Will these components work to speed up my Aspire TC-885?

MindQuad

Hi all!  Like the title states, I'm looking to speed up my Aspire desktop with a new SSD and more RAM. Will this work?

Install new MX500 SSD  as (C:) boot drive, and keep HDD as (E:) recovery/extra storage. And Install 16GB Kit (2x8GB) UDIMM

Any input or Suggestions are greatly appreciated. TIA

ttttt

@MindQuad

You probably ran the Crucial scanner to come up with a Crucial RAM stick and a NVMe SSD. If your question is whether the RAM stick and the NVMe SSD will be compatible, then I'll say yes, they should be compatible.

Personally, I do not like the Crucial scanner program.
It is a good marketing strategy by Crucial trying to direct people to buy more of their products, but may not be a best value choice for the potential customers. Somehow, many people really believe in everything there.

For example, why settle for the Crucial NVMe SSD with 2,400 MB/s read ( 1,000 MB/s lower than your PC can achieve) when you can get 3,400 MB/s at little higher price?

Do not confuse this 2,400 MB/s NVMe SSD speed with the 2,400 MHz RAM speed that I mentioned earlier. Using RAM speed higher than 2400 and 2666 MHz is meaningless but using 3,400 MB/s NVMe SSD is meaningful.

Larryodie

The SSD will make it fly, The RAM may or not help as it depends on what you applications that you are running.
Look at your task manager to see how much RAM that you are using now. 

MindQuad

Larryodie said:

 The RAM may or not help as it depends on what you applications that you are running.
Look at your task manager to see how much RAM that you are using now. 

Right now just running a few apps the memory is between 50-70% with 8GB installed in 1 of 2 available banks. Im thinking a 32GB Kit (2x16GB) would be a better option 

Larryodie

It's my opinion that more RAM can never hurt except your pocketbook. 
It'll speed up photos and video's loading but the SSD is the real deal. 

ttttt

@MindQuad

I suppose you are still using the old style spinning HDD as the boot drive and that is the reason you have the need to speed up the PC. Different TC-885 PCs still have different configurations, because my TC-885-UA91 shipped with 9th gen CPU i3-9100 and PCIe 3.0 x2 M.2 NVMe SSD (1,700 MB/s seq. read). This NVMe SSD is close to 15 times faster than 5,400 RPM HDD, providing reasonable fast perofrmance.

Yes, the MX 500 SSD will make your PC faster, but not as fast as a NVMe SSD, because the MX 500 is a 2.5" SATA3 SSD with about 550 MB/s read. We are talking about different technologies.

My suggestion is get a PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD (up to 3,400 MB/s seq. read). Some x4 NVMe drives that I use:

WD Black SN 750
SS 970 EVO
Silicon Power A80
SK Hynix Gold P31 

Happy about all of them.

You can add a second RAM stick to enable dual channel performance of the PC for slightly faster speed, as the bottleneck is usually the hard drive (not the RAM).

The RAM I added:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YP6CW8P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Why buy a 2 x 8 GB RAM kit when you have 8 GB already? Just add one 8 GB and you will get 16 GB.

ttttt

@MindQuad

Sorry, I misunderstood. You want a 2 x 16 GB RAM kit for 32 GB capacity.

Anyway, you are currently just using 50-70% of the 8 GB RAM. 16 GB RAM should be more than enough already, really have the NEED for 32 GB RAM?

ttttt

@MindQuad

One more thing. Using 3200 MHz RAM will not make your PC faster, because the motherboard bus limit is 2666 MHz, and there is also a CPU limit. 
My TC-885-UA91 can only achieve 2,400 MHz because the i3-9100 limiting the speed to 2,400 MHz.

Go to  Win 10 Task Manager, check the Performance tab and the Memory section. You can see how fast the RAM is running.

ttttt

@MindQuad

You probably ran the Crucial scanner to come up with a Crucial RAM stick and a NVMe SSD. If your question is whether the RAM stick and the NVMe SSD will be compatible, then I'll say yes, they should be compatible.

Personally, I do not like the Crucial scanner program.
It is a good marketing strategy by Crucial trying to direct people to buy more of their products, but may not be a best value choice for the potential customers. Somehow, many people really believe in everything there.

For example, why settle for the Crucial NVMe SSD with 2,400 MB/s read ( 1,000 MB/s lower than your PC can achieve) when you can get 3,400 MB/s at little higher price?

Do not confuse this 2,400 MB/s NVMe SSD speed with the 2,400 MHz RAM speed that I mentioned earlier. Using RAM speed higher than 2400 and 2666 MHz is meaningless but using 3,400 MB/s NVMe SSD is meaningful.

billsey

Heheh, you mean they aren't going to show you the most cost effective option at the top of the list? I'm shocked, shocked I say!