I'm looking to upgrade my 5-year-old PC because it's been really slow to start up and shut down lately. Despite having freed up some disk space, the startup time can take over 1-2 minutes, which is a lot longer than before. I've already upgraded my RAM from 16GB to 32GB, which helped with Firefox crashing when I had multiple tabs open, but I'm still experiencing slow boot and shutdown times. My current setup includes an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor, a 32GB Crucial DDR4 RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics card, an ADATA SX8200PNP 477GB SSD, and a WDC 3.64TB HDD. I'm on Windows 10 but I can't upgrade to Windows 11 due to system settings. I have a few specific questions: 1) Should I enable A-XMP to get my RAM running at 3200 MHz? 2) Would buying an M.2 NVMe SSD be a good idea for faster performance? 3) Are there any other upgrades I should consider for a reasonable price? 4) What do you think is causing the slow startup and shutdown times?
3 Answers
Before making upgrades, really check your startup list. Sometimes, just optimizing what loads when you start your PC can make a huge difference. Use Task Manager, and see if there are unnecessary programs running at startup.
Your ADATA drive might be the issue; those models can have longevity problems. Try using the manufacturer's health tool to check if it's struggling. If it is, getting a new SSD might be essential.
Definitely go for the M.2 NVMe SSD and install your operating system on that. It will significantly improve boot times, and you can use your existing drives for additional storage.
If that's the case, don’t forget to back up your important files before it gets worse!