Board 8 > RAM Upgrading Question...

(+) Yeah! (+)

If I wanted to upgrade the RAM on my PC, is it as easy as just buying the new sticks, and just replacing the old ones? Is there anything else you need to do?
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Just make sure they are the right type.

If you don't have more empty RAM slots, yeah just replace the old ones.
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gotta put the new sticks in too
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Well, I do have two empty slots but they are slightly bigger than the ones my RAM sticks are currently in.
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GANON1025 posted...

Well, I do have two empty slots but they are slightly bigger than the ones my RAM sticks are currently in.

those are not RAM slots then...
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Slots for 2nd graphics card?
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OK so here's a different question:

I've also been considering upgrading to a SSD. How much of a pain is it to transfer Windows/games/whatever else from the hard disk to an SSD?

Also, when researching SSDs I see some that look like "normal" drives to me, and others that look like RAM sticks. What's the difference?
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I got a new SSD and will be transferring a bunch of shit over to it this weekend. Will let you know how long it takes.

GANON1025 posted...

Also, when researching SSDs I see some that look like "normal" drives to me, and others that look like RAM sticks. What's the difference?

They use different connectors. The ordinary-looking ones use a SATA port, which you probably have. The ones that more resemble RAM sticks are m.2 ports, that your mobo may or may not have.

What is your mobo model? That would certainly be of help here.
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make things easier on yourself and just download more ram
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The main problem with going to an SSD is you're going to need to reload windows and most of your programs on it like a fresh install which is more involved than just moving the files over. It is a completely normal HD functionally but if you're not running Windows from it it's kinda not useful.

If you have a proper Windows key (or your PC is made by certain companies like Dell or HP and you have the OEM installation media) and installation media it's easy just boot to the installation media with just the SSD in, install to the SSD, then once it's done installing shut down and hook your old hard drive up as a secondary (and make sure you're booting to the SSD in BIOS once both are in-- renaming the windows directory on the old HD and seeing if you can still boot is the simple sanity check). Otherwise you gotta get that stuff first so you can actually install Windows, then it becomes easy.
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Hmm well if I remember right this PC originally had windows 8 and then I upgraded it to 10. So Im not sure if I have a proper key or not I suppose.
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Lopen posted...

It is a completely normal HD functionally but if you're not running Windows from it it's kinda not useful.

Not true.

Having your OS on the SSD is really nice, but games run way faster on an SSD.
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Id definitely prefer to also put windows on the ssd, if I could. I wouldnt even mind a fresh install of everything, I have backups of a lot of the important files plus theyd be on the hard disk drive anyway.
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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

Having your OS on the SSD is really nice, but games run way faster on an SSD.

Depends on the game really but I'd call it a waste to get one just for games in any case. You're not going to get as much performance increase as you'd like. But the point I was making is that you need to install programs you use to it fresh in general

I'm pretty sure if you started on 8 and upgraded to 10 and would like to keep 10 that you need to just bite the bullet and get a Windows 10 key. I don't think the free upgrade rights carry over with new installs. But I'm not positive on that you may want to research.
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No, the upgrade to Windows 10 was free for awhile.

You should be able to just build your install media on the same PC, and it'll automatically reauthorize as long as you select the same version of Windows.
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I know that. I'm saying if you took that free upgrade I don't think you still have the rights if you reinstall. Like you can't just use a Windows 10 install on it you'd have to use 8. I may be wrong on that though.
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You can bind W10 to your Microsoft account and use that to verify on your new PC. (Or reinstall, it works for whatever.)
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Lopen posted...

I know that. I'm saying if you took that free upgrade I don't think you still have the rights if you reinstall. Like you can't just use a Windows 10 install on it you'd have to use 8. I may be wrong on that though.

Nah, once you upgrade to Window 10 youre good.

Not long ago I had a registry corruption and had to reinstall my main PC, and it was a Windows 10 upgrade.
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Well that's good to know. I'm sticking with 7 but could be useful for me with other PCs.
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Yeah Ill just get one. Installing an SSD into a PC cant be THAT hard I figure
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I mean the only real hiccup you'd possibly have beyond installation media is if there isn't space for one but I assume you looked in there and saw space to slot another hard drive in right. Or you might need to get a tray for it if the bays you have are all 3.5" size and you need a 2.5" size. If you have a pre-built PC the crucial website has a good compatibility checker thing to be sure the size is gonna slot into your PC easily.

