HELP! RAM upgrade worth it? PC is SOOOO SLOW

[itsmyname]

@siciliana21 -- will the PC (20-c411a) support a SSD?

Yes, because the SSD was designed to perfectly emulate a "spinning" disk-drive.

However, the motherboard may support different speeds of the SATA interface:

* SATA 1 -- data transmission up to 1.5 Gbit/second,

* SATA 2 -- data transmission up to 3.0 Gbit/second,

* SATA 3 -- data transmission up to 6.0 Gbit/second.

Most SSD are designed for 6.0 Gbit/second transfer, but are compatible with the slower speeds.

In your case, your rather-old motherboard might not offer the SATA 3 speed.

Anyway, eliminating all "rotational-delay" inherent in any "spinning" disk-drive will cause input/output to be done much more quickly.

> I was quoted $185 for parts and labour to install 8GB of RAM!! I couldn’t believe it.

That is far too much to pay - for two reasons:

1. as I previously wrote, if you are using less than 2/3 of your existing RAM, do not waste your money purchasing more RAM;

2. On Amazon, 8 GB of RAM is $20 to $45 US, depending on which RAM is compatible with your existing RAM.

Find another computer store. Adding over $100 for "labour" is outrageous.

Or, find a friend who is familiar with adding RAM, and buy them a case of beer, and a pizza.  🙂

Example:

1. Your computer: https://support.hp.com/au-en/document/c05963517

2. price for 4GB of compatible RAM: 

https://www.amazon.ca/SAMSUNG-PC4-2133P-Laptop-Notebook-M471A5143DB0-CPB/dp/B01AAT3FA2

> I don’t want to spend all that money if I’m not sure it’ll fix the issue. 

Indeed. My first choice would be to replace the disk-drive with the faster SSD,

because adding RAM that will not be used will not fix the issue.

[Prométhée · Accepted solution]

Hi, again @siciliana21 

You have good advice, indeed it is a bit expensive, for this type of replacement
but you have a particular, very fragile computer, the professionals will take this into account, try different specialists, but in general they don't work for nothing, it's normal..
Doing it yourself doesn't seem like an option, and watch out for anyone who says, "I can do it", but you risk breaking something!
Whatever you do, you are limited, the processor is poor, and impossible to replace it, if it is this one
https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-20-c400-all-in-one-desktop-pc-series-prost195/19390998/model...

It's not enough just to check the memory load, but see everything else!
open the most powerful program you use, while listening to music, or whatever, two or three applications, in order to push the limits of the computer a little
open the Task manager, and check , load CPU HDD Memory GPU
You will normally have an indication of what is missing right away.
Depending on the result, see, but you risk having a bad surprise, 4Gb of memory, in my opinion clearly insufficient under Windows 10!

See available documents, check upgrade complexity

If you need to replace more than one item, the cost is too high
Maybe you can't afford it?
if not, it would be better to try to resell it, and to add a computer slightly more powerful, avoid all in one!

 HP 20-c400 All-in-One Desktop PC Series - Part Locator

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-20-c400-all-in-one-desktop-pc-series-prost195/19390998/manua...

[itsmyname]

@siciliana21 -- is this your computer:  https://support.hp.com/au-en/document/c05963517

On that page:   Memory upgrade information

Single channel memory architecture
One DDR4 SODIMM (260-pin) socket
Supports the following:
PC4-17000 (DDR4-2133)
PC4-19200 (DDR4-2400)
Supports 2 GB, 4 GB, and 8 GB DDR4 SODIMMs
Supports up to 8 GB on 64-bit systems

---------

So, one would need to remove the existing 4 GB stick of RAM, and replace it with one 8 GB stick.

From:  http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c06523596.pdf

once you (or a "computerphile" friend or a professional computer technician) hinges-open the back panel, you can see:

which shows the position of the current disk-drive. Remove it, and connect a new SSD device.

A new SSD is not "expensive".  For under $50, you can purchase a new SSD, or feed a family of 4 at any fast-food outlet.

The food will be good for a few hours, but the new SSD will be good through October 2025.  After that date, Microsoft will not support Windows 10, forcing you to purchase a new computer, with Windows 11 preloaded.