What should I pick more RAM, quad core upgrade or SSD drive?

[Monkeyspank111]

I can only pick one and not sure which one I should pick. I will be upgrading and using my computer for photo editing and some video editing but nothing too heavy. Also I am a programming student. The RAM is the cheapest of all three of them and the SSD drive the most expensive but it will provide the most speed. Not sure what to do at this point. Hopes someone here can help me out with this. Thank you.

JC

[maxsquared]

What's your current spec? And what's your most used app?

[neo158]

What are the current specs of your machine, those would help when advising you what to upgrade?

[daniel_rh]

Since you need your computer for video editing, a SSD doesn't sound like a good option considering the cost per MB, of course, you can always have the SSD as your main drive for Windows and some applications and a secondary drive for your work; RAM is always welcome, especially if you have 4GB or less. The CPU, it would be good to know your current specs and see if it's worthy the upgrade, and decide what kind of CPU you can use because you might need to upgrade your motherboard and/or RAM in order to be able to use the latest CPU models

[RiverCampher]

RAM will be the limiting factor in editing any HD video and large picture editing, I'd go for 16 GB (Assuming that you are running a 64bit OS). SSD's are nice for general use but not massively important in your case. Quad core would of course boost video/photoshop times, possibly programming too (not sure how demanding your projects are). RAM would be my choice, 2nd CPU, third SSD.

[Monkeyspank111]

I have a HP Paviliion model p6350z computer. I have a Athlon X2 dual core 64 bit processor running at 2.9 ghz. I have 8 gigs of DDR3 RAM. I am currently running Windows 7 64 bit OS. I have a 500 GB 7200 RPM hard drive. I have a ATI Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics chip. I think my graphics chip is the weakest component in my computer specs.

The programs I usually mostly are in no particular order:

1. Different web browsers, IE, Firefox, SRWare Iron (Google Chrome but privacy features taken out), Opera

2. Adobe Photoshop

3. Adobe Premiere

4. Microsoft Office suite

5. I have YNAB a Adobe Air based program.

6. Also various programming software too many to mention.

I hope that helps.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

if you can, I'd go with the SSD, you'll really notice the difference with it

and since RAM is cheap I'd go ahead and up that as well to 16gb, that'll help with video encoding

[neoraptor]

you have enough ram, won;t notice any difference if you put 16GB. Go with SSD!

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

The limiting factor in video editing is generally processor speed. The faster your processor and the more cores it has, the quicker your video will encode. HDD or RAM are not the bottleneck there. That being said, and SSD would dramatically boost the overall application and windows loading times.

It depends where you priorty lies I guess. If you want your videos to encode faster, then go for CPU, then RAM, then SSD. If you want an overall systemwide load time reduction, then go SSD first, CPU second, RAM third. 8GB of ram is plenty for most things, so not a priority to upgrade that. 16gb is just a "nice to have" at the moment.

[c3ntury]

I have a HP Paviliion model p6350z computer. I have a Athlon X2 dual core 64 bit processor running at 2.9 ghz. I have 8 gigs of DDR3 RAM. I am currently running Windows 7 64 bit OS. I have a 500 GB 7200 RPM hard drive. I have a ATI Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics chip. I think my graphics chip is the weakest component in my computer specs.

The programs I usually mostly are in no particular order:

1. Different web browsers, IE, Firefox, SRWare Iron (Google Chrome but privacy features taken out), Opera

2. Adobe Photoshop

3. Adobe Premiere

4. Microsoft Office suite

5. I have YNAB a Adobe Air based program.

6. Also various programming software too many to mention.

I hope that helps.

SSD or the CPU. Although I suspect the CPU might just edge it looking at the quite CPU intensive applications you use.

[nekkidtruth]

At 8GB RAM, you're pretty much fine. I wouldn't bother with an SSD as an upgrade in this particular case. That being said, I would prioritize as CPU, RAM, SSD.

