Finding out where my PC is weakest?

xK Marcus

My PC has become very slow, it's got good parts, but it's seen heavy use over the last few years. It got to the point where I very nearly got screwed over for something important today because of it, and I can't let that happen again.

I suspect it's my Hard Drive or my CPU, but I'm not sure.

I was wondering if there was any software or something that could tell me what part(s) of my PC is lagging behind?

Thanks

Digital Solitude

Post your spec and we might be able to tell you from reading.

Have you an SSD, and what do you use it for also?

xK Marcus

My specs are:

OS - Windows 10
CPU - Intel Core i7 4770K
Ram - 16GB DDR3
Motherboard - ASRock Z87 Extreme4
Graphics - Nvidia GTX 1070
Hard Drive - 2TB Seagate HDD
- 1TB Samsung 850 Evo SSD
PSU - 750 (Forget the name/brand, if important I'll open up and check)

I only recently bought the SSD, as I realistically needed one for my work, although I've had too much on my HDD to be able to transfer it all to the SSD and just abandon the HDD.

*Edit - When it's acting particularly slow, there isn't anything appearing abnormal in my process explorer that may indicate RAM or CPU.

coylemj

That 2TB HDD is most likely spinning at 5,400 RPM, I suspect that's your performance bottleneck. Start moving stuff to the SSD, your browser cache immediately and then app files like powerpoint.

Did you buy the migration s/w and cable with the Samsung SSD?

Digital Solitude

Are you running stuff from the SSD or HDD? Run everything from the SSD if you can.

Otherwise, there's no major bottlenecks there to the extend of the problems you're facing from what i can tell

xK Marcus

coylemj wrote: »

That 2TB HDD is most likely spinning at 5,400 RPM, I suspect that's your performance bottleneck. Start moving stuff to the SSD, your browser cache immediately and then app files like powerpoint.

Did you buy the migration s/w and cable with the Samsung SSD?

I have tried to move as much as I can, and I've changed the default destination from my HDD to my SSD, but it doesn't always seem to work. For example, I have the Adobe Creative Cloud, and if I install one of the programs, it installs on the HDD, even though the install files and default location are set to the SSD, copy/pasting the files doesn't work either.

I didn't buy any cables with the SSD, I actually expected it to come with the required cable. I actually just disconnected my CD Rom, as I never use it, and used the SATA (I think) cable from that.

xK Marcus

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Are you running stuff from the SSD or HDD? Run everything from the SSD if you can.

Otherwise, there's no major bottlenecks there to the extend of the problems you're facing from what i can tell

I run things from the SSD as much as I can. I haven't transferred the OS to the SSD yet though, partially because I know it's just a big hassle and I'm quite busy for the new few weeks. Maybe I can put some of my bigger files/folders on an external Hard Drive that I have for now, and just transfer everything else to the SSD. I think I lowered it to 1.3TB of data that I don't want to lose, and I have a 500gb external drive somewhere.

Digital Solitude

Some programme are just a dick like that, AutoCad requires like 12gb free on your windows drive, regardless​of where you want it, 90% of the program loads from the C drive.

Is windows on the SSD op?

*Edit* didn't see your reply at time of posting. I think installing Windows on the SSD might fix a lot of your slowdown hopefully, go for a full fresh install instead of just migration if possible

xK Marcus

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Some programme are just a dick like that, AutoCad requires like 12gb free on your windows drive, regardless​of where you want it, 90% of the program loads from the C drive.

Is windows on the SSD op?

*Edit* didn't see your reply at time of posting. I think installing Windows on the SSD might fix a lot of your slowdown hopefully, go for a full fresh install instead of just migration if possible

Yeah OK, I'll do a clean install next week when I have some time off, while I'm at it I may as well see if I can free up some more space and just get rid of the HDD all together, Adobe can't install on it then, surely.

jhud

Just a note on the adobe i had issues with computer i build for someone they had run out of space on their ssd so i reinstalled adobe asking it to use the other drive and it failed i later found out this is a known issue that it will only install on the c:\ drive in other words the windows installation drive. So if this is in your case the HDD is your c:\ with windows you will have to setup windows on your ssd and move all your data you need on a day to day basis if possible to the ssd make sure you leave at least 20 to 30gb free on ssd to allow work flow and move off any data you do not need to the 2tb as you go.
You should see good improvement in speed with ssd the main drive with os.

srsly78

Just reinstall windows, and make sure to install it on the SSD. Having a high spec pc like that running off a hdd is hilarious.

Try to follow these guidelines:
Software goes on SSD
Most data goes on HDD (ie bulk storage)

SSDs are pretty cheap nowadays, you can even forego legacy storage.

jme2010

Physically disconnect the HDD when doing the OS reinstall.

When its completely finished and you've optimized the SDD like turning off page file etc then power off and reconnect the HDD as storage only

xK Marcus

Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys, appreciate it.