104 NOVEMBER 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 381
Upgrade to an SSD
Perhapsthe single best upgradeyoucan make, swapping
mechanical storageforflashwill makeyourcomputermuchfaster
Upgrade your RAM
AlackofmemorycanmakeyourPCfeel sluggish and makeapps
slowtoload.Adding moreRAMwill giveyou morebreathing space
I
t’sbecoming increasingly hardtofind
computers that havemechanical storage
only.While traditional harddisksstill have
the advantage when it comes to gigabytes
per pound, we’velong sincepeaked in the
performancestakes. The truth is that
mechanical harddisksare really slow.
The futureofstorage is flash, with SSDs
an essential upgrade forall PC owners.
SSDsare farspeedier than their mechanical
counterparts, making your computer boot
faster and applications load quicker.
The easiest waytoswapaharddisk for
an SSD is to install Windows 10 from scratch.
Thereare free cloning tools to copy your
harddisk to an SSD,such as EaseUS Todo
Backup Free (easeus.com). However,this
assumes the spaceonyour harddisk is the
same as orlessthanthe sizeofyournewSSD.
Ouradviceistogofor aclean install so
youcan start with afresh newcomputer,
without anylegacyproblems. The beauty of
this method is that youcan keep your old
harddisk to one side in case youneed to go
back to your old Windows installation.
We recommend buying a480GB SSD or
larger.This will giveyou enough room for
Windows 10,yourapps and keyfiles.Youmay
need asecond drivefor games and large
files, but youcan use your old HDD forthis.
Beforeyou start, makeabackup of your
importantfiles. Next, makesureyou havea
4GB or larger flash drive, then put the
Windows 10 installation files on it by running
the Windows Media
Creation Tool (tinyurl.com/
Win10MediaCreationTool)
and selecting the option to
createinstallation media.
M.2 orSATA?
Thereare twotypes of
SSD.The traditional style
is 2.5in SATA SSDs, which
look likelaptopharddisks
and areinstalled in adrive
bay in your computer’s
case. Theywork best with
SATA3ports, although they’ll work with
SATA2ports at slowerspeeds. Traditional
SSDsshould work with all computers.
Newermotherboards (uptothree years
old) should haveanM.2 port. These letyou
install atinySSD on your motherboard. The
benefit is that youget powerand datain
one connector,soyou don’t need to run any
additional cables inside your computer.
M.2 describes the form factor,not the
interfacetype, and thereare twostandards:
mSATA and NVMe. The older mSATA
protocol is basically the same as the
standardSATA interfaceyou use forexisting
harddisks, with no speed benefits.
The newerNVMestandardtransfers
datamuch faster.You’ll need to check your
computer’smanual to see which standard
your motherboard’sM.2 slotsupports. If you
havetwo slots (it’snot uncommon to have
one on topand one under
the motherboard), you
may find that one
supports NVMeand SATA
and one is NVMeonly.
The priceofNVMe
drives is coming down, so
buy this standardifyou
can: our Best BuyAdata
XPG SX8200 Proisjust
£129 fora1TBdrive.
Be careful if youbuy an
mSATA drive, as installing
one will most likely prevent
one or twoexisting SATA ports from working.
Check your motherboard’smanual for
details; if youhaveanything plugged into
the SATA ports that will be disabled,
relocatethe cables to alternativeports.
Finally,ifyou havea7th generation or
higher IntelPC, youcan buy an IntelOptane
Memory M.2 SSD cache. This workswith
your existing storage, acting as asuper-fast
cache to accelerateyour PC. With the 32GB
model costing around £55, it’sacheap
upgrade forcompatible computers. See
tinyurl.com/inteloptaneinfoformore
information and specific installation guides.
Installing an M.2 SSD
M.2 SSDscan be differentlengths, and your
motherboardhas arange of mounting holes
to accommodatethem. Onewill havea
standoff that holds the SSD parallel without
R
AM is used to hold all the open apps
and datayou’reusing. If youdon’t
haveenough, your PC canbeslowto
open newapps and files.
Windows used to use atechnique called
virtual memory,using aharddisk as a
backup forwhen your memory gotfull; this is
disabled on computers with an SSD,soyou’ll
definitely want moreRAM if you’vemade a
storage upgrade. We think 8GB is the
minimum youshould have.
Check upgrade potential
Shut down your PC and open it
up so youcan see howmany
RAM slots youhave. If you’ve
gotspareslots, technically you
canadd morememory,but it’s
better to buy all your memory
from the same manufacturer.
If youknowthe manufacturer and
type of memory youhave, youmay be able
to match it and buy moreofthe same. By
Googling the product name, you
cansee howmuch RAM you
haveinstalled, so youcan work
out howmuch extrayou need.
If the memory is no longer
available or youhavenospare
slots, you’ll need to replaceit.
Check your motherboard
manufacturer’swebsitefor the
maximum amountofRAM it canhandle.
You’ll also see the type of RAM (DDR4most
ABOVE:M.2 drives (top)are alot
smaller than the 2.5in variety
TOPTIP:
RAMcanbe
damagedbystatic,
sotouchsomething
earthed(theunpain
pa ted
rtofaradiator)
beforeyou
handleit
