I think my HDD needs upgrading but not too sure

[munwin92]

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone would be able to have a quick look at my system spec and help me identify which part of the rig needs upgrading. When I log on I am plagued by slow speeds and non-responding programs for the first few minutes until it king of works out what its doing.

If I had to guess, I would say I am being limited by my harddrive since my CPU and motherboard are fairly decent (or so they were when I bought them); but since I am still pretty new to this I'd prefer some more knowledgeable input!

I can't seem to attach anything to this so I will type my spec out below:

AMD FX8350 Eight-core processor (8 CPU's) ~4.0GHz
Memory 8192MB RAM (DDR3 - I think)
ASUS GeForce GTX680 (2GB)
Hitachi HDS721010DLE630 ATA Device (1TB)
Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard
- I can't find the specifics of the power supply and not too sure how to do this through Windows, or if its even possible.
Windows 7 Ultimate, 64bit
- I'm not too sure what other specifications may be needed - I'm happy to post more if necessary.

If anyone has any suggestions then that would be great. Somewhere along the line I will be upgrading my graphics card so my new games will play better.

Cheers,

Matt

 

[munwin92]

Thanks for the reply mate. Ive had a quick look and the PSU is an OCZ Z5 Series 650 watt supply.

If I get a new SSD and install this, will I lose everything on my computer that I have on now or could I just install the OS onto the SSD and leave the other hard drive as it is?

 

[munwin92]

Champion so if I am going to install windows on the SSD it won't necessarily need to be big in terms of storage will it? And will all programs be installed to the SSD with documents, pictures, music etc on the mechanical drive?

 

[munwin92]

That's the plan. Just remember to set your BIOS to AHCI (under SATA connections) before installing Windows and, as RJC said, definitely remember to unplug the existing HDD when installing Windows to the SSD. I ignored the second part one time and Windows ended up updating the boot sequence on my HDD to point at the SSD - upshot was I couldn't boot without the HDD in!

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-027-KS&tool=3

Something like the Kingston HyperX 3K should do the job well enough shouldn't it? I'm chose a large capacity one since I've got a lot of programs on mine for my University stuff and I like to keep my most-played games on it where possible.

Cheers

 

[munwin92]

Yup, that one should work a treat. I'd go with the MX100 personally as it's £20 cheaper and the differences won't be noticeable in real life. Steer clear of the Kingston V300 as they changed the internals after the reviews came out, so performance is about 50% of the other drives (I have one languishing in an old laptop after getting burned with one).

I'd say 240GB is about right for price/size, although a 120GB will do if pushed for cash. Have a look for a program called "SteamMover" - I use this to have my games installed on my larger HDDs and only move any I'm using currently onto the SSD, then move them back when done. It works by setting up junction points so the game "thinks" it's still on your HDD but the actual files are on your SSD. That said, I haven't found many games that benefit from being on an SSD too noticeably, but it's worth it for the placebo effect for me.

Perfect, I've got one of those sorted now and I just need to get the cables and mounting kit to fit it and then I'll give it all a go. I'll also give that program a look; it may even just help some of my call of duty games load a bit quicker, I've noticed they load up, then crash for a little bit until it sorts itself out! We'll see, thanks

 

[munwin92]

I have an SSD for my OS and the boot time is fantastic it would be a big mistake not to buy an SSD and then a SATA for additional storage ...

I have a 256 GB Crucial M4 drive not the fastest but quick enough for me

Hopefully with it being the first SSD for my build, any should be a significant improvement!

 

[munwin92]

SSD will only "repair" access & loading times, but queue of "jobs to do" by operating system will remain. Of course with fresh Windows install it will be almost empty (take screenshot and keep it for future reference), but I presume you would install & keep installed/configured everything like on your current HDD. It's so called "mess-in-OS" which I can see almost every time I'm "repairing" PCs to customers.

So it would be a good idea to install everything what you need and then do
START->msconfig->startup tab
and un-ticking all not needed stuff, like Skype, communicators, updaters and zylliard other things. Keep just drivers and antivirus there.

For the most part I keep on top of the programs that I have open when windows starts, I think I've only got MSEssentials, Dropbox, Onedrive and my wireless dongle I think. So its usually say, if I go to open my emails I can be waiting a short while after everything appears to have loaded - but I'll give that msconfig a go, thanks!

 

[munwin92]

I've removed some things from the Startup list but I haven't noticed any significant improvements at the minute. I'm about 95% sure I haven't got anything dodgy on it mate, I ran a full system scan on MSE yesterday and I am running a malware scan now to see if it picks anything up.

 

[munwin92]

Sorry for the delay in responding mate, which anti-virus would you recommend? I used to use Nod32 but lost faith when it couldn't get rid of a virus a few years ago. I ran malwarebytes and the fullscan came up clear