[SOLVED] SSD or more RAM?

[JQB45]

Should I get an SSD for my computer or more RAM?

Currently I am running DDR4-3000 2x4GB kit for a total of 8GB of RAM. I was thinking adding a 2nd kit for a total of 4x4GB DDR4-3000.
My other option is to get a SSD like the Crucial MX500 ~240GB-256GB model, I currently running a WD 1TB 7200 RPM HDD and I'm only using 120GB of storage space.

So what would you all do? Add more RAM or get an SSD to act as the primary system storage?

https://pcpartpicker.com/b/MF6scf

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor (Purchased For $169.99)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard (Purchased For $120.00)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (Purchased For $120.00)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $39.99)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 950 2 GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card (Purchased For $179.99)
Case: Corsair - 100R ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $59.99)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - S12II 520 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $46.71)
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer (Purchased For $18.89)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (Purchased For $109.99)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus - PCE-AC55BT PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter (Purchased For $54.99)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-S12B redux-1200 PWM 59.1 CFM 120 mm Fan (Purchased For $14.99)
Monitor: AOC - e2752Vh 27.0" 1920x1080 60 Hz Monitor (Purchased For $243.79)
Mouse: Logitech - MX Anywhere 2 Wireless Laser Mouse (Purchased For $53.38)
Headphones: SteelSeries - Siberia V2 Headset (Purchased For $60.85)
Speakers: Logitech - Z623 200 W 2.1 Channel Speakers (Purchased For $129.99)
Custom: Chicony KB-5911 rebranded as Micro Inovations - Model # KB-5911 (Black) (Purchased For $4.24)
Total: $1427.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-05-24 05:14 EDT-0400

 

[USAFRet]

Not a 120GB SSD, of any make.
250GB or larger, or don't bother.

 

[AllanGH]

Double the RAM now, and save your money for a Samsung SSD later in the year.

 

[hopsteriam]

8g of ram? With a modern system?
Alarm bells went off STRAIGHT AWAY!
If you game at all or use complex programs like video editing even a bit etc like I do. MORE RAM!
If you like to have 20 tabs open on a browser at one time so you do not forget to go back to it later like I do, MORE RAM!
If you play modern games and do not want to shut other stuff down while playing like I do, MORE RAM!

12g will do but can screw up dual channel depending on your slots and your sticks, 16g is Perfect, 32g and you are set for life ...
Ok so you are set for the next 5 or 6 years lol

If you do go for an SSD forget the small fry. Get a 500GB or bigger and remember to NEVER fill it or even close, so it lasts.
Whatever you decide, do the other next.
Good luck with your choice

 

[DMAN999]

^ It sounds like you answered your own question then.
You need more RAM.

 

[geofelt]

Solve the problem that is bothering you first.
Your stock cooler is adequate.
If you are having a heat issue, it is not the cooler, but the cooler mount or the case.

Your main problem is a shortage of ram.
But, consider:

Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
The internal workings are designed for the capacity of the kit.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards, can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when more sticks are involved.
That is why ram vendors will NOT guarantee ram that is not bought in one kit.

If you do buy more disparate sticks, they should be the same speed, voltage and cas numbers.
Even then your chances of working are less than 100%

What is your plan "B" if the new stick/s do not work?

If you want 16gb, my suggestion is to buy a 2 x 8gb kit that matches your current specs.
Then, try adding in your old 8gb,
If it works, good; you now have extra ram.
If not, sell the old ram or keep it as a spare.

Later, consider a SSD upgrade.
Once you have one, you will never be without one again.
Fortunately, ssd prices and ram prices are down.
How much space is actually used on your 1tb HDD?
The easy way to convert, is to use a utility to move your current windows C drive to the ssd in it's entirety.
I like the Samsung EVO devices for performance and reliability.
The Samsung ssd migration app has never failed me and is easy to use.
You can, today buy a Samsung 860 evo for $78. A 1tb 860 QVO is $108.

 

[Solandri]

SSDs are great if you're coming from an HDD but wouldn't really 'help' when you run out of RAM.

Actually they do help. The big performance hit when you run out of RAM is because the OS starts swapping memory pages to the drive. On a HDD, this means your memory access speed goes from around 15 GB/s to 1 MB/s (for a 4k memory page). A 15,000x slowdown. With a SSD it goes from about 10 GB/s to around 200-300 MB/s, or only a 50-75x slowdown. It's much less noticeable than hitting the pagefile on a HDD (hundreds of times faster than a HDD).

When I first got a laptop with a SSD, it came with only 4 GB of RAM. I ordered an extra 4 GB module, but it took about a week shipping. I ran Photoshop on it and regularly had 6+ GB of RAM allocated. The performance hit was much less noticeable than doing the same Photoshop tasks on my previous system (4 GB and HDD). The computer stays responsive even though it has exceeded RAM and is swapping to the pagefile. And when the extra RAM arrived and I went up to 8 GB, the improvement wasn't very noticeable.

The only real concern is putting additional wear on the SSD from hitting the pagefile so often. But if you're normally at 80% RAM usage then it won't happen that frequently (I was regularly over 100% RAM usage). Just make sure you get a 250+ GB SSD.

As for RAM vs SSD in this case, I'd say it depends on what you're doing. One of the huge benefits of a SSD is that it can handle multiple I/O requests simultaneously without breaking a sweat. A HDD will bog down from a single I/O request - this is why a HDD computer pretty much becomes useless if there's a virus scan running in the background. With a SSD you can run a virus scan, a malware scan, copy your entire MP3 collection, and play a movie file all at the same time, and the system will still start a new program almost as quickly as if none of the other tasks were going on.

