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Some months ago I bought a Mini PC:

  • Intel Celeron J4125
  • 8 GB of DDR4 RAM
  • 256 GB M.2 SSD
  • Windows 11, fully patched

I use this PC for programming in Visual Studio and SQL Server.

The PC is very slow in some operations, like starting up, or loading the software I use. The PC doesn't allow RAM upgrades; The maximum is 8 GB of RAM.

However, the PC has a tiny TF slot (MicroSD?) and so I am asking if the insertion of a 16/32/64/128 GB MicroSD card could significantly improve the speed of the PC, and what configuration it would require to do this. Could it perhaps be used as virtual memory?

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    It could only make it even slower, because SD cards are slow.
    – Tom Yan
    Commented Jul 9 at 12:35
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    8GB ram is too little for Windows 11 + Visual Studio and SQL server. You could consider downgrading to Windows 10 for better performance, but its probably better to move the Visual Studio and SQL server off of this pc. Its not suitable for it. You can use the MiniPC to remote into another pc where you have Visual Studio and SQL server running. Btw, just moving SQL Server away may already be enough.
    – LPChip
    Commented Jul 9 at 13:30
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    The name of the feature Ramhound doesn't want to remember is ReadyBoost. It's been removed since Windows 11 22H2.
    – Andrew Morton
    Commented Jul 9 at 16:45
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    If mainly using the mini-PC for programming, switching to Linux will offer a substantial performance increase, with the issues you're experiencing likely disappearing entirely or will be barely noticeable afterwards. Windows is heavily reliant on services, and it's these that really tax lower spec machines, and there's no way to get around this. Ubuntu Desktop has the most Windows-like UI that I've used, and most programming software is cross platform, but if needing to run something that is Windows-only, Wine can be used to do so.
    – JW0914
    Commented Jul 9 at 17:02
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    Best thing would be to sell it. Get proper hardware if you want to develop for Windows. But since we're all from different (financial) backgrounds, I can understand if that would not be an option for you. Perhaps take the money you wanted to use on the SD card, and use that for a cheap GCS or Azure subscription to host a small SQL server. Instead of trying to increase performance, perhaps you can offload most of the need for it in the first place.
    – Zimano
    Commented Jul 10 at 12:07

6 Answers 6

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Adding an SD card will not be of any benefit to you aside from the larger (but considerably slower) disk space.

As Tom Yan mentioned in a comment, SD cards are slow. Even top class ones would be not be fast enough to be of a noticeable benefit to your needs, let alone on an SD interface.

The only option that could slightly help is if the Mini PC has an SD card slot that supports NVMe. Then getting your hands on a top-class SD card could let you use it as virtual memory (swap), but operations would be noticeably slow, because of the difference of speeds compared to actual RAM. And the cost for this would be high with, in my opinion, not good enough returns.

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    NVMe port for an SD card - I couldn't make sense of this. Aren't most common NVMe SSD drives (not SD card) in the form factor of M.2?
    – iBug
    Commented Jul 10 at 7:15
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    While NVMe is a protocol for some flash devices, it's not the protocol for all these kinds of devices. SATA SSDs speak AHCI, and most SD cards (as far as I've seen) speak the SD protocol. Mixing these terms only leads to more confusion.
    – iBug
    Commented Jul 10 at 8:03
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    Same for ports. There's no "M.2 for SD cards". M.2 ports are for M.2 devices, and SD cards only fit in SD card slots. Even if there were such things like "M.2 to (micro) SD adapter", that doesn't make the M.2 slot "for SD cards" per se.
    – iBug
    Commented Jul 10 at 8:08
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    While it's true that NVMe is a protocol, and compatible with more than one physical connector type, you are extrapolating that to SD being a potential physical connection for NVMe and it simply isn't. All physical connectors that support NVMe provide at least one PCIe lane (PCIe, miniPCIe, M.2, Thunderbolt, etc) and the SD connector is woefully inadequate for establishing a PCIe link, even if you ignore that SD already comes with a datalink protocol.
    – Ben Voigt
    Commented Jul 10 at 15:54
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    The confusion arises because @Fanatique referring to a standard nobody uses: SD Express. This is a competitor to CFexpress and brings an PCIe interface with NVMe logical interface to the SD and microSD form factors. It is extremely rare, though a quick search find cards and readers for it.
    – user71659
    Commented Jul 10 at 17:57
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Some months ago I bought a Mini PC

So far, so good. I've had good experiences with mini PCs.

Intel Celeron J4125

This CPU is practically e-waste, the rest of my answer is irrelevant.

8 GB of DDR4 RAM

That's kind of low but not unusable. I've considered 16 GB to be the bare minimum since about 2012.

256 GB M.2 SSD

This is kind of low. You'll need to share the SSD specs such as model number or something.

The storage space isn't concerning but rather the performance specs of a 256 GB drive in this day/age.

