RAM / Upgrading

htid

htid

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Chris
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Hi,

I have a computer with the following specs:
CPU: i5 650 @3.2ghz
RAM: 8gb (4 x 2gb - Corsair XMS 3 1600mhz)
HDD: Primary - 640gb SATA / Storage - 500GB SATA

I generally do my editing in Nikon's View NX-i and Photoshop CC. When I go through viewing my images in View NX-i, if I'm at 100% which I often am, each photo takes about 15 seconds to load properly rather than showing the pixelated preview. I want to speed this up as it really takes up a lot of time when I'm going through a lot of files. It takes just as long to apply a change if I alter a slider which means editing takes a long time. What would cause this slowdown?

I have some RAM I can use from my old work computer which is 4 x 4GB 2000mhz, would this be compatible?

I think the hard drives could be the issue too? I'm thinking of getting a couple of SSDs (I don't need anywhere near the amount of space that I have on the HDDs I currently have). Would this help?

I also have a USB-C port on my laptop and phone which is incredibly quick. Is it possible to get a USB-C port for your computer? I've had a look online but can only find things that look like they either convert USB 2/3 into USB-C or that plug into a USB-C port. I want the actual port attached to the motherboard, so then I can get a USB-C memory card reader to speed up the transfer of files onto the PC.

Thanks for any help!
 
Can't help with RAM compatibility but 16Gb RAM (if supported) and a SSD should make a world of difference :)
 
gramps said:
Can't help with RAM compatibility but 16Gb RAM (if supported) and a SSD should make a world of difference :)
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Yeah hopefully, I just didn't want to invest if it's not going to help that much. Trouble for me is that at work I have a top CPU, 32gb RAM, top graphics card and all SSDs, so whenever I come home this thing seems like 1950s tech :LOL:
 
Get the specs for you mobo and see if the RAM works with it.

As well as getting an SSD, try a wee over lock of your CPU.
 
The RAM should work as the mobo will just clock it at the maximum it can if it can't reach the rated speed.

I think an SSD would make more of a difference but make sure the mobo has a SATA III port to use it on as you'll only get a fraction of its speed benefit if the mobo only has SATA II. If the mobo doesn't have SATA III then you could get a SATA III expansion card but I think a full upgrade might be more sensible.

USB-C is properly known as USB 3.1 and there are plenty of expansion cards available on eBay.
 
Putting in faster memory won't make a huge difference, at best you might get a slight subjective improvement. However, it seems like you have two slow (and possibly near full and fragmented) hard disks. You would get a huge improvement by upgrading to an SSD if your motherboard has a SATA 3 connection to make best use of the fast transfer rates. Use the SSD for the operating system, software and the photos you are working on at the moment. You could then get a USB 3 expansion card and connect something like a 2TB external HD for bulk storage. Both drives could be carried forward to any future new build as well.
 
have you tried clearing the cache in ps it can get full slowing your machine considerably.
 
True the speed may not help but going from 8 to 16 may.

It would be beneficial to do some actual checks to see where the bottleneck is before throwing random cash/upgrades at the situation.
 
If you download Belarc advisor ( http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html) it will see what you have on your computer as you can check to see if you have and spare RAM slots available as in memory module below of mine



Then you will see if you can add more RAM by putting in a pair of the same chips as already installed or replace with bigger chips if no slots available
 
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You don't mention having a graphics card at home but do via work.
Assuming you do have one at home then I was similar aside from me having an older 3rd edition i5.
I went from 8gb ram and standard sata hd with 2gb graphics card.
To 16gb ram and ssd for hard drives (4 of them). OS on one import then export and finally programmes.
Oh and 2tb sata for backup and external 1TB for security backup.
However, I got one ssd at a time and noticed that the first ssd sped up loading photos quicker than the extra ram, which was fitted at the same time.
So I feel you may already have the answer, buy the ssd and store your photos there as this is where they will get loaded from and back to.
Keeping the OS on your standard drive won't speed up the OS loading of course but having the photos on a separate ssd will speed up their loading.
 
retrosi said:
You don't mention having a graphics card at home but do via work.
Assuming you do have one at home then I was similar aside from me having an older 3rd edition i5.
I went from 8gb ram and standard sata hd with 2gb graphics card.
To 16gb ram and ssd for hard drives (4 of them). OS on one import then export and finally programmes.
Oh and 2tb sata for backup and external 1TB for security backup.
However, I got one ssd at a time and noticed that the first ssd sped up loading photos quicker than the extra ram, which was fitted at the same time.
So I feel you may already have the answer, buy the ssd and store your photos there as this is where they will get loaded from and back to.
Keeping the OS on your standard drive won't speed up the OS loading of course but having the photos on a separate ssd will speed up their loading.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. I forgot about this thread actually! I've ended up taking some unused parts from work (newer i5, 16gb ram) and bought a Samsung 850 SSD and will install it all this weekend. That should help me out. I'll have the SSD as my OS and programmes and then put photos I'm editing on there temporarily, then move them to a large older HDD for long term storage.
 
Hmm, not sure Neil, I read i5 650 and mine has a different number and wrongly maybe thought mine being a 3rd gen when now they have 6th gen i3,5,7's
anyhoo aside from that my photos loaded quicker when I installed the ssd and not when I loaded the extra ram, I had 8gb anyway and never ran out or had a message saying as such.
I know that windows buffers or whatever the proper term is into a section kept on the hd for when memory runs short.
 
neil_g said:
when you say a newer i5, which one? as the i5 650 is the older socket type compared to the newer generation i series processors.
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The i5 650 is the one I currently have, the newer one I'm going to use is the i5 2600K. It's not the newest I guess but it's better than the 650 from what I can see. Just to be clear, I'll be using a new motherboard too (the one that the 2600K has been running on at work for the last few years).
 
neil_g said:
yeah was going to say, pretty sure the 2500k is a different socket to the 650 :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm taking the motherboard/CPU and ram from the work PC so they've all been working together perfectly for years. The only things I'll keep from my other PC are the PSU, case and SATA HDD since I have the new SSD anyway. Should all work OK...now just need some time to do it and cross my fingers that the thermal paste is still OK for the cpu! Haven't used it for about 6 years and I'm not sure if it goes bad!
 
htid said:
Yeah, I'm taking the motherboard/CPU and ram from the work PC so they've all been working together perfectly for years. The only things I'll keep from my other PC are the PSU, case and SATA HDD since I have the new SSD anyway. Should all work OK...now just need some time to do it and cross my fingers that the thermal paste is still OK for the cpu! Haven't used it for about 6 years and I'm not sure if it goes bad!
Click to expand...

Get some new thermal paste just to be sure - better than paying out for a new CPU if it's not got a thermal cutout built in!
 
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