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15th February 2009, 03:27 PM
|  | TST Expert | | Join Date: Aug 2008, 776 posts. Reputation:  | | | The need for speed. (Laptop)
Maverick: "I feel the need..."
Maverick, Goose: "...the need for speed!"
Is your laptop slow? Is your laptop not brand new? Want to soup it up?
Two things to look at...Ram and Hard Drive.
If you are running 1GB or more of ram, that's good.
If your hard drive is 4200 rpm or 5400 rpm, that's not good.
Upgrade to 7200 rpm and feel the speed you need indeed.
One can use Belarc Adviser or SIW or the likes to get system info.
FYI only. 
(of course these are not the only things that determine your specific system speeds
but it will make a big difference) 
Last edited by Rik; 16th February 2009 at 11:31 AM.
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15th February 2009, 03:44 PM
|  | TST Oracle | | Join Date: Dec 2007, 8,001 posts. Location: Market Haemorrhoids, Middle England Reputation: | | |
And unload all those rubbish bits and pieces from your memory overhead you don't need too - will make a big difference.
As will changing the windows advanced performance settings as well.
__________________ Confuse and Prosper. |
15th February 2009, 04:00 PM
| | TST Expert | | Join Date: Aug 2008, 776 posts. Reputation: | |
Good points, Albert. There are many things that will slow/speed a computer.
But I have seen the most dramatic increase in computer (desktop or laptop)
speed by the addition of ram and hard drive faster rpm..especially in the
4200 or 5400 to 7200 or possibly 10K rpm ranges.
But wait...one can get 10K and 15K rpm drives? Will this be super fast?
Maybe. Maybe not. One has to look at seek and read/write times of the drive.
More expensive and faster is not always the distinguishing factor.
As with life, look before you leap.  |
15th February 2009, 04:18 PM
|  | Community Moderator | | Join Date: Dec 2007, 4,345 posts. Location: Oxford, UK Reputation: | |
Moved to Storage Devices and stickied This'll be good info for people wanting to speed up their computer but not realising RAM and HDD speed are vital factors
__________________
Numberwang!
A little air on the earth.
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15th February 2009, 05:18 PM
| | TST Expert | | Join Date: Aug 2008, 776 posts. Reputation: | |
Cool. Never been sticky'd before.  Didn't hurt. |
15th February 2009, 09:19 PM
| | Community Moderator | | Join Date: Dec 2007, 4,345 posts. Location: Oxford, UK Reputation: | |
I'm very gentle 
__________________
Numberwang!
A little air on the earth.
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15th February 2009, 09:32 PM
|  | TST Oracle | | Join Date: Jul 2008, 8,171 posts. Location: UK Norfolk ..... Reputation: | |
I want to be stickied  
__________________ Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming...
Damn, What a ride!! |
15th February 2009, 09:59 PM
|  | Community Moderator | | Join Date: Oct 2007, 1,028 posts. Location: Stoke-on-Trent, England Reputation: | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Gunner  More expensive and faster is not always the distinguishing factor. | Agreed. I wanted a 10K RPM hard drive but, for me, the benefits just don't outweigh the negatives.
My rig is pretty much silent, and I wish to keep it that way. 10K RPM drives are very loud, and this would be a great burden on the silence of my computer which I have worked on for so long.
The capacities are nothing great either, and the prices are still extortionate in my opinion. I want at least 500GB and for that i'd have to purchase 2 WD Velociraptor 300GB hard drives which would cost about £400, whereas I could purchase a 1TB hard drive that would be much quieter and fulfill my capacity needs twofold, albeit slower than the Velociraptors, for about £70.
I could buy 2 320GB hard drives, configure then in RAID 0 and have near-the-same speed of the Velociraptor for a third of the price, yet have a lot more space.
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"People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn't they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines... There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters" - Bill Gates
Last edited by Joshuashawharvey; 15th February 2009 at 10:06 PM.
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16th February 2009, 07:08 AM
| | TST Oracle | | Join Date: Dec 2007, 8,001 posts. Location: Market Haemorrhoids, Middle England Reputation: | | |
I have a 10K rpm drive for my Vista boot drive and this made a big difference over the older 7.2K rpm drive. It also gave the machine a 5.9 on the Vista scoring thingy.
__________________ Confuse and Prosper. |
16th February 2009, 10:55 AM
| | Community Moderator | | Join Date: Oct 2007, 1,028 posts. Location: Stoke-on-Trent, England Reputation: | | |
A 1TB hard drive would also get a 5.9 in the Vista E.I. Any drive above (I think) it's around 600-700GB automatically gets a 5.9 regardless of it's speed, just as any 10 or 15K RPM drive would.
Personally, I really don't care for the Vista rating half as much as I used to. It's a nice little benchie to share with friends but ultimately It's just for bragging rights and nothing more. It doesn't help me get the right computer for me.
Two or three 7200RPM SATAII drives in RAID 0 would more-than-likely be just as fast as even some of the best 10K RPM drives at a fraction of the cost.
A four-drive+ RAID 0 would obliterate a 10K RPM drive. You can purchase four 500GB drives for the same price as a Velociraptor 300GB, yet have 6.7 times the capacity.
__________________
"People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn't they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines... There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters" - Bill Gates
Last edited by Joshuashawharvey; 16th February 2009 at 10:57 AM.
