Upgrade route for work computer

Soldato
Joined
24 Jul 2003
Posts
3,292
Location
South East Coast
Hello,
I bought a cheap Acer Aspire XC-780 in a hurry a year ago as I needed it for work.

It is an: i5 7400, h110 motherboard (not sure if its a proprietary one or if I could move it to a different case), 8GB DDR4 (2x4GB), inbuilt graphics, 1TB SATA HDD and my only upgrade a 256GB m.2 SSD which I am running Windows off (Windows 10).

The system gets very laggy at times and I have been trying to find the most cost effective way to upgrade it rather than getting a whole new system. No gaming will be done but it runs my trading software with lots of charts and constantly updated data etc plus chrome open with 5-10 tabs, sometimes videos playing or music and maybe the other odd app running as well being connected to 3 monitors (one via USB as it only has 2x HDMI out).

I was originally just going to upgrade to 16GB RAM which I am sure would give a noticeable boost but I find watching a video slows the system down if everything else is running which I think is partly due to the integrated GPU with shared memory, but due to the case design I doubt I could get a new GPU in there as its tiny and also the PSU I think is just a 300 watt no name job.

I can see the current processor is Skylake but having a look at the prices for a better processor they are all over £150 which seems very expensive considering the age unless I am looking at the wrong kind?

Is it worth buying a new CPU/Mobo/Ram/GFX combo and just putting it all in a new case or should I salvage the current CPU/Mobo and move that to a new case + RAM and a GFX card?

Any help appreciated.

Thank you.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2008
Posts
11,618
Location
Finland
That looks like possibly mini-ITX mobo.
It certainly has super cheap CPU VRM, so hard to know what level CPU it could feed.

Anyway that quad core should be enough for work not involving heavy use.
Have you checked how much memory is used?
If running out of it PC becomes fast very laggy.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
24 Jul 2003
Posts
3,292
Location
South East Coast
Thanks, I am 99% sure its the lack of RAM (when combined with integrated graphics) so have ordered another 8gb stick (of the cheapest 2133MHz I could find) and a low profile 1050 with 2x HDMI and a DP connector. It 'should' all fit in the tiny case so hopefully that will sort it.
 
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