For an AMD Athlon II X4 3.0GHz quad-core, you're looking at around $100 on Newegg. Slightly more than you might pay to double your RAM. Maybe you'd be better off explaining what you have for a budget, rather than choosing 1 particular component to upgrade. You never know, you might end up with both RAM and a CPU upgrade as the prices differ slightly depending on the component.

[max22]

Is it possible you can build another PC from scratch instead ? Reason I ask is because getting a better processor like at least a Intel i5 with Hyperthreading will make a huge difference.

The good thing you really don't need a graphics card unless your a gamer then I would suggest a dedciated graphics card. 16 GB of ram will help a lot too. Photoshop loves ram. SSD could help a lot if you put your scartch disk for photoshop on it. Though it would be even better to use 8 GB of the 16 GB of ram as a ram drive for this.

If you must upgrade this computer then your processor would be best first then ram and finally a SSD.

[Open Minded]

Is it possible you can build another PC from scratch instead ? Reason I ask is because getting a better processor like at least a Intel i5 with Hyperthreading will make a huge difference.

Where is this i5 with HT? I thought only the i7 chips have HT.

OP- I would get the quad core Phenom II. Going from dual to quad is a nice jump as well as L3 cache that you don't have on the Athlon plus the benefits of higher clock speed. In most games and when you're multitasking you'll notice a difference but with photo and video editing you'll see a great jump in performance. However, an SSD would bring the most *noticeable* speed increase overall as everything loads very quickly. So if budget allows, get the quad core CPU and a 60 gig SSD and use the HDD you have now as a storage drive. It'll be like you have a brand new computer for about $250-$300 USD.

[Monkeyspank111]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I will look into getting the quad core and then from there the SSD drive. Thanks again. NewEgg here I come.

[Astra.Xtreme]

You have enough RAM, so I wouldn't worry about that. And upgrading the CPU won't help too much.

An SSD will give you a huge huge difference in performance, but make sure you get a good brand (Intel, OCZ, Corsair, etc). Don't just go with the cheapest one you can find.

[Glassed Silver]

I'd actually look into a new GPU, as your editing will benefit from that a LOT if you use smart applications, which you do.

Other than that: CPU, RAM, SSD (in that order)

If you have small, light video projects, RAM is placed third I'd say.

Glassed Silver:mac

[ToneKnee]

8GB is plenty of RAM, I think it's more CPU/SSD/RAM. It really depends on the video editing usage, if it's light then 8GB is fine, not to mention an SSD will seek faster.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

If you are going to have this computer for a while, I would suggest getting it with the best CPU possible, since that is the most difficult part to upgrade. Then, over time, you can add more easily-installable upgrades to it, like RAM and an SSD.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[Glassed Silver]

Hello,

If you are going to have this computer for a while, I would suggest getting it with the best CPU possible, since that is the most difficult part to upgrade. Then, over time, you can add more easily-installable upgrades to it, like RAM and an SSD.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

As I understood it he has the machine already, so the upgradeability for now is set the same way as it is one or two years in...

But generally speaking this is sound practice! :)

Glassed Silver:mac

[leesmithg]

RAM will be the limiting factor in editing any HD video and large picture editing, I'd go for 16 GB (Assuming that you are running a 64bit OS). SSD's are nice for general use but not massively important in your case. Quad core would of course boost video/photoshop times, possibly programming too (not sure how demanding your projects are). RAM would be my choice, 2nd CPU, third SSD.

I have 16GB of r.a.m. and my system does not feel any different that if I have 4GB ( I have a x64 ops + quadcore CPU).

[ViperAFK]

I would upgrade the processor first, and then maybe an ssd.

[freedonX]

SSD by far! The rest of your system isn't that 'old' yet. SSD is not only night and day...more like a 2 day difference

[threetonesun]

If you want applications to open faster, SSD, if you want "Processing" bars to go away faster, CPU.

If you want to spend money and get nothing for it, another 8GBs of RAM.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Message thread is over half-a-year old now. I'm sure the original poster has upgraded his system by now. :)

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[freedonX]

Oops! My bad! wasn't my intention...I was almost pretty sure threads I was looking for about SSD were more recent ;)