RAM or SSD upgrade first?

[DrBeaker]

After some second opinions here folks...

 

If you've got the funds to buy some upgrades - would you either buy the RAM upgrade or an SSD upgrade for the computers? Replacing them is out of the question at current, so upgrades it is. I don't think we're going to be able to afford both of them right now, purely due to numbers required.

 

Current spec of the baseunits in question is an i3 2nd gen, 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD.

 

Ideally I'd like to do both, which is what I've done in the past few years. But budgets are tight now so we're likely only able to do one.

[FragglePete]

SSD without a shadow of a doubt. 4Gb is still sufficient for most tasks.

 

Pete

[hardtailstar]

SSD all the way. 4GB is enough for normal use.

 

When you do get chance to upgrade the Ram if you are doing SSD first. Make sure you buy extra for the Photoshop machines and heavy MIS users.

[Ditto]

Target the PCs that need most power with SSD and an extra 4GB. For the rest, SSD all the way. For SSD buy new, for RAM, second hand is mostly OK. Out of interest, what OS are they on? Remember you might get extra performance by tweaking the configuration - e.g. disabling unnecessary services.

[korifugi]

SSDs

 

I did a number of tests with some of our machines (same boat as you generally), and while RAM did help - the performance boost was nothing like chucking SSDs in.

[bigal06]

SSD....you will see a huge improvement. As others said 4GB RAM is sufficient.

[DrBeaker]

Target the PCs that need most power with SSD and an extra 4GB. For the rest, SSD all the way. For SSD buy new, for RAM, second hand is mostly OK. Out of interest, what OS are they on? Remember you might get extra performance by tweaking the configuration - e.g. disabling unnecessary services.

 

Running Windows 8.1 x64 at current.

 

Then Windows 10 x64 after the upgrades (kill 2 birds with 1 stone)

 

All on an RM CC4 network.

[PotNoodleTech]

SSD first no questions. SSD upgrade make massive speed boost even with 2GB of RAM. With 4GB ram it'll be awesome!

 

(Yes I still have PCs with 2GB Ram) :|

[FragglePete]

Running Windows 8.1 x64 at current.

 

Then Windows 10 x64 after the upgrades (kill 2 birds with 1 stone)

 

All on an RM CC4 network.

 

Watch for your 2nd Gen CPUs with Windows 10. We've had issues with Intel gfx not being supported in Win10 properly on 2nd Gen and have had issues graphically in Photoshop as a result.

 

Pete

[FishCustard]

SSDs are a night-and-day difference. More RAM is nice, but not a must have.

[CHiLL]

SSD without a doubt, the improvement will be even more noticeable on those specs.

[localzuk]

Yeah, I will echo SSD. We have nearly replaced all HDDs with SSD across our Trust. Cost is minimal but the improvement is dramatic. Like installing a new PC pretty much. Extended the life of many machines by several years at least.

[ColonelPanic]

What issue are you having with the 2nd gen processors Pete?

We've got a couple of hundred i5 2500s that run okay.

 

SSD all the way, 4GB of memory is plenty for normal workstation use

[DrBeaker]

These PCs were our "upgrades" from 10-year old Core2 Duos that I've got rid of over the past few months - over 120x of the things.

 

As we know we have to work with what we've got unfortunately. That's the stock spec we were given by our Trust, I'm trying to extend the life and usability of them to resolve the user complaints.

[bigal06]

These PCs were our "upgrades" from 10-year old Core2 Duos that I've got rid of over the past few months - over 120x of the things.

 

As we know we have to work with what we've got unfortunately. That's the stock spec we were given by our Trust, I'm trying to extend the life and usability of them to resolve the user complaints.

 

Wow...I feel your pain. You could try and use the HP for education to trade in on kit of any age for £100 each unit. We cashed in for £200 per unit but that ended in January. We traded in 116 x Core i5 4GB RAM with SSDs and then bought more kit with the trade-in. Probably not far of the cost of the 'upgrades' your trust purchased for you.

[gmonks]

+1 for SSDs 1st.

 

I've been quoted £20 - £25 ex-VAT recently for Kingston 120GB SSDs.

[localzuk]

Can get Kingston A400 120GB SSDs for £14.90 on Amazon if you're a school and get the VAT back.

[Danp]

Without a doubt ssd first.

 

Even if you clone the drive you will see a huge performance increase. If you reinstall/reimage then expect more improvements.

[Techykev]

Upgrade SSD's first for most rooms, however, if your using Adobe Photoshop (CC 2018 and newer) then 8Gb RAM is essential we have found. With only 4Gb RAM we are always getting insufficient memory errors with Photoshop, everything else seems fine with 4Gb but photoshop will only run smoothly with 8Gb. Then again some of our students do seem to use some huge high res images so it may only apply to our college.

[bald_pig]

Upgrade SSD's first for most rooms, however, if your using Adobe Photoshop (CC 2018 and newer) then 8Gb RAM is essential we have found. With only 4Gb RAM we are always getting insufficient memory errors with Photoshop, everything else seems fine with 4Gb but photoshop will only run smoothly with 8Gb. Then again some of our students do seem to use some huge high res images so it may only apply to our college.

 

I found a few kids that didn't know the difference between pixels, cm and inches, would try to make a 1000 inch wide image, which would then cause all sorts of issues. The teachers would never spot this, despite me showing them numerous times!

[chazzy2501]

SSD always, even if the ram runs low and it starts using the virtual ram, its on the MUCH faster SSD so the performance penalty is so much lower.

[Ditto]

Getting back to SSDs which are at good price point right now, what do you do for fitting and cables. Seems all too easy to lose value buying adapters and new SATA cables.

[3s-gtech]

Adapters are far too posh for school PCs. Wang it in the 3.5” bay, it’ll be fine. Cables are the same as the originals.

[Ditto]

I think you are probably right. I hear some use Velcro to attach - I like the idea if calling on the textiles teachers to help IT!

[DrBeaker]

Getting back to SSDs which are at good price point right now, what do you do for fitting and cables. Seems all too easy to lose value buying adapters and new SATA cables.

 

Reuse the existing cables. Only on very old PCs is the SATA spec likely to be SATA1.

 

I think you are probably right. I hear some use Velcro to attach - I like the idea if calling on the textiles teachers to help IT!

 

Only thing that concerns me there is static from the velcro. I have used double-sided tape which has fallen off and left the drive just hanging inside the case. I'm not keen on that.