Upgrading an old man's computer

[Aaralli]

To preface: I work as a photographer for a diamond dealer in San Diego. He uses a single desktop PC to do all of his work from his home office, but the last time he got one was when the Core i3-4130 and 8gb of RAM was a decent office computer option. 

Most applications and programs are starting to run pretty slowly. Outlook takes minutes to load emails, Chrome sucks the life out of this poor machine, and viewing diamond photos is like playing Russian roulette with whether or not they'll load. I'm wondering if just a CPU and RAM upgrade can do what he needs, or if I should upgrade the entire PC?

Obviously in this market (or any market) spending less money is better, so any suggestions for the 4th gen processor better than an i3?

 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

If its just viewing photos then its fine, what you are looking for is an ssd upgrade cause hdd makes os feel really slow

 

Also is it 1 stick of 8gb or 2 sticks 4gb? Cause single channel/stick nukes cpu performance

[Hairless Monkey]

There is no reason why this hardware shouldn't be able to handle the workloads you describe. I suspect there is a significant amount of bloatware installed, or that the OS has never been reinstalled.

 

A fresh OS may be all you need. Backup any data on the machine and reinstall Windows.

 

If that doesn't quite do it. Then adding an SSD boot drive should do the trick.

[dizmo]

Add an SSD; probably the single best way to make a PC like that faster. Obviously don't get anything NVME based, just a simple SATA drive.

More RAM probably wouldn't hurt since DDR3 can be found used for ridiculously cheap.

35 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

If its just viewing photos then its fine, what you are looking for is an ssd upgrade cause hdd makes os feel really slow

 

Also is it 1 stick of 8gb or 2 sticks 4gb? Cause single channel/stick nukes cpu performance

It doesn't really impact older Intel chips that much.

[brob]

If the system is using an HDD for storage, it is likely a big part of the problem. Also, 8GB of memory is a tad on the tight side if one wants to display high definition photos.

 

As I see it, you have two options: add another 8GB of memory and a 1TB 2.5" SSD. Ideally though a new system would be better. Of course it is the more costly option.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($146.32 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B660M DS3H DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($62.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: ADATA XPG GAMMIX S7 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($99.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2021) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $579.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-04-13 11:40 EDT-0400

[Somerandomtechyboi]

49 minutes ago, dizmo said:

It doesn't really impact older Intel chips that much

My xeon x5660 at 4.5g would like to have a word with you

 

Lmao single channel nukes performance no matter what, old or not. My x5660 oced to 4.5g on 2 cores seems to still perform worse in single core compared to my e8400 at 4.7g

 

 

Btw if cpu power is ever lacking those xeon e5 1220/1230 v3 are going for dirt cheap, i suggest getting the ones with igpu but if those are too overpriced then a junk lowend 10$ display adapter gpu from hd 5000/gt(x/s)400 series and up will be fine

[Jeppes]

Mac mini m1?

[Aaralli]

9 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

If its just viewing photos then its fine, what you are looking for is an ssd upgrade cause hdd makes os feel really slow

 

Also is it 1 stick of 8gb or 2 sticks 4gb? Cause single channel/stick nukes cpu performance

2x4gb at 1333 MT/s