Cowabunga
Member
- Location
- Ceredigion,Wales
My desktop has been noticeably slow for some time, with multiple windows and applications open especially. One of the slowest apps has been Apple Mail, which would barely function, even though my phone and tablet worked fine and rapidly with it.
Today I expanded the 4GB RAM on my iMac by adding another 8GB to total 12GB. What a MASSIVE improvement in performance it has made to this mid-2011 machine. Adding RAM was dead easy and cost only £30+VAT.
If your desktop or laptop only has 4GB RAM, then I highly recommend adding at least an extra 8GB or more to it. No matter what brand or operating system you use. It so happens that 16GB is the absolute maximum that my old machine can take, as it was the poverty-pack entry-level machine back in 2011.
I have a mind to upgrade the hard drive [500GB] to a 1TB SSD as a project at some point. Luckily my 2011 machine is more accessible than 2012 onwards machines for this job. From 2012, even the RAM access on 21" iMac requires the screen taken off, but mine, plus 27" machines of all ages, at least give RAM access externally, although disc drive upgrades require the screen off on all versions. My thick iMac mid-2011 has the glass held on by magnets with the LCD held by six screws, while thin bodies, from 2012> have a one piece screen that is held on by double-sided tape around the edge.
I have a new 27" 2019 iMac on order from an authorised re-seller in North Wales. It comes at quite a large discount to prices on the high street or from the Apple website. This has been specced from the factory with a solid state drive.
I've had a super fast external do-it-yourself 1TB ssd for it already for backing-up. Building an external drive yourself only takes five minutes and saves a ton of money compared to a similar speed ready made one.
For instance a 500GB WD Blue NVME m.2 card costs £50+VAT plus an enclosure and cable will cost about £32+VAT for a grand total of £82+VAT for something that will be up to ten times as fast as an internal hard drive if connected through USB3 or Thunderbolt. There are faster options still, like the Sabrent Rocket drives, but to utilise these you really need Thunderbolt 3 or USB3.2 equipped computers.
It is possible, for use with a desktop computer primarily, to configure an external SSD connected through a later USB system, to be the boot drive incorporating the operating system, and designating the internal old mechanical hard drive as the backup or for supplementary storage use. This will make a vast speed difference to almost all machines fitted only with mechanical hard drive storage from new.
Today I expanded the 4GB RAM on my iMac by adding another 8GB to total 12GB. What a MASSIVE improvement in performance it has made to this mid-2011 machine. Adding RAM was dead easy and cost only £30+VAT.
If your desktop or laptop only has 4GB RAM, then I highly recommend adding at least an extra 8GB or more to it. No matter what brand or operating system you use. It so happens that 16GB is the absolute maximum that my old machine can take, as it was the poverty-pack entry-level machine back in 2011.
I have a mind to upgrade the hard drive [500GB] to a 1TB SSD as a project at some point. Luckily my 2011 machine is more accessible than 2012 onwards machines for this job. From 2012, even the RAM access on 21" iMac requires the screen taken off, but mine, plus 27" machines of all ages, at least give RAM access externally, although disc drive upgrades require the screen off on all versions. My thick iMac mid-2011 has the glass held on by magnets with the LCD held by six screws, while thin bodies, from 2012> have a one piece screen that is held on by double-sided tape around the edge.
I have a new 27" 2019 iMac on order from an authorised re-seller in North Wales. It comes at quite a large discount to prices on the high street or from the Apple website. This has been specced from the factory with a solid state drive.
I've had a super fast external do-it-yourself 1TB ssd for it already for backing-up. Building an external drive yourself only takes five minutes and saves a ton of money compared to a similar speed ready made one.
For instance a 500GB WD Blue NVME m.2 card costs £50+VAT plus an enclosure and cable will cost about £32+VAT for a grand total of £82+VAT for something that will be up to ten times as fast as an internal hard drive if connected through USB3 or Thunderbolt. There are faster options still, like the Sabrent Rocket drives, but to utilise these you really need Thunderbolt 3 or USB3.2 equipped computers.
It is possible, for use with a desktop computer primarily, to configure an external SSD connected through a later USB system, to be the boot drive incorporating the operating system, and designating the internal old mechanical hard drive as the backup or for supplementary storage use. This will make a vast speed difference to almost all machines fitted only with mechanical hard drive storage from new.