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If I only had a brain . . . I wouldn't be an idiot

xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402 ✭
in Non Cigar Related
Well, here's an interesting story:

I had a computer - a very fast computer. It did everything I needed it to do for years, but as time went on, it slowed down. I ran every test - defrag, memory test, virus scan, malware scan, spyware scan, deleted temp folders, defragged again, got rid of old programs, freeing up gigs of space, defragged again - nothing worked. Eventually it came to a crawl despite my best efforts - I got angry, thinking something was wrong with it, I tossed it aside and ordered a new one for a couple hundred

Fast forward - today, out of curiosity, I opened it up and poked around, and what do I find? My computer had unused slots for extra RAM, and an extra HD bay - if I only had had a brain, and not acted like an idiot, I would've googled around and found out I could've easily added more RAM for $40 and an extra HD for less than a hundred, speeding up my computer to its former glory

Moral of the story - don't be an idiot. Every laptop and desktop has easy access to the RAM and HD, allowing you to add more in about 5 minutes.

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    PsychoSJGPsychoSJG Posts: 766 ✭✭✭
    Putting in more RAM doesn't really speed it up. It allows you to run more progs at once without strain. That only gets rid of the lag when you have multiple programs running. To actually speed up the computer, you'd need to upgrade your processor.
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    stephen_hannibalstephen_hannibal Posts: 4,317 ✭
    And hard drive. Doesn't mater how fast your processor is if your system can't get information to and from the hard drive.
    Look for a faster spindle speed, and set up a RAID.

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    DiamondogDiamondog Posts: 4,169 ✭
    xmacro:
    Well, here's an interesting story:

    I had a computer - a very fast computer. It did everything I needed it to do for years, but as time went on, it slowed down. I ran every test - defrag, memory test, virus scan, malware scan, spyware scan, deleted temp folders, defragged again, got rid of old programs, freeing up gigs of space, defragged again - nothing worked. Eventually it came to a crawl despite my best efforts - I got angry, thinking something was wrong with it, I tossed it aside and ordered a new one for a couple hundred

    Fast forward - today, out of curiosity, I opened it up and poked around, and what do I find? My computer had unused slots for extra RAM, and an extra HD bay - if I only had had a brain, and not acted like an idiot, I would've googled around and found out I could've easily added more RAM for $40 and an extra HD for less than a hundred, speeding up my computer to its former glory

    Moral of the story - don't be an idiot. Every laptop and desktop has easy access to the RAM and HD, allowing you to add more in about 5 minutes.

    In a lot of cases its just not worth upgrading a computer you have had for "years" applications and technology become more demanding on your computers hardware/resources and most of the time an upgrade of "years" old technology will have no impact on the computer and when someone pays money to upgrade they usually end up spending that money and then more money on a new one once they realize it did nothing or very little, the smart play is biting the bullet and buying a new one and not dropping money in to an old one on components that you will not be able to get your money back on. You made the right choice.
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    PsychoSJGPsychoSJG Posts: 766 ✭✭✭
    The Steves have spoken
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    xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402 ✭
    Thanks to everyone for the response; it feels better knowing that there's not much I could've done

    stephen_hannibal:
    And hard drive. Doesn't mater how fast your processor is if your system can't get information to and from the hard drive.
    Look for a faster spindle speed, and set up a RAID.

    So would a RAID be setting up the OS on an SSD, and putting all my files on a regular HD?

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    stephen_hannibalstephen_hannibal Posts: 4,317 ✭
    xmacro:
    Thanks to everyone for the response; it feels better knowing that there's not much I could've done

    stephen_hannibal:
    And hard drive. Doesn't mater how fast your processor is if your system can't get information to and from the hard drive.
    Look for a faster spindle speed, and set up a RAID.

    So would a RAID be setting up the OS on an SSD, and putting all my files on a regular HD?

    Depends on the configuration. LINK But from what it sounds like you'd just be setting up a ssd for a boot drive. That would make your OS load faster but saving information from programs wouldn't see any sort of improvement.

    For example say you wanted to edit and render 1GB worth of video, the program you use to edit the video is stored on your ssd. The program would be able open and operate faster but when you wanted to save your editing to the larger hdd it would do it only at the hdd maximum speed which is far lower than the ssd.
    In short you would see lopsided gains.

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    xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402 ✭
    Ah, I see - many thanks. What I had in mind was just to put the OS on the SSD to allow for faster start-up times, but now that I think about it more, I'd only save a few seconds after shelling out a couple hundred for an SSD. Probably not the wisest investment

    I've been looking around at RAID's, and I may just wanna go with a RAID 1 - I'm in for an XPS 17, so it'll be plenty fast, so I doubt speed gains will really matter. Maybe in a few years when I replace it, SSD will be cheaper

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