you're probably right. Better to hold off till the new year or at least boxing day.

[VWD]

14 hours ago, Aspman said:

I have Macafee (coz it was free) if I can muster the effort I'll dump it.

 

 

Likewise, as it comes free with Plusnet. But ,it did find a  couple of problems on instal that Avast had missed.

[VWD]

I did a deal with Plusnet and upped to up to 38MB for only a couple of quid more.  Made a difference, net speed going up to about 35, but with similar down speed. Recently they've upped the upload speed to almost 9MB, ditching   W10 and MacAfee as it's only free on the lower speed. Definitely, increase in speed so one problem solved. Changed the HDD for the 320GB  seems to take less time to spin up. Any more can wait for prices to come down. The only problem with Avast free is that it tells you you need this or that, but  takes you to the site to be told that that feature only comes with the paid for version.

[SWBoy]

11 hours ago, VWD said:

The only problem with Avast free is that it tells you you need this or that, but  takes you to the site to be told that that feature only comes with the paid for version.

Another problem new to the 2018 version of Avast free is that if you have a Road Angel Gem speed camera warning device Avast blocks their PC updater from connecting to their server.

 

If Road Angel "tech support" could tell me the ports and/or URL they use then maybe I could unblock it but they don't seem to even understand the question!!! So I'm having to update it on my MacBook...

 

Oh and Avast free 2018 will probably trash any Windows 10 device on the Insider program as it makes the Insider beta versions of Windows 10 unbootable - it took me a couple of days to rebuild my W10 tablet because of this.

Edited 17 December, 2017 by SWBoy

[VWD]

The bit about W10 is of interest, but to me for info only as I still prefer W7.  I've always been suspicious of any new MS OS till we've had a couple of SP. Anyway by the time support for W7 stops, I'll possibly be too old  to worry.

[VWD]

update ON w10- out of curiosity, I decided to update W7 on a spare HDD  to W10, and then update to the max. I'm now on W10 update 1709, and I love it. Smooth- it's like W7 on a very very good day. tHE BANE OF OLD w10- update, get done in the background, with user control of when to install and even when to restart PC. I'd advise updates, BUT on a separate HDD, as W10 updates don't know when to restart the PC, and as a result, the update fails till the PC IS RESTARTED

 

[sparckzero]

Erm....come again?

[VWD]

Translated for those up narth.

If going down the update till there's no other updated to install, then do as I did- I installed W7 on a spare HDD, with AV and net access and installed W10 update with updates. Every so often the PC will hang as I don't believe old W10 gets the message to reboot. I reboot and alll updates again,. But I let my PC do all this overnight and when I wanted to use the PC ,I reverted to the other HDD. After a few nights I got a nice shiny 1709 Fall Creator updated version of W10. Since then ,i've upgraded my OS HDD to a small SSD, and updates install with little problems.

[fabdavrav]

& Win 10 defo needs 8gb RAM min when it does updates in the background....I have 16gb of RAM & 8 cores intel 7i.....& seen win updater & associated host/systems services soak up 25% of the RAM......let alone hit 20% of the CPU

 

..not even Photoshop when merging 8 pictures & multiple layers can soak up so much hardware speed...

[VWD]

At moment, my W10 is doing updates in background, with little effect on what I'm doing, and I've only got an A4 -4000 CPU /3GHZ  with 4 GB RAM. I've certainly noticed the difference since upgrading to an SSD, even though my SATA ports are only 3GHz , on a 6 GHz drive. Currently I've got a 120 GB partitioned to 30 gb for XP and the rest for W10. Fot those brave enough to wait through to windows 1709, there's an option to  set a time span for updates, where within the time span, no updates are delivered, and another time span for restarts.