Or if you get the "ram stick" looking type you need to install em in the right slot in the PC so you'll need to find it on the motherboard. Theoretically you get faster transfer speeds on them but it's not like worth paying for-- but I don't think they are much more expensive anymore so may as well?

https://slickdeals.net/article/news/how-to-install-an-m-2-ssd-on-a-desktop-pc/

That's an okay article I found with like a minute of googling that you can glance through to get an idea of what to look for or whether you've looked for the right stuff.
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Oh yeah theres definitely more slots.
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Just download more ram, easy.
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Ill just download some more RAM onto the SSD!! Thatll make it run faster I think

Are there any SSD brands I should / should not look out for?
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Oh another thing. So the RAM I do have is DDR3, I know DDR4 is a different size so I wouldnt get them. Is the jump from 8gb to 16gb noticeable?
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16GB is really where you want to be right now for playing games. Some are already on the 32GB train but I say that's still solidly in overkill territory for now.

If you don't care about PC gaming then it matters much less but would still have a perceivable impact depending on how much multitasking you do.
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GANON1025 posted...

Are there any SSD brands I should / should not look out for?

The Samsung ones are pretty good. Remember that you get what you pay for.

Definitely go 16GB. 8GB is the minimum requirement for most things, but 16GB is needed for serious gaming or multi-tasking.
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GANON1025 posted...

Oh yeah theres definitely more slots.

I replaced my HDD with an SSD earlier this year, and this is what I've done:

1. Physically install the SSD into an empty slot and connect it to the Motherboard with a new SATA cable.
2. Use Macrium Reflect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrium_Reflect) to clone all the data from the old HDD onto the new SSD.
3. Remove the old SATA cable from the HDD.

I still have the HDD in its current slot but it's not connected to anything.
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I bought an SDD like 2 months ago and had issues getting an install to work. Definitely following this topic for suggestions on how to do that now.
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Soo I wound up getting a Samsung 1TB SSD. One thing I didn't even account for was if my PC had the needed wires to hook up another drive. For a minute it looked bad, but then I unhook the CD Drive which I don't really use anymore and that seems like that'll work. I'm basically going to follow the steps in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl6SeLSyztw" data-time="

Right now I need to get a small USB drive to download the Windows installation stuff onto. Only weird thing is I tried to turn on the PC with the SSD hooked up, but the computer doesn't recognize the new drive. Like if you go into file explorer, there's no new drive next to the hard disk one on the list. Now I think this is simply because I haven't done the proper installation steps yet, and when I do everything will work right.
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SSDs are the best thing to happen to PC gaming in like two decades.

You're going to be blown away at the difference when you get it up and running.

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I hope so! Especially with everything being a clean install.

How hard is it to install RAM anyway? Certainly it cant be as easy as just replacing the old sticks with the new ones.
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you push against the two tabs holding down the RAM until it pops out, and then insert the new stick into the slots until the tabs lock them in place and that's it lol
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Really? You dont need to like, calibrate the bios for the extra memory or anything like that? It just works?
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Assuming you have sticks that are compatible with your motherboard it is exactly that easy.

As for the second drive not showing up hold the windows key and press r then type diskmgmt.msc and press enter and see if your PC recognizes the second drive as being there but not formatted/given a drive letter or whatever. But I wouldn't bother formatting it when you install Windows on it it'll do that for you anyway IIRC.

But it's a good check to see if you have the cabling right and good to know if you ever put another hard drive in.
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The big thing with RAM is matching the clock speeds (the Hz speed listed on the sticks) and type (DDR4, ECC, or whatever) and pairing them on the Ram slots properly. Getting pairs of sticks is preferable cause the manufacturer ensures they play nice. If you mix brands or even unpaired sticks of the same brand you can have problems, though I've not had it happen often-- if you're just frankensteining a PC together it'll probably be okay. Not that you're doing this.

Anyway if you have 2 slots it's easy if you have 4 they will be arranged so it's like 2 pairs of 2, and you put your pairs of sticks in the left or right slot of each pair. The slots are color coded for this as well, usually, to put the pairs in the slots of the same color.

If you're just replacing your sticks in the same slots this is not a concern but just for future reference that's really the only subtlety.
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Yeah Id just be replacing my two ddr3 4gb sticks with 8gb. That info is still useful though!
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RAM is easily the simplest PC part to change out.
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I got my SSD fully installed and operational last night. Things went pretty smoothly, basically just followed they video I posted earlier and it worked out with a wrinkle here and there. I have my original hard drive still plugged in and its working fine as a secondary drive. Even just booting up the PC the different is night and day. Going from like a 10+ minute startup to get the PC in a state to where I can actually run programs, to now where its like 30 seconds. Some of that is probably also due to the clean install, its nice to have to have a drive that isn't a complete mess of games, programs and pictures right now.

Next will be the RAM!
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