[Richard M]

I recently built my first computer. It is built around an AMD Phenom II X4 3.0 ghz .quad processor and a gigabyte GAMjA790X-UD4P motherboard. Running on microsoft XP professional. It has 4 gb of Kingson ddr2 sdram. Corsair 450 30 Amp bus PS. Coolermaster mid tower case etc. I expected it to be a bit faster than it seems. I am not into over clocking or gaming. Just wondering if there are efficient ways to make sure it gets the speed. Start up seems quite slow.

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Much of what the user experiences on a computer has to do with the hard drive. What kind of hard drive are you using? Many people often mistaken that because they have a monstrous processor that their computer will seem very quick. While a processor does play a part, things like startup, installation of programs, opening programs, and copy and pasting pictures from a USB flash drive has A LOT to do with the hard drive and very little to do with the processor.

A link to your hard drive will help me and also,

Benchmark Your Hard Drive:

• Download
• Save the setup file to your desktop
• Double click the setup file
• Follow the installation procedure
• Once installed, reboot your computer
• Upon completed reboot, open HD Tune (NOTHING ELSE)
• Make sure your Main Hard drive is
  selected from the drop down menu
• Make sure the "Benchmark" tab is forward
• Click on the gray Start Button
• Do NOT work on the computer while benchmarking,
  don't even move the mouse

Once the benchmark is completed, post all information provided on the right hand side of HD Tune. i.e. Average Transfer Rate

[Ferrari]

Much of what the user experiences on a computer has to do with the hard drive. What kind of hard drive are you using? Many people often mistaken that because they have a monstrous processor that their computer will seem very quick. While a processor does play a part, things like startup, installation of programs, opening programs, and copy and pasting pictures from a USB flash drive has A LOT to do with the hard drive and very little to do with the processor.

A link to your hard drive will help me and also,

Benchmark Your Hard Drive:

• Download
• Save the setup file to your desktop
• Double click the setup file
• Follow the installation procedure
• Once installed, reboot your computer
• Upon completed reboot, open HD Tune (NOTHING ELSE)
• Make sure your Main Hard drive is
  selected from the drop down menu
• Make sure the "Benchmark" tab is forward
• Click on the gray Start Button
• Do NOT work on the computer while benchmarking,
  don't even move the mouse

Once the benchmark is completed, post all information provided on the right hand side of HD Tune. i.e. Average Transfer Rate

[DaffyKantReed]

Much of what the user experiences on a computer has to do with the hard drive.

IAWTP.

Products like the WD RE4, Caviar Black, and the Seagate Barracuda XT are very good choices for the desktop, however I have found SSDs to be better still.

$90US buys a <Popular Brand Name> 30GB SSD which reads at up to 230MB/sec and writes at 80MB/sec sustained, without the use of RAID0. It's cooler and draws less power, and at *100GB* of host writes per day, a MLC SSD should still last 4 years before it becomes read-only. Outside of the cost per GB, I don't see any downside, unless it has a wimpy (I'm being kind) controller like the JM.

[Ferrari]

IAWTP

What does this acronym stand for?

Products like the WD RE4, Caviar Black, and the Seagate Barracuda XT are very good choices for the desktop, however I have found SSDs to be better still.

Definitely! I'm waiting for the Original Poster to post his Transfer Rates and Make/Model of the hard drive. If that seems speedy enough, then I'll look at processes running at startup via msconfig/autoruns.

On a personal note, I'm planning on upgrading to atleast 1 (maybe 2 in RAID O) 60gb OCZ Vertex SSD for my main and convert my 640gb Caviar Black to all storage. I would LOVE to get the new OCZ Vertex 2 Pro with the new SandForce controller. Video HERE

[Richard M]

I have:Western Digital Caviar GP WD5000AACS 500GB 5400 to 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

[Richard M]

Here are the benchmark results:
HD Tune: WDC WD5000AACS-00G8B Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 9.5 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 97.9 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 76.8 MB/sec
Access Time : 14.9 ms
Burst Rate : 138.4 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 2.1%

[Ferrari]

Hi Richard M,

Your benchmark seems fine. Your hard drive isn't the fastest I've seen, but it's not terrible. I use a WD Caviar Black SATA 3.0GB/s, 7200RPM, 32mb cache, and the image I posted is of my results when the drive was brand new.

One reason your computer may be booting slower than you'd like is because your motherboard has an 8+2 phase power design, so the power to the cpu comes on in stages. My Computer boots very very slow because of its 8 phase power design. I don't even hear the initial P.O.S.T. beep a good 20-30 seconds after pressing the power button. My parents computer I built them uses a slower hard drive and processor and boots two times as faster, maybe 3 times faster.

Use the msconfig utility to check processes running at startup.

• Click Start
• Click Run...
• Type msconfig
• Click OK
• Click on the Startup Tab
• Untick everything except your antivirus and/or other "real time"
  security software
• PLEASE NOTE: Anything like a wireless card, touchpad, keyboard, etc.
  needed during startup (primarily in laptops) should be left alone.
• Click Apply then OK
• You will be prompted to Restart, do so.
• Upon reboot, you will be notified system changes have been made. Make
  sure to put a check mark next to "do not notify me again" and click OK.

Does startup time increase? How many boxes did you untick?



A third party defragger may help as well, like JKDefrag (now known as MYDefrag) located in my signature. Remember to always defrag your hard drive directly after a reboot with no programs open.

Edited by Ferrari, 18 March 2010 - 04:07 PM.

[Richard M]

I probably unticked about 14 or 15. Didn't count them exactly.

[Ferrari]

14 to 15 is quite a bit. That would definitely slow down startup some. Is it booting any faster? It is also quite a few programs running in the background that are unnecessary. The overall feel of the PC should seem a little zippier too.

Edited by Ferrari, 18 March 2010 - 05:53 PM.

[Richard M]

It did seem to be a little faster. I will need to try startup a couple times to see for sure. thanks

[DaffyKantReed]

@Ferrari
IAWTP=I Agree With This Post

I did not realize the OCZSSD2-1VTX60G is currently $174US after rebate. The Indilinx Barefoot is a very good controller, with frequent firmware upgrades, unlike the Samsung controller. I use the X-25M series personally, but Sandforce could well change my position. Corsair has announced they will be using the Sandforce controller as well.