[SOLVED] Kid's first $500 build - works but slow, where to improve?

[Phynder]

Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: My best friend's son has been trying to build a gaming laptop for some time, and has purchased the parts below. He has nobody to help him troubleshoot things so when he couldn't get it to boot, I offered to help. I managed to get it set up and working, but the OS runs REALLY REALLY SLOW. like turn-it-on-and-go-make-a-sandwich-while-it-boots slow.

I've turned off all the fancy things in Win10, if there's any other steps outside of components to help the system run better, please let me know - I've built systems before but nothing for gaming, and typically in the $1k range. I'm hoping to get some advice on how to best improve his modest budget build so that he can at least enjoy his first build. I don't want this to discourage him from wanting to do this again. Any advice as to what components to improve speed/performance, I really appreciate your feedback. I'm guessing 1) additional RAM, and 2) an SSD harddrive?

Include a list of any parts you have already selected with descriptively labeled links for parts.
Thermaltake H17 micro atx case
https://www.newegg.com/black-thermaltake-versa-h17-micro-gaming-chassis/p/N82E16811133364?Description=thermaltake H17&cm_re=thermaltake_H17--11-133-364--Product

ASUS M5178L-M Plus Motherboard
https://www.amazon.com/M5A78L-M-Plu...A78L-M+Plus+Motherboard&qid=1573525290&sr=8-1

Corsair Vengence LP 8GB RAM (2x4GB)
https://www.newegg.com/corsair-8gb-240-pin-ddr3-sdram/p/N82E16820233186?Item=N82E16820233186

EVGA GeForce FTX 1050 SC Gaming Graphics Card
https://www.newegg.com/evga-geforce-gtx-1050-03g-p4-6153-kr/p/N82E16814487400?Item=N82E16814487400

AMD FX8350 Black Edition Vishera 8-core 4GHz CPU
https://www.newegg.com/amd-fx-8000-...edition/p/N82E16819113284?Item=9SIA2W06XB3632

WD Caviar Green 1TB 7200 HD
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E168221...re=WD_Caviar_Green_1TB-_-22-136-317-_-Product

Corsair CX Series CX500 500W PSU
https://www.newegg.com/corsair-cx-s...a-500w/p/N82E16817139027?Item=N82E16817139027

Monitor is a hand-me-down Dell


Approximate Purchase Date: immediate

Budget Range: small budget, $200 (based on estimate for ram and ssd) of upgraded parts I'm hoping will suffice, if I'm off, let me know

System Usage from Most to Least Important: 10yr old kid;s gaming computer

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: looking for recommendations to improve performance

Do you need to buy OS: No, have a licensed copy of Windows 10

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: the usual, newegg, amazon are fine

Location: Wisconsin

Parts Preferences: existing ram is corsair

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1600x900

Additional Comments: na

Thank you to those who take the time to point me in the right direction.

 

[R4DIO4CT1VE]

Using an old hard-drive could definitely slow you down. You could try running CrystalDiskMark to check if the hard-drive is failing.

Even a brand new hard-drive will run significantly slower than an SSD though so buying a 120gb or more SSD should make the system much more responsive.

The rest of the system (cpu, gpu, psu, ram) are all older lower end parts at this point, but for the price range not bad.

 

[woodson75]

SSD is definitely the way to go for your boot drive for sure- you won't know yourself by making that small upgrade.

 

[Phynder]

Apologies, I left out the hard drive... I've updated the original post - WD Caviar Green 1TB 7200 HD

I did order a 16GB (2x8GB) corsair vengence LP RAM, and a WD Blue SSD

 

[woodson75]

Those two additions will be spot on! 👍

 

[Phynder]

Thanks to you all for taking the time to reply.