My computer is so slow, I need a new one! But do you really?
My machine is so slow, I just need a new one right?
According to a 2021 IDC report, there are over 2 billion personal computers (Windows, MacOS, Chrome or Linux) running in the world today. In 2021 (the latest available data) just under 350 million new machines were built and sold around the world. At that pace it would take 5.7 years to replace every computer in the world with a brand new one, but yet most people try and replace their machine about every 3-4 years.
That answers it, my machine is 2.5 years old and I just need a new one, right?
Every day we get some version of that question from our customers. The question is obvious. When a machine is running slowly it’s frustrating. Applications lock up, web pages take (what feels like) forever to load, customers are sitting on the phone waiting for you to answer their question, the frustrations go on and on. But the next two questions are harder to answer and for businesses require an expert to help answer them.
Is my machine old enough that the only answer is to purchase a new one? If so, how much should I be willing to spend to fix the “problem”.
What is really going on when your machine is slow?
Before you go and spend several hundred or several thousand dollars on a new machine, we’d recommend taking a closer look at some of the symptoms that can be fixed (with a little help from us). If it is indeed beyond its useful life, we’d recommend ensuring you buy the right machine so that the next machine you need to buy is closer to 5 years from now, instead of 2.
Here are the top 5 contributors we see on slow moving devices:
1.) “Cleanmymachine” software downloads
If you are like a lot of people, your machine was running so slow you went out on the Internet and searched for “reasons my machine is slow”. Unsurprisingly, the first 3700+ results in your search were for a variety of software tools promising to make the problem go away “for free”.
Unfortunately, as with most things in life, nothing is actually free. Given these software vendors make money from you buying additional tools and services to speed up your machine, their free tool is actually using up resources on your machine and making the problem worse, on purpose. The slower your machine runs, the more likely you will buy from them.
2.) Hard Disk Type
Notice we didn’t say hard disk size here. The type of hard disk on your machine is incredibly important to the machine’s overall performance. To get the most out of the modern operating systems, Windows 11, MacOS and Chrome, having an SSD really brings the total benefits. Your machine will boot (turn on) much faster, applications will load faster and when you install or uninstall applications, that will occur much faster.
Solid State Drives (SSD’s), first took over the majority of the disk market from Hard Disk Drives (HDD’s) in 2004. SSD’s are exceptionally faster at reading and writing information to the disk than a traditional HDD (the old version). The reason is because an SSD has no moving parts, think of it as a really big piece of RAM (which we talk about next). This big increase in performance comes at a premium however, generally about double the cost of a traditional drive with the same amount of space.
We see many people, unknowingly to try and keep the cost down, buy a machine with an HDD. An SSD is worth paying the premium for however as the performance gain is striking.
3.) Not enough RAM
RAM, or Random Access Memory, is the gatekeeper between the processor in your computer and the SSD (storage). The job of the RAM is to be a temporary spot where the processor can put together the pieces of everything you asked it to do before sending whatever it is you are doing off to wherever it is needed. RAM is a finite resource on your machine, once all of it is being used, your computer will choose something to dump in to a temporary file on your SSD so that you don’t exceed what’s available. We’ve all seen the sudden stop in performance, which is usually because RAM was at capacity.
With today’s modern, web-based apps there is a lot your computer is trying to juggle. Having at least 8GB of RAM in your machine is a must and enough for the majority of users. If you are a heavy analytics user (meaning you crunch numbers all day) or you do a lot of heavy graphics work (like a designer) you probably need to be at 16GB of RAM or more.
4.) Bloatware
Computer manufacturers want you to buy another one of their devices the next time you need a machine. To encourage you to love them more, they’ve built little apps that perform specific functions. These are designed to drive these functions with a better and easier user experience. Think of the print wizard for your printer.
While these apps can be helpful from a useability perspective, they come at the cost of using resources on your machine. These aids are designed to be constantly running in the background, which means they are using up processor resources, RAM and space and performance on your SSD. We have helped users where they had so many of these mini-applications running in the background it was consuming 80%+ of the device’s performance.
5.) Multiple tools doing the same job
Somewhat similar to Bloatware, but a bit different. We’ve encountered many users who have 3 or more tools that are all doing the same job. Each of these tools is consuming its own processor cycles, using RAM and space on your SSD. The most common we see is anti-virus software. Having an AV tool is absolutely critical, but you just need one good one. Unfortunately, many software vendors have packaged an AV tool in to some other (entirely unrelated) application you purchased. We’ve all seen the message that goes something like “your anti-virus is out of date, click here to upgrade your computer’s security” or something like that. The legitimate application you bought is making a couple bucks every time someone “clicks here”. We’d recommend not to click here.
Conclusion:
If this sounds a lot like your own experience, don’t worry, you are in no way alone. As a managed service provider, we can evaluate your machine against the above 5 areas, plus several other areas we look at, as we know what should and should not be running on your machine. We’ll help you remove the unneeded stuff that is uselessly consuming resources on your machine. We’ve seen users gain 50%+ speed on their machines after we’ve trimmed out the fat and gotten their device to a lean, mean high performance machine. Additionally, where it makes cost sense to do so, we can upgrade things like RAM and hard drives to the right standard.
But what if it’s just too old, what should I be looking for?
It depends a little bit on how much you are willing to spend. As with everything, the more you spend today the longer that investment will likely last you. When we are helping our customers evaluate device options, we usually look for:
· Highly reputable manufacturer (will have the best warranty and parts availability)
· 8 or more GB of RAM
· 250 or more GB or storage (SSD only)
· Current generation processor
· # of ports (plug ins) needed for how you work
For $1500 or less, you can get a really strong and capable machine that will last you many years, which includes all of the above. If you’re not a hard-core number or graphic cruncher, there are a plethora of devices that are less than $1000 that will work for an equal number of years.
If you’re company would benefit from any of the above, visit us at https://endpointutilitycorp.com to learn more and sign up today.