I have two pre-built PCs I've been using for various tasks, and I'm looking for suggestions on how to upgrade them. I opted for these off-the-shelf models to avoid overspending and overthinking, but they're starting to show their age.
1. The first one is an HP ProDesk 600 G1 with an Intel Core i5-4570 processor and 8GB of DDR3 memory, which I mainly use for mild photo editing in Adobe Illustrator, some 3D modeling for my printer using Fusion 360, and running xLights for Christmas light displays. It's been slow, especially when I have multiple browser tabs open or I'm using resource-heavy applications.
2. The second PC is an HP i7-6700 with a 32GB DDR4 RAM, used as a home media server with software like openmediavault, radarr, sonarr, and emby. It generally performs well, but I encounter buffering issues when playing Ultra HD files.
I'm open to any and all upgrade suggestions to improve their performance.
2 Answers
You haven’t mentioned the type of storage in your PCs, but switching from traditional hard drives to solid-state drives can really speed things up—even for older models! If both PCs still have HDDs, upgrading to SSDs could make a noticeable difference in loading times and overall responsiveness. I would definitely recommend checking that out!
For your first PC, the sluggish performance is likely due to the hard drive and RAM. Upgrading to an SSD and bumping up the RAM to 16GB would be a great starting point. That said, the i5-4570 is pretty dated, so while these tweaks might help, you may still run into bottlenecks especially during rendering tasks.
As for the second PC, since you’re hardwired and using an Nvidia Shield, the buffering with Ultra HD files could be due to the older CPU struggling with encoding. You could plan to either upgrade the CPU (which might be tricky due to the HP parts) or consider adding a compatible GPU if your power supply allows it. Just keep in mind that HP systems can have non-standard parts, which could complicate upgrades.
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