The PC doesn't allow RAM upgrades; The maximum is 8 GB of RAM.

Low-end computers usually pull this kind of stunt to minimize the life of the system.

However, the PC has a tiny TF slot (MicroSD?) and so I am asking if the insertion of a 16/32/64/128 GB MicroSD card could significantly improve the speed of the PC

No. SD cards are good for cold storage and that's about it; so you could offload some files if you wish but it is unlikely to help.

If you have a USB3 port or higher then you are much better off getting a good USB SSD.

If you discover that your 256 GB SSD is your bottleneck then installing the OS onto an external SSD could improve performance.

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    "That's kind of low but not unusable. I've considered 16 GB to be the bare minimum since about 2012." - worth adding that this is mainly relevant for Windows. 8gb is perfectly sufficient for most tasks in Linux; even more so if you choose a lightweight desktop environment. I run my Linux desktop VMs at 4gb for testing purposes without any problem. Switching OS is probably the single most effective thing OP can do given that their hardware is not upgradeable.
    – Jon Bentley
    Commented Jul 10 at 8:24
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    While I agree with Linux being better for most developer tasks, "programming in Visual Studio for SQL Server" isn't one of them.
    – Guntram Blohm
    Commented Jul 10 at 8:31
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    "8 Gb of RAM That's kind of low but not unusable" -> For Windows 11 + Visual Studio + SQL Server? That probably requires a lot of patience.
    – jcaron
    Commented Jul 10 at 11:49
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    That is not a suitable CPU for this job. You could use it to remote into another PC, as @lpchip said, but not to run anything substantive. See cpubenchmark.net/… for a comparison
    – Paul
    Commented Jul 10 at 14:07
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    @JDias GZRD is Guangzhou as far as I can tell. Not sure if you have an actual model number but it probably doesn't matter. That CPU is practically e-waste; it can run Facebook for my grandparents and that's about it.
    – MonkeyZeus
    Commented Jul 10 at 15:09
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The PC is very slow in some operations, like starting up, or loading the software I use.

If you are not using SQL Server all the time, make sure you configure it to run on demand instead of automatically on boot. It is very resource hungry and can slow down low-spec devices a lot. Go to Services and configure MSSQLSERVER (or the one named after the instance if you chose to use named instance during installation) to start manually. Then you can start the services when needed and stop it when done. Other SQL Server services can be left unchanged.

SQL Server supports setting a memory cap, and you can try adjusting it to minimize interference with other applications.

But actually, the specification for this PC really isn't enough for Visual Studio and SQL Server. It wouldn't be enough even if you downgrade to Windows 10. Those apps, especially SQL Server, are compute-intensive, so your CPU would probably be another bottleneck.

If you are just learning or prototyping, consider moving to alternative, lightweight offerings like VSC, SQL Server Express LocalDB, or SQLite. If you do need the full-featured SQL Server, you can also try moving it off to another PC and connect via the network, if possible.

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No, as others have said, a MicroSD card will not help you here.

The best thing would be to turn off some Windows services that you don't need. For example, a few years ago I turned off Windows Search in Windows 7 on my old notebook and immediately noticed a noticeable improvement in the notebook's performance. However, this notebook CPU only had one core. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Search

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The best thing to do would be to buy a new computer. If it's your own device, then replacing it should not be a big deal. If it's your company's device, it seems a ticket with the IT team stating that the hardware provided is insufficient for your workload should do the trick.

In either case, you will need a PC that will match your required workload. The most important specs will be memory size and CPU power, with SSD storage being secondary. 16 GB RAM will be a minimum, 32 GB will be recommended. As for CPU, "better is better". You certainly don't need a high-end CPU, but certainly not something from the bottom third either. Keep in mind that the Celeron series of CPUs was made for workloads like sending e-mail and entering data into SAP, not running an SQL server. Storage depends entirely on how much you need. 256 GB (especially on a M.2 SSD) might be entirely sufficient or way too little.

What you certainly don't need is a GPU of any kind. As long as your PC can output some form of graphical signal your monitor can understand, you'll be fine.

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  • As someone who buys and sometimes abuses these PCs - they're comically cheap and that's kind of the point. I do wonder where the actual bottlenecks for OP
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Commented Jul 11 at 9:57
  • If you ask me, 8GB of RAM and a Celeron CPU. Celeron are now made to be low energy, low thermal output (aka pure passive cooling).
    – MechMK1
    Commented Jul 11 at 10:04
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The J4125 CPU is much too slow if you run Windows. I have one with Linux. It's OK for receiving backups at around 100Mbps (its main purpose) but even with Linux it feels sluggish.

The latest mini-PCs have an N100 CPU which is around 2x faster here. Also they often have 16Gb RAM (though they still sell 8).

As everyone has said MicroSD is far too slow. You could plug in a USB3 external SSD or HD for extra storage. USB3 is decently fast, though not a patch on M.2 NVMe. And it's transferrable to a new PC in the future.

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