Introduction
“Err.. My PC is getting slower each day. Help!” Facing this kind of problem lately? Well, there is a very simple solution to it. Most of the PC / laptop slowness is caused by aged hard drive that uses mechanical platters. By changing to an SSD will do the trick. That’s not all. Having not enough memory is another root cause as well. So here is the guide to solve this issue…
Special Thanks
This guide is possible thanks to below companies. Be sure to check them out…
- Kingston for this 1TB Kingston NV1 NVMe PCIe SSD and 16GB Kingston ValueRAM DDR4 3200MHz Non-ECC Unbuffered SODIMM
- MINIX for MINIX NGC-5 Mini PC
What You Need
Apparently, you need a new SSD and memory stick. You will need to find out the current type of SSD format and RAM type that your laptop / PC supports. For my case, I am upgrading MINIX NGC-5 Mini PC which will be used as a graphics designer machine. It is using NVMe M.2 and DDR4. Therefore, I got myself the best value and performance SDD and memory from Kingston.
This is 1TB Kingston NV1 NVMe PCIe SSD. Available in capacities 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB. It’s an affordable entry level NVMe from Kingston. Excellent performance for the price!
And here is 16GB Kingston ValueRAM DDR4 3200MHz Non-ECC Unbuffered SODIMM. Kingston is the top DRAM module supplier in 2020. So it has the best compatibility on your existing system RAM if you plan to add-on instead of replacing it.
Installation
Depending on your system, installing the new SSD and memory should be an easy task. In short, you need to replace the existing SSD. Install a fresh Windows OS on it. If there is an additional SSD slot on your system, you can put back the existing SSD as data storage. Else just use it as external storage by putting it into a USB SSD case.
Most systems will have 2 memory slots at least. Just adding the new RAM into another slot will do. They will work just fine together most of the time. And you will have even more RAM in total. In my case, MINIX NGC-5 has 8GB of RAM pre-installed. So adding another 16GB RAM makes it 24GB in total now.
Performance Result
Yes, extra storage space at 1TB now. And faster overall performance too. This will surely make the graphic designing tasks smoother and faster than before. Below are the CrystalDiskMark results for your reference. You will get 36X faster performance if coming from a 7200RPM hard drive. Experience a lot faster response in Windows booting, apps and games loading…
Video and graphics editing use a lot of RAM. Designing in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are performing very well. You can edit larger and heavier files thanks to the extra 16GB of RAM. No more slowness by using hard drive cache from now on.
Conclusion
Enjoy faster performance from now on. Period. More storage space to keep important data as well. What are you waiting for? Get your Kingston NV1 at Shopee, Amazon or Lazada. And Kingston ValueRAM at Shopee, Amazon or Lazada.
