Desktop upgrades

iXdanXi

Hi guys,

I’ve posted over in the for sale forums, but it’s probably better suited over here.
I’ve got an old stock Dell XPS 8300
Specs below;
Dell XPS 8300 Specs
It’s started running slow and I’ve noticed that 2gb of RAM has failed.

I originally thought it was slow just due to the age and was thinking of putting a SSD in it.

As I only need to put programs and start up files on the SSD would 120GB be enough?

I’ve been looking at getting the following Kingston SSD.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-Technology-SA400S37-120G-Solid/dp/B01N6JQS8C/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1541838159&sr=8-4&keywords=Kingston ssd

Would I need to buy a sata cable and bay for it to go into?

Does anyone have any advice on a better SSD or any advice on RAM at all?


Thanks,
Dan

EndlessWaves

That depends on the size and number of your programs and files. 120GB is the absolute minimum that might work.

I'd go for 240GB personally, they're a lot less than twice as expensive as 120GB. You will likely need an SATA cable and a 3.5" to 2.5" adapter.

How slow is it? It's still a fairly powerful system so it shouldn't be particularly slow.

iXdanXi

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

It’s not too slow.
I noticed that is was getting slower as there are a lot of programs running at startup.
Internet explorer takes a few mins to load the homepage initially.
I’ve stopped most from running on startup.
The hard drive (1tb) has less than 20gb of free space because of a large steam library.
I have checked the ram and it’s down to 6gb although there are 4x2gb chips in it.
I’ll grab the 240gb version instead.
Is there going to be much of a difference between the Kingston and a Samsung evo (roughly double the price).

Any advice on ram is appreciated.

EndlessWaves

There's no performance difference between SSDs for home use, if you want to spend extra your best bet is a company with a good track record of dealing with any problems that crop up (i.e. not Samsung after the hash they made of the 840 Evo issues).