A bit worried

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25 Sep 2010
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I'm a bit worried about my PC which I built from scratch from components bought from Overclockers in 2010.
I've today run Speccy as I need to increase/upgrade the RAM as I know I'm hitting the buffers. Running 3 x 2GB DDR3 which I know is no where near enough. MB has 6 slots.
Question is how do I best upgrade the RAM?
More concerning is the fact that Speccy reports the temperature of my OCZ-Vertex SSD as fluctuating between 80'C and 1'C.
I've suspected for awhile that the SSD is poorly as I get other issues when booting up - not something that happened from day one.
Question is what to do?
Thanks in advance for any replies.
 
replace the SSD, 250GB SSDs are not too much these days.

with the ram you can just get 2 x 4GB sticks or 2 x 8GB sticks depending on how much you want and run the ram in dual channel instead of tripple channel.

if you upgrade the mobo and processor down the line you can move both parts over to your new system as well.
 
Thx guys. Running i7 950 bloomfield on Gigabyte x58a-ud3r which is good enough for me at the min. Don't want to spend a fortune as also running a n other platform.
The SSD is running Win 7 with a 1TB hdd for storage.
What's the best method to replace SSD/Win7? have got caddy and spare hdd's.
 
You could probably clone it across with Macrium Reflect.

Plug the new SSD in and make sure its detected, then start the cloning process (its quick, simple and free)
 
If you have installation media then I would simply install new SSD and new OS as fresh install.

If however you require keeping your existing installation of Windows then some disk cloning software would be best, although personally I recommend a fresh install for many reasons, gives your PC the best 'spring clean' feeling where it boots and runs optimally. And, it can avoid any hardware related driver errors and conflicts especially when doing so at same time as hardware upgrades, although doubt RAM and SSD would cause this, best to be safe than sorry.

In terms of freshening your PC with new hardware, then SSD is a must and fairly quickly as they do tend to go quite quickly once errors are happening. How old is the SSD by chance?

I would advise either SanDisk Ultra, Kingston HyperX, Samsung 850 series or Intel for the make of SSD. All of these have proven their worth time and time again on many platforms and scenarios.

As for RAM, I am not entirely sure that jumping from triple channel 6gb to double channel 8gb is going to make massive amounts of gains for you. What do you use your PC for? In gaming 8gb is a sweet spot but for other tasks maybe not so. An indication on your computer usage may help to determine a suitable RAM configuration for you.
 
replace the SSD, 250GB SSDs are not too much these days.

with the ram you can just get 2 x 4GB sticks or 2 x 8GB sticks depending on how much you want and run the ram in dual channel instead of tripple channel.

if you upgrade the mobo and processor down the line you can move both parts over to your new system as well.

Personally did this. My 920 ran with my current ram in dual channel quite happily. My 60gb OCZ SSD always reads 128c, but you're saying there are other issues, so replace it and you should be fine till your next upgrade. :)
 
Personally did this. My 920 ran with my current ram in dual channel quite happily. My 60gb OCZ SSD always reads 128c, but you're saying there are other issues, so replace it and you should be fine till your next upgrade. :)

Just been doing a little research on the OCZ drives and it appears to be a rather shoddy device! Kinda glad I steered away from that brand, can't say for sure as never owned anything from them, but a lot of unhappy people have. :eek:
 
SSD is > 5 years old and for quite awhile I've been getting problems when booting.
I have to F12 and manually select the SSD before it'll boot into windows otherwise it just hangs in bios. It does this every-time and I have updated the bios etc...I don't have a physical copy of Win7 a friend of mine let me have a spare key(legit) he wasn't using.
 
Ok that's cool, sounds like your SSD is probably biting the dust then. Time to replace ASAP. Although please just confirm that no other drives are acting up and switch your SSD to another SATA port just to be sure nothing on the board is playing up.

As for Windows 7, if you have a legit key you can download a Windows 7 Image file on the Microsoft website and install via CD/DVD or USB. You would need if I can remember a min 4gb USB device for Windows 7, not sure though this may be 8gb, been a while since I installed Win7!

Also you should be eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10 after activating and downloading all latest updates.
 
Thx for that and no other drives are playing up. I might go for the clone option as the SSD is fairly clean from rubbish as the HDD handles all storage.
 
Yes, it won't necessarily cause any errors, it's just good practice as sometimes can be confusing as to what drive your cloning or formatting etc. and you don't want to inadvertently wipe the wrong drive. (I made that mistake once!)

Having just the one drive in till installation means everything goes smoothly and onces your up and running pop your other drives back on and start installing your programs and your good to go.
 
Worked just like you said it would nice and easy!
Couple of questions - installed Samsung evo850 250GB ssd but win7 still reports old ssd capacity of 120GB.
Also installed 2 x 8GB of 1600MHz Ram but Speccy reports 532MHz.
 
You just need to expand the partition in Disk Management. Right click computer, Manage, Disk Management under storage on the left. Then select the SSD that'll have a chunk of un-allocated space and expand via the right click menu. Or could could have a 2nd partition. Maybe a cleaner option.
 
samsung evos are quite cheat at the moment you can pick a 250gb up for about 60 quid pretty good since i paid 90 for a 840 evo 850s are even cheaper
 
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