should I upgrade or not?

[potteringaround]

I currently have a Medion PC running intel i5 650 3.20 GHz and 4 GB RAM (only 2.99 is usable seemingly). Performance on Lightroom 5 is ropey and PS even worse. As I'm looking to upgrade to LR 6 then I need to do something.

I'm not that knowledgeable but have been doing my reading up and spec'ed a decent custom build from Mesh computers for £883 (250 GB SSD, i5-6600 Quad Core Processor (Skylake,3.3GHz-3.9GHz Turbo, 6MB Cache, 16GB RAM, 2GB Video Card, plus USB 3.0, etc...)

My question is : Should i Just upgrade the RAM on my current computer and install SSD instead?

 

[Keith W]

If you PC is saying it can only read 3GB of RAM it means you only have a 32bit operating system installed so upgrading the RAM will be a waste of money

You would need to upgrade your current operating system to a 64bit version to make use of RAM above 3GB, if you do this then adding more RAM and an SSD should have you see an improvement

 

[Ploddles]

 

[Keith W]

Did a little costing for you based off of the information in your post and as you can see to upgrade your current system could well work out a lot cheaper.

Win7 Professional 64bit £120

8GB RAM £31.00

SSD £62

Total: £213

Bear in mind the prices are not written in stone and can go up as well as down and also deals can be found all over the web

I have a core i5 system, 8GB RAM running on an SSD using win7 and I can run Photoshop and Lightroom OK

 

[dejongj]

Or if you want to save £120.

Upgrade to Windows 10 32bit first. Once that it activated you can use the media creation tool to download and create 64bit installation media. Then you perform the clean install on the nice new SSD and memory.

I can send you my PayPal address to deposit the £60 saved; if we split it through the middle

 

[boliston]

The i5 650 is certainly a legacy processor - 6 years old now so no wonder it's sluggish!
A reasonable up to date skylake system should not cost more than about £600 - I tend to upgrade PC about every 4-5 years and have never bothered tying to upgrade an existing box - currently have a 2013 haswell box so easily good for another couple of years

 

[Mr Bump]

depends on funds realy, open her up and check what RAM is installed and if you have any spare slots etc.
You could pick up an extra 4gb for next to nowt. You may have 2x2gbs on a PC that old with 2 spare slots.

Some matching memory of ebay will be like £20 tops.

Chuck in a budget SSD from ebuyer like below 240gb for £45 with voucher code

http://www.ebuyer.com/720808-ocz-trion-100-240gb-sataiii-2-5-inch-ssd-trn100-25sat3-240g

However also check to see if your OS is 64bit as if its an older 32bit it only supports up to 4gb

 

[potteringaround]

Can I just say, everyone is very awesome here! Thanks for all your comments!

I think that I'll bet this has got 2 x 2GB (by the looks of the below screen grab below) so I'll order 2x 4GB RAM and a new 256GB SSD. If thata doesn't make me happy then I'll get a custom build from mesh and just bung in the RAM and SSD I've just bought. Or is this just daft?

Upgrade to Windows 10 32bit first. Once that it activated you can use the media creation tool to download and create 64bit installation media. Then you perform the clean install on the nice new SSD and memory.

I can send you my PayPal address to deposit the £60 saved; if we split it through the middle

Fantastic idea! I have no idea what you're talking about but I shall give it a try! Your reward will be in me producing fantastic images without hurting my forehead

 

[mike_6480]

View attachment 54438 Can I just say, everyone is very awesome here! Thanks for all your comments!

I think that I'll bet this has got 2 x 2GB (by the looks of the below screen grab below) so I'll order 2x 4GB RAM and a new 256GB SSD. If thata doesn't make me happy then I'll get a custom build from mesh and just bung in the RAM and SSD I've just bought. Or is this just daft?



Fantastic idea! I have no idea what you're talking about but I shall give it a try! Your reward will be in me producing fantastic images without hurting my forehead

View attachment 54438

What makes you think its got 2 x 2gb RAM? And even if it does you might have 4 slots (or might only have two so you wouldn't be able to use your original as well). I'd just open your computer up 1st and check - you might as well as you'll have to open it up to install it anyway

 

[redsnappa]

Win7 Professional 64bit £120

If the OP has a legal copy of windows on his PC it will cost anything to replace his 32bit windows with 64bit windows. All he need is the installation media and the time to go through the windows activation system if required. and the time to reinstall the OS and the applications because you cannot do a in place upgrade from 32bit to 64bit Windows.

The i5 650 is certainly a legacy processor - 6 years old now so no wonder it's sluggish!

A 6 year old desktop i5 based PC should easily cope with Photoshop and Lightroom. Adobe have not increased their hardware requirements for ages. I use is a 6 year old PC which easily runs Lightroom and Photoshop. The difference is I have 16GB RAM and a SSD for the OS disk That makes a huge difference.

 

[potteringaround]

What makes you think its got 2 x 2gb RAM? And even if it does you might have 4 slots (or might only have two so you wouldn't be able to use your original as well). I'd just open your computer up 1st and check - you might as well as you'll have to open it up to install it anyway

My analysis on speccy had "4.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz", so I took teh dual channel bit to mean it was 2 x 2GB... maybe a total novice error! I've looked up the motherboard which can only take 8GB max.

If the OP has a legal copy of windows on his PC it will cost anything to replace his 32bit windows with 64bit windows. All he need is the installation media and the time to go through the windows activation system if required. and the time to reinstall the OS and the applications because you cannot do a in place upgrade from 32bit to 64bit Window

I do have a legitimate copy and have been pesterd by microsoft for months to upgrade, but have held off as I new i would be upgrading. Will that upgrade be 64 bit then?

A 6 year old desktop i5 based PC should easily cope with Photoshop and Lightroom. Adobe have not increased their hardware requirements for ages. I use is a 6 year old PC which easily runs Lightroom and Photoshop. The difference is I have 16GB RAM and a SSD for the OS disk That makes a huge difference.

That was my gut feel too, hence the cheapo option to not go new and upgrade, with the caveat that if it's still not up to scratch then go for a new system then (using my new shiny RAM and SSD).

 

[dejongj]

No, as I mentioned above. The upgrade will be the same as you have now. But once you've done that then you can create the media and upgrade to the 64bit version.

I think 8GB will be fine. The biggest gain will be had from the SSD.

 

[mike_6480]

My analysis on speccy had "4.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz", so I took teh dual channel bit to mean it was 2 x 2GB... maybe a total novice error! I've looked up the motherboard which can only take 8GB max.


I do have a legitimate copy and have been pesterd by microsoft for months to upgrade, but have held off as I new i would be upgrading. Will that upgrade be 64 bit then?


That was my gut feel too, hence the cheapo option to not go new and upgrade, with the caveat that if it's still not up to scratch then go for a new system then (using my new shiny RAM and SSD).

You can upgrade to the 32 bit version for free. Then once you've done this you can install the 64 bit version as a fresh install. You can't upgrade a 32bit version straight to 64bit though.

This will allow you to access more than 3gb ram