What type of desktop PC runs fastest?

Neil_Jones

Neil_Jones said:

The SSD will help.  Adding more memory will help even more -

4Gb of memory is the bare minimum for anything these days.

Virtual Memory is still a thing, and even an SSD being used for Virtual Memory is still slower than actual memory.

[Quoted post removed by Forum Team]

That video is from 2008.  Back in 2008 you could get away with 2Gb of memory as standard,with anything more than that being fairly wasteful (to a point), or even 1Gb of memory was fine for Windows 7 and the SSD was definitely worth it then.

In 2025 in an era of SSDs being standard there are only two sticking points here - the processor (which as alluded to is not upgradable) and the amount of memory (which probably is upgradable).

BFBW

Neil_Jones said:

Neil_Jones said:

The SSD will help.  Adding more memory will help even more -

4Gb of memory is the bare minimum for anything these days.

Virtual Memory is still a thing, and even an SSD being used for Virtual Memory is still slower than actual memory.

[Quoted post removed by Forum Team]

That video is from 2008.  Back in 2008 you could get away with 2Gb of memory as standard,with anything more than that being fairly wasteful (to a point), or even 1Gb of memory was fine for Windows 7 and the SSD was definitely worth it then.

In 2025 in an era of SSDs being standard there are only two sticking points here - the processor (which as alluded to is not upgradable) and the amount of memory (which probably is upgradable).

I don't understand any of what you have written. The video demonstrated that a device with a low amount of RAM and a SSD is MUCH FASTER than  a device with a higher amount of RAM with an HDD. That is indisputable.

The device is running an HDD.

bob2302

FWIW it's not a foregone conclusion that an SSD beats lots of RAM. It depends on how much lots actually is and your pattern of use. My experience was that replacing an HDD with an SSD didn't make any noticeable difference beyond the first few minutes. I don't intend to go back to SSDs until they compete with large NAS drives on price.

Ibrahim5

I used to have a large stack of failed mechanical hard drives. The most unreliable part of a PC by far. SSDs are much more reliable and it's easy to get one that's over 10x the speed of the fastest mechanical drive for £30. When the op bought the PC most people were buying CPUs that used 35w, 60w, 110w with fans. This CPU uses less than 10w and produces little heat which is great but it also makes it SLOW. It's soldered to the motherboard. So the OP needs a new motherboard, CPU, cooler, more RAM. A new M2 SSD would be really fast. Assuming the OP hasn't the knowledge to do it themself they are better spending the money on a new PC.

booneruk

It is a bit odd how certain forumites seem too eager to bring a touch of troll into otherwise peaceful threads when the subject is computing. Shades of teenager bedroom angst?

Back to the topic in hand - The simple fact is that any one of storage, memory and CPU can be massive drags on performance depending on use case.

Storage: If a mechanical hard drive is in use general performance while booting and loading applications will be terrible. If memory paging (hard drive being used as memory) is also used then performance is hampered further.
Memory: If lots of programs are installed and start up by default, or web browsing sessions involve a million-and-one tabs then you'll be hitting 8gb in use before you know it.
Cpu: If it's an old architecture or even something relatively new that's crippled by a low number of cores&threads you'll feel it in general use.

If I had a family member who wanted a simple well performing PC for general (non-gaming) tasks on a budget, didn't want to upgrade it (new graphics card, new cpu etc) and had an existing display they were happy with then I would suggest obtaining a refurbished OEM PC that came from an office environment. Dell, HP etc etc. There are plenty available online

For example: https://www.stonerefurb.co.uk/dell-optiplex-3060-intel-core-i5-8400-8gb-ram-240gb-ssd-enc-del16478 [Found this by Googling 16GB OEM PC 8th gen - DYOR]. I'd definitely take the 16GB option these days, and would go 8th gen+ if Intel to check Windows11 capability.

BFBW

Ibrahim5 said:

I used to have a large stack of failed mechanical hard drives. The most unreliable part of a PC by far. SSDs are much more reliable and it's easy to get one that's over 10x the speed of the fastest mechanical drive for £30. When the op bought the PC most people were buying CPUs that used 35w, 60w, 110w with fans. This CPU uses less than 10w and produces little heat which is great but it also makes it SLOW. It's soldered to the motherboard. So the OP needs a new motherboard, CPU, cooler, more RAM. A new M2 SSD would be really fast. Assuming the OP hasn't the knowledge to do it themself they are better spending the money on a new PC.

If they have family or friends(some people do), it's a relatively simple to add an NVMe drive and to change the boot sequence to boot from the SSD. Clean install of 10 or 11, moving stuff over from the installed HDD at leisure.
£30 can cover it. Would be fine for the tasks described.

prowla

My advice is beware of advice which expresses disk and memory storage sizes in "Gb" or power usage in "w"; if it doesn't even give the correct units then how could you take the supposed expertise in the subject matter as a given?

bob2302

Ibrahim5 said:

I used to have a large stack of failed mechanical hard drives. The most unreliable part of a PC by far. SSDs are much more reliable

According to Backblaze, there isn't much difference up to 4 or 5 years; and Backblaze work them hard, so that point is probably well beyond 5 years for typical desktop use. The pace of development of SSDs means that they tend to be replaced by something larger and faster before they fail - this gives a false impression of reliability. 

They may be more reliable for laptops that get rough handling. 

flaneurs_lobster

What's the chances that the OP is still reading this thread? 

Poor sod just asked for some buying advice for a new desktop.

Vitor

This is the point in the thread to recommend installing Linux Mint.