Upgrades for computers at work

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Kodin

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Sep 18, 2017
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Hi peeps. I started a new job recently at an engineering company as an admin, their computers are under specced for the workload that needs to be done each day. They have 2 small offices and 5 computers in total, which all have the same spec except for one machine which I use that has more ram because the person in the role before me requested a ram upgrade. The computers are coffee lake era Dell Vostro desk tops, they have i3 9300's but have mechanical 1tb hard drives and only 4 gigs of ram each, except for the computer I use which has 8 gigs of ram. We mostly use SAGE and web based email, sage can be really slow at times especially when their anti virus software is running.

I spoke to the guys contracted to do their IT support on Friday, I was told that when these computers were originally specced they were fine as Windows used a lot less ram but ever since a certain service pack was released it started requesting far more memory, a lot of the time i sit at around 80%-90% with my 8GB ram the weird thing is the 4gb Ram machine right next to me sits at around the same, can anyone explain this memory utilization to me, I'm assuming if Windows detects less memory it automatically uses less?

The biggest problem is the fact we don't use SSD's, we only use 125 gig of data on this machine, we could easily have all of our main programs on a 240GB SSD and use the HDD just for storage. I've no idea why the IT support guys didn't spec SSD's back in 2017/2018 it makes a world of difference even on a simple office PC.

Really only 2 of us use a computer for SAGE but my boss uses one for checking emails, however once I'm trained up it will just me processing all the SAGE orders and running the office, the person training me will go back to their normal job in production. We only have 2 DIMM slots on these mobo's so I was thinking about getting 16 gigs of memory and 240 GB HDD for the machine I use and getting the IT guys to take out the 2 x 4 GB Memory in mine and putting it in the other SAGE users machine.

Or do you think we should upgrade both with 16 GB's and 240 GB SSD, because obviously you avoid extra labour charges down the line if you did both at the same time?
 
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Windows will automatically use most of your ram by caching frequently used programs.... This has no negative performance impact, and speeds things up when used.

Ram and ssd are very cheap.... I'd upgrade both. 240gb ssd is around $30 shipped generally, and the ram shouldn't run more than $60.
 
Just did this to some work boxes for the boss at work and all users and very happy with the results. SSD's and 16 gigs make them seem like new.
 
yup that^^ and that^^. the "IT guy" should have suggested it years ago....
 
I'd be looking into a new IT contractor. Whoever specced Win10 systems with a single 4 GB DIMM and no SSD in 2019 doesn't appear to be very good.
 
Whoever spec'ed the machines with only 4 gig of RAM should be taken out back and shot. 8 gig would have been the absolute minimum and 16 gig should have been the standard.

Ignore the comment about Windows using all the RAM it can regarding how much RAM is in use. Windows doesn't report the RAM used as a cache as overall used RAM. If you're sitting at 80%-90% RAM usage it's because something is actively using it and it's not used as a cache. That right there tells you these machines are woefully underspec'd regarding RAM.

Definitely do the SSD and 16 gig RAM upgrades on all systems if you can get it pushed through because all the machines need both.
 
Hi all, sorry about the long delay in replying. I agree with a lot of what was said here.

Part of me can empathize with the fact these machines were specced during coffee lake era when the cost of RAM was at an all time high, I myself upgraded then to a 8700k with 16 gig of 3200mhz RAM and it cost me about £180 for the memory alone. They had 5 dell machines specced when memory prices were ridiculously high. I cannot empathize with the fact these weren't specced with SSD'S,. you spend half your life waiting for sage to do anything, we're losing around 40-50% productivity easily because of it.

These pc;s were not future specced what so ever. It's probably the business philosophy of this IT support company., under spec the pc's and keep the customers running back for more upgrades.

Also to the guy that thinks Windows utilizes more memory if it has the option, just try using the machine I have which has 8GB in comparison to the 4GB of ram machine next to me, the 4GB machine is horrendously slow.
 
Kodin said:
Part of me can empathize with the fact these machines were specced during coffee lake era when the cost of RAM was at an all time high, I myself upgraded then to a 8700k with 16 gig of 3200mhz RAM and it cost me about £180 for the memory alone. They had 5 dell machines specced when memory prices were ridiculously high. I cannot empathize with the fact these weren't specced with SSD'S,. you spend half your life waiting for sage to do anything, we're losing around 40-50% productivity easily because of it.
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I wouldn't empathize with any of it. There is no way an IT provider should have spec'd machines with 4gb of ram and no SSD in 2019 (i3 9300 was released April 2019). Even if the client was being cheap, we would have explicitly told them it was a horrible idea. My company, as well as most I have worked with, have always considered 8gb standard for a Windows 10 box.

Presumably there was labor in PC setup as well which would have been reduced if the machines were decently spec'd. It also would have saved you on whatever labor costs you are going to incur now from cloning the PCs to SSDs and upgrading the RAM. This is definitely a case where your employer should have been told spending and extra $100-150 per PC now would net significantly better performance and be significantly cheaper in the long run.
 
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