So if you're doing stuff with the computer which accesses the HDD a lot, then I'd say get the SSD first. If you tend to just run one program at a time and are encountering slowdowns because it (alone) is pushing you past 8 GB of RAM use, then get the extra RAM first.

 

[davew1860]

I would get an SSD for the OS (and some storage).

 

[JQB45]

I would get an SSD for the OS (and some storage).

My best friend and brother agree that I should get an SSD as well.

 

[davew1860]

My best friend and brother agree that I should get an SSD as well.

Your overall system performance will increase more than if you were to double that RAM amount. Loading Windows and games will especially be improved.

 

[JQB45]

Anyone else have any thoughts or opinions on this subject?

Here is the items I am considering

RAM - Corsair DDR4-3000 2x4GB CAS 16

SSD 120GB - Crucial BX500 120GB *

SSD 240GB - Crucial BX500 240GB

SSD 250GB - Crucial MX500 250GB

SSD 480GB - ADATA SU655 480GB

SSD 512GB - ADATA SU800 512GB

* If I get the 120GB Crucial BX500 then I would also be able to afford other components.

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound 3.5 Grams with ArctiClean 60 ML Kit (D132)

BENFEI SATA Cable III, 3 Pack SATA Cable III 6Gbps 90 Degree Right Angle with Locking Latch 18 Inch

Arctic Freezer 33 Esports One - Tower CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Processor Fan for Intel and AMD Sockets - for CPUs up to 200 Watts TDP - Silent and Efficient (Green)

 

[ElectrO_90]

What is your budget?

 

[JQB45]

What is your budget?

Right around $65.00, I know its not much but that is what I have to work with this time around.

 

[ElectrO_90]

Either - Sell your old ram and buy this

Team - T-Force Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory

$79.99

or

Intel - 660p Series 512 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive

$62.89

 

[JQB45]

Either - Sell your old ram and buy this

Team - T-Force Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory

$79.99

or

Intel - 660p Series 512 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive

$62.89

How do you feel about the "Team" brand? I've seen them around for several years now but I've never recommended them to anyone.

 

[DMAN999]

I have 3 of these (and a 1TB version as well) in various PCs and I am really happy with them.
Crucial MX500 500GB
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-500GB-NAND-Internal/dp/B0784SLQM6

I even put one in an old i7-870 rig (that only has 4 GB RAM) I threw together from spare parts and the difference compared to the old SATA II HDD that I used first is amazing.

 

[JQB45]

So the biggest problem I am having with my computer is the fact that I routinely get to 80% or higher memory usage and then the computer becomes almost unresponsive. If I have Visual Studio 2012 open and a few browser tabs in FF, Edge or Chrome I'm already very close to that 80% limit.

 

[JQB45]

^ It sounds like you answered your own question then.
You need more RAM.

One of the components I am considering is the Arctic 33 eSports Edition - What do you think of it?

 

[DMAN999]

I like it a lot !
I originally only installed one fan to see how it would do and then installed the 2nd fan to compare temps.
It idles at 27-30 C depending on room temp. and maxes out at 55-56C after 3-4 hours of gaming with both fans.
The temps with only 1 fan on it were 5-7C higher at idle and 10-12C higher under load.

PS
They have a newer version now, the Arctic 34 eSports DUO that is supposed to use slightly better fans:
https://www.arctic.ac/us_en/freezer-34-esports-duo.html

 

[Satan-IR]

If you run out of RAM the answer is obvious; more RAM.

SSDs are great if you're coming from an HDD but wouldn't really 'help' when you run out of RAM.

Later when you want to buy SSD don't get a small SSD, and get good models from good brands. Samsung is good, or if you go for Cruicial get MX not BX. I don't like ADATA either.

 

[ElectrO_90]

And don't buy 2x4gb of ram, buy 2x8gb and sell your old ones.
You would get 50% of what it's worth new at least

 

[JQB45]

I paid about $120 dollars for the 2x4GB of RAM in Feb. 2018, obviously RAM prices are more sane now. The same kit new on Corsairs website sells for 119.99 Euro. $59.99-$71.xx USD on ebay used. So ElectrO_90 your 50% estimate is spot on. A flat rate USPS envelope and shipping in the US would cost me $8.00 so I could get $52-$66 - ebay's fees.

geofelt - There is no plan "B" if the RAM were to fail to work, the other 3 systems I have access to are laptops.

DMAN999 - Thanks for the review of the Arctic 33 eSports Edition

 

[InvalidError]

I agree on more RAM - there is no substitute to having a comfortable amount of spare RAM. Yes, this means waiting a bit longer for Windows to boot and applications to load from HDD the first time after booting, but most of that can be circumvented by putting your PC on standby instead of shutting it down until the next time you need to reboot for whatever reason.

 

[AllanGH]

...32g and you are set for life...Ok so you are set for the next 5 or 6 years lol...

32BG should be enough for anyone, huh?

 

[Bearmann]

geofelt - There is no plan "B" if the RAM were to fail to work, the other 3 systems I have access to are laptops.

In the USA you can use one of these and your RAM will be guaranteed to work (but not guaranteed to mix with the old RAM.) I'm not sure how it works in Europe though.

https://www.gskill.com/en/configurator

https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/advisor

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/memoryfinder