Question Question Help me upgrade my system

[rojat2]

Guys - I purchased a HP ProDesk 600 G2 SFF Intel Core i5 6th Gen Quad-Core 8GB 256GB SSD Windows 10 P on ebay 2 years ago and I think I am in need of an upgrade. I don't do anything crazy on my computer - simply use these apps but they are open ALL the time - MS Outlook, Excel (2-3 small spreadsheets) & Teams, Notepad++ Edge browser with 10-15 tabs and Evernote. The last two apps are the ones which I feel are slow to react vs my Lenovo 9th gen X1 with a much faster CPU & SSD

I've uninstalled a lot of things in case it was software causing random freezes for a couple of seconds in my Edge browser or slow to react Evernote which has some 15-page notes. Evernote is not the best designed software but it still works well on my laptop and their forums do have folks listing our a fast ssd as helping performance

With that being said, what do you folks think? Upgrade CPU & SSD or just SSD to start or just buy another PC? For my apps, is i5-6500 a slow CPU? Should I try overclocking? Data dump from Aida64 below. If there's some tool that helps me plot a graph showing which components are slowing down app performance, that'll help. Task manager supposedly has this on W10 but I run Server 2019

Thanks

Motherboard
CPU Type QuadCore Intel Core i5-6500, 3300 MHz (33 x 100)
Motherboard Name HP EliteDesk 800 G2 TWR
Motherboard Chipset Intel Sunrise Point Q170, Intel Skylake-S
System Memory 16263 MB (DDR4 SDRAM)

CPU Type QuadCore Intel Core i5-6500, 3300 MHz (33 x 100)
CPU Alias Skylake-S
CPU Stepping R0

Physical Memory
Total 16264 MB
Used 7905 MB
Free 8359 MB
Utilization 49 %

Drive #1 - SAMSUNG MZ7TY256HDHP-000H1 (238 GB) C:
Drive #2 - ST4000VN000-1H4168 (3726 GB)

Operating System Properties
OS Name Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Standard

Display
Video Adapter Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (1 GB)
Video Adapter Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (1 GB)
Video Adapter Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (1 GB)
3D Accelerator Intel HD Graphics 530
Monitor Acer S231HL [23" LCD] (LWKAA0014340)

CPU Properties
CPU Type QuadCore Intel Core i5-6500
CPU Alias Skylake-S
CPU Stepping R0
Engineering Sample No
CPUID CPU Name Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6500 CPU @ 3.20GHz
CPUID Revision 000506E3h
CPU VID 1.1451 V

CPU Speed
CPU Clock 3390.9 MHz (original: 3200 MHz, overclock: 5%)
CPU Multiplier 34x
CPU FSB 99.7 MHz (original: 100 MHz)
North Bridge Clock 3490.6 MHz
System Agent Clock 997.3 MHz
Memory Bus 1063.8 MHz
DRAM:FSB Ratio 32:3

CPU Cache
L1 Code Cache 32 KB per core
L1 Data Cache 32 KB per core
L2 Cache 256 KB per core (On-Die, ECC, Full-Speed)
L3 Cache 6 MB (On-Die, ECC, Full-Speed)

Motherboard Properties
Motherboard ID <DMI>
Motherboard Name HP EliteDesk 800 G2 TWR

Chipset Properties
Motherboard Chipset Intel Sunrise Point Q170, Intel Skylake-S
Memory Timings 15-15-15-36 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
Command Rate (CR) 2T

BIOS Properties
System BIOS Date 04/12/2019
Video BIOS Date Unknown
DMI BIOS Version N01 Ver. 02.38

Graphics Processor Properties
Video Adapter Intel Skylake-S GT2 - Integrated Graphics Controller [R0]
GPU Code Name Skylake-S GT2 (Integrated 8086 / 1912, Rev 06)
GPU Clock 350 MHz (original: 350 MHz)

Temperatures
CPU Package 30 °C
CPU IA Cores 29 °C
CPU GT Cores 30 °C
CPU #1 / Core #1 29 °C
CPU #1 / Core #2 27 °C
CPU #1 / Core #3 28 °C
CPU #1 / Core #4 26 °C
PCH Diode 39 °C
SAMSUNG MZ7TY256HDHP-000H1 34 °C
ST4000VN000-1H4168 31 °C

 

[In2Photos]

Do you store all of your files on the 4TB drive? Spinning drives, especially laptop drives, are pretty slow. How much of each hard drive is in use?

