Help me Swap my Computer Case
I’ve had my PC for 6 years now and I’ve noticed her slowing down a bit, and I want an internal disk drive so I need to switch my case, or just the case front. I’ve never built a pc before the most I’ve ever done is add 1tb of storage into my old laptop and I…
I’ve had my PC for 6 years now and I’ve noticed her slowing down a bit, and I want an internal disk drive so I need to switch my case, or just the case front. I’ve never built a pc before the most I’ve ever done is add 1tb of storage into my old laptop and I can’t remember if I activated the storage correctly. My Specs are as followed… CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700 3.8 GHz 8-Core Cooler: Thermaltake TH240 V2 ARGB Sync 57.05 Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Memory: Kingston FURY Beast 8 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 x2 Storage: Kingston NV1 250 GB M.2-2280 PCle 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive Video Card: Gigabyte GAMING OC GeForce RTX 3070 8GB Case: Idk Power Supply: Apex AG-M 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64- bit The things I am upgrading and need help with are as follows… Add more 8 GB RAM; Just shove it in? Swap my 250 GB storage to 500 GB if I can; how do I properly transfer the data from the 250 GB onto the 500 GB. Swapping my case; how do I not mess everything up… also how much thermal paste is too much or too little? Finally Upgrading to Windows 11; is it worth the aggravation and effort to install the update and disable all of its AI features? Thank you for your time.
Collected discussion
There's a lot of things you're trying to do at once so it's better to break it down one by one. If you want to fix the slowness, figure out the cause: Before you do anything physical, use a temperature monitoring software like Open Hardware Monitor and monitor your CPU and GPU temperatures while stressing your computer. If temperatures exceed 85 C, then you should consider reapplying thermal paste. At the same time, monitor your memory usage with Task Manager to see if you hit your current limits. If you do, then consider getting more memory. You should have 10-20% of your hard drive free so there is room to move things. Use too much of it and it will slow down. If you are running into this, then consider upgrading your drive. If you try to do everything at once, you may be throwing money away to try and fix a problem that doesn't exist.
A dvd/cd reader, I wanna switch to physical media where I can, plus there’s some old movies of mine I want to watch, and my car has cd player and my Bluetooth is shoddy.
An external USB 3.x one is not a consideration?
I use the opera browser and it’s been running high on my cpu, I updated it last night and also checked the cpu limiter and turned that on. The upgrades to my pc are more of a to do list rather than a fix everything. I figured I’d try installing more ram first since it seemed the most simple, then swap cases so I can add a cd/dvd burner drive, finally tackling my main storage(250 GB) I have a 3TB storage as well but I can’t necessarily transfer some of my apps and files onto it and I apparently need a minimum of 250 GB of available space for windows 11 which is a whole can of worms itself.
Yes because Ram is expensive, also this is my first time doing open ram surgery and I don’t want to mess 2 up, do you think adding only 1 will mess up my software? This is my first time modifying my pc myself and there’s a lot I don’t know. Any advice is welcomed.
OK, instead of one additional stick of 8GB, 2x4GB from the same maker and rating to fill your remaining slots may be "better"...but would still be less optimal than 2x16 or 4x8GB (which is less optimal than 2x16 from a stability standpoint)...no chance of biting the bullet to go to 32GB? You can sell the existing 2x8GB to offset the cost of a 2x16GB kit...
I believe my 3 TB is the HDD and my 250 GB is my SSD if I remember correctly, I got my SSD as my main storage where my windows is installed and my HDD for my gaming and art storage.
My recommendations: RAM should always be installed in pairs for DDR4 or else you'll compromise the bandwidth. It's easier to get a USB external CD/DVD drive than go through the hassle of swapping cases. Get yourself a slightly bigger SATA SSD (500 GB) or so to back up your current 250 GB drive. Then install Windows 11 on the original 250 GB drive. Your case should have space for another SATA SSD. If it doesn't, you can always duct tape it to somewhere in the case!
"Kingston FURY Beast 8 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 x2" "Add more 8 GB RAM; Just shove it in?" So the "x2" implies you have 16GB total. You want to add 8GB more to get to 24GB and not 32GB (which would be the next "standard" jump from 16GB)?
Since you already mentioned "...expensive...," do you have a HDD of 250GB or higher left over from a previous build? The hybrid approach of SSD for the OS, then a HDD for storage is a way around getting a bigger SSD at current market pricing.
"...I want an internal disk drive so I need to switch my case, or just the case front." ??? What sort of "internal disk drive?" Another SSD? A HDD? A optical drive? Can you upload pics of your existing case to IMGUR and provide links here?