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16th February 2009, 11:29 AM
|  | TST Master | | Join Date: Dec 2007, 2,107 posts. Location: England Reputation: | |
Joshua, I think you missed the point of the firs post mate. It was about laptops, not pc's. You cannot raid 4 hdd's in a laptop at all. Even if it was possible, battery time would be severely compromised.
I hope you don't mind Gunner, I added (Laptop) to your thread title to save confusion.
__________________ "If at first you do not succeed, sit down, have a coffee, have a smoke, and think for a bit. If that still doesn't work, post it on TST".
Last edited by Rik; 16th February 2009 at 11:32 AM.
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16th February 2009, 11:44 AM
| | Community Moderator | | Join Date: Oct 2007, 1,028 posts. Location: Stoke-on-Trent, England Reputation: | |
Rik, I was elaborating from this mate- Quote:
Originally Posted by Gunner But I have seen the most dramatic increase in computer ( desktop or laptop)
speed by the addition of ram and hard drive faster rpm..especially in the
4200 or 5400 to 7200 or possibly 10K rpm ranges.
But wait...one can get 10K and 15K rpm drives? Will this be super fast?
Maybe. Maybe not. One has to look at seek and read/write times of the drive.
More expensive and faster is not always the distinguishing factor.
As with life, look before you leap. | It is possible to have 2 hard drives in RAID in a few laptops which support two internal hard drives, but as you say, at a cost of battery life.
Is it even possible to get a 15K 2.5" hard drive to fit a laptop? I've never seen any.
__________________
"People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn't they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines... There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters" - Bill Gates
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16th February 2009, 11:47 AM
| | TST Master | | Join Date: Dec 2007, 2,107 posts. Location: England Reputation: | |
No idea. I stick to pc's rather than laptops. You get a lot more bang for your buck with a pc.
__________________ "If at first you do not succeed, sit down, have a coffee, have a smoke, and think for a bit. If that still doesn't work, post it on TST". |
16th February 2009, 11:55 AM
| | Community Moderator | | Join Date: Oct 2007, 1,028 posts. Location: Stoke-on-Trent, England Reputation: | | |
I agree mate.
I've heard of a couple of 10K RPM 2.5" drives, but many are too thick to fit in most ordinary laptops.
I'd like to try an SSD in a laptop to see the performance increase, especially from a 5400RPM drive.
__________________
"People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn't they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines... There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters" - Bill Gates
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16th February 2009, 04:32 PM
| | TST Expert | | Join Date: Aug 2008, 776 posts. Reputation: | |
I actually started this thread with a laptop, MINE, as the main focus.
I ditched an old 4200 rpm for a 7200 rpm on my old HP Pavilion and it almost
doubled my perceived or real speed. That was cool.
And then in another post I remembered the same enjoyment of increased
speed in a desktop I had and sub'd a 5400 for 7200 along with half gig of ram
and bingo bango.
Not too long ago, or it seems to me, a 10k drive was only in a SCSI but
the technology now includes IDE up to 15k. SATA is a whole other thing now also.
So I just wanted to share my simple information with some who just may not know.
It's all good. |
16th February 2009, 04:40 PM
| | TST Master | | Join Date: Dec 2007, 2,107 posts. Location: England Reputation: | |
I had a similar thing happen with my old windows98 pc. I was given a scsi controller and a load of 2gig scsi drives.
With the scsi's in, I had it fully booted in 15 seconds. It was almost insanely fast.
__________________ "If at first you do not succeed, sit down, have a coffee, have a smoke, and think for a bit. If that still doesn't work, post it on TST". |
16th February 2009, 04:49 PM
| | TST Expert | | Join Date: Aug 2008, 776 posts. Reputation: | |
You got it, Rik. An Ultra2-Wide SCSI controller and the smallest (cheapest) 10Krpm
SCSI hard drive would rock the house. There were some great days past. |
16th February 2009, 04:52 PM
| | TST Master | | Join Date: Dec 2007, 2,107 posts. Location: England Reputation: | |
I don't miss the loud whine as the drives spun up though. Or the heat they generated either for that matter. I had 6 drives and a scsi cdrom on the chain.
__________________ "If at first you do not succeed, sit down, have a coffee, have a smoke, and think for a bit. If that still doesn't work, post it on TST". |
16th February 2009, 05:06 PM
| | TST Oracle | | Join Date: Dec 2007, 8,001 posts. Location: Market Haemorrhoids, Middle England Reputation: | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Joshuashawharvey Personally, I really don't care for the Vista rating half as much as I used to. It's a nice little benchie to share with friends but ultimately It's just for bragging rights and nothing more. It doesn't help me get the right computer for me. | OK - so what would you use as a benchmarking tool?
__________________ Confuse and Prosper. |
16th February 2009, 05:21 PM
| | TST Expert | | Join Date: Aug 2008, 776 posts. Reputation: | |
6 drives? Speed equals heat, equals extra cooling, equals more noise. (X 6 for you)
IDE vs SCSI depended on how many devices you wanted to use.
A server with SCSI in RAID and 4 drives will have noise.
Many things that gain in one area have a loss in another area. Just life.
I really don't care if a system takes an hour to boot as long as it's fast when
I use it. | | |  Only registered members can participate in forum threads. You must register or log in to contribute.
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