 

[Tech Junky]

Time is a commodity and using a quad core CPU these days isn't going to be fast. 16GB of RAM isn't really ideal for multi tasking with all of those apps open and not having them crash periodically or stutter in response to clicking on them to do something.

So, the real question you have to ask yourself now is how often do you want to do this dance with replacing things?

Is it worth putting in ~$1000 to get up to speed with an 8P/4E core system? You'll see a huge difference in the speed and get some time back to do other things.

Running the main programs from the SSD will help but, if you're files are huge that you're working with they might slow down being stored on the secondary drive. Newer spinning drives though can hit ~300MB/s and if you want even more speed there's a Seagate out that splits the platters to double the speed to ~500MB/s.

You mention having both a desktop and laptop though so, do you want to combine the efforts into a single system?

Are you comfortable putting in an NVME / RAM into a laptop? I picked up a 12700H / RTX3060 for $1300 earlier this year and added the RAM / NVME myself which is nice because I didn't have to pick from an over priced list of things I didn't want / need. They have other models though of laptops that would come in around $1000.

https://rjtech.com/shop/index.php?subcats=Y&type=extended&status=A&pshort=Y&pfull=Y&pname=Y&pkeywords=Y&search_performed=Y&cid=220&q=12700H&x=0&y=0&dispatch=products.search

Plus, if you're not where they do business there's no sales tax which could be another $100 to put towards something else.

 

[rojat2]

My Windows install and all I/O latency sensitive apps like Evernote, etc are on the SSD so the spinning HDD is mainly for data and media files

I typically see my task manager show about 50-70% memory, never seen it go above that

I don't like upgrading more than once every 10 years. To achieve 10 years, I would have to get to at least 16 or 20TB HDD since media files with the kid add up in 4k/8k format

I have to keep the laptop separate as it's work and heavily monitored so never do any personal work on it

Would you advise me building something or just buying used (good condition) from ebay or sites like jawa.gg. If you can post some links to some good systems you see, that'd be appreciated. I've traditionally built low PSU systems given we pay 40c/kwh in NYC if you account for the supply charge and all taxes, etc. BUT, it's held me back so I'm willing to upgrade but hoping I don't have to put a crazy-big PSU either since I'm not doing any intensive tasks. If you think a dedicated graphics card will help, maybe I go with a basic one

 

[Tech Junky]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NkcFPX

Here's a slimmed down version of my current system.

PSU size doesn't mean that's what it draws from the wall 24/7 it's just the available power if you need it. Good rule of thumb is double what the system might need. Removing all of my extra stuff puts it at 300w but with all of my systems 850w PSU is the sweet spot for capacity and price along with a long warranty and less issues.

I run 24/7 so it's something that plays into efficiency for electrical costs as well.

I've also been looking at upgrading my drives to 18/20tb options as data just keeps accumulating. I've been looking at the Exos x18/20 drives and those are running around $200. There are some deals in Amazon for pairs of them around $420. I run raid for redundancy and speed though.

If you're not gaming you don't need a dedicated card as the CPU does just fine for most things. If you want one though the new Intel A770 has 16gb of ram and is only $350. It will compare to the rtx3060 for performance at a fraction of the cost.

If you're a windows user you would want to bump the ram to 32gb as it's a hog when it comes to resources and won't get any better as time passes if history is an indication. I run this system in Linux though and it only uses about 4gb most of the time.

I build with the intent of flipping the system every 2-3 years when there's a leap in tech that's sufficient to make it worthwhile. This setup though would last a decade or more with minor updates as things progress.

 

[rojat2]

What do you think of buy assembled vs build? I see a few options with that exact CPU on ebay and jawa.gg

 

[Tech Junky]

Building offers more customization and less fluff over a prebuilt system. It's up to you. PCPartPicker.com will give you an idea if you put the prebuilt parts into that build what makes more sense financially.

 

[VirtualLarry]

12th-gen Core (aka Alder Lake) is quite a step up from 6th-gen Core (aka Skylake) in terms of performance, including both frequency and IPC. Power efficiency is another thing altogether, though, at the highest performance echelons on 12th-gen.

I'm not a huge fan of OEM pre-builts, longer-term, as it's a lot easier to swap-out and upgrade DIY parts with industry-standard interfaces, rather than the proprietary standards used in OEM pre-builts. But they can be useful in a pinch, and often cheaper as refurbs a few years down the line.