Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


bigal_nz

635 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user


#36877 3-Jul-2009 03:09
Send private message

Hi Guys,

I recently updated to a Corei7 from my trusty old Athlon 3500+.

I got:

ASUS P6T SE mobo
Core i7 2.66Ghz
1x2Gb of Corsair DDR3 ram (yer I know I know, but I had a spare stick lying around and cash is tight, I will get 3 sticks soon)

I have 3xSeagate SATA drives. Just standard 7200.11 Barracudas.

Now I reloaded Windows XP, and sure the computer went faster, but not as fast as I had expected. It still takes a while to boot and occasionally really still makes noises like its working hard.

I have begun to wonder if I have done something wrong? Any ideas?

Also could XP not be using the system to its full potential? If so I may go the whole hog and migrate to it fully - ATM I am just booting a small partition on Win7 and have not loaded much onto it.

Talk to me people!!

Cheers

-Al

View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic
 1 | 2
Adamal
544 posts

Ultimate Geek


  #230550 3-Jul-2009 07:17
Send private message

bigal_nz:

I have begun to wonder if I have done something wrong? Any ideas?



Yes! You haven't put another 2 sticks of DDR3 in it yet!



bigal_nz

635 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user


  #230563 3-Jul-2009 08:10
Send private message

Yeah, I admitted that in my first post, bt hey i7 processors are expensive - will fix that when I can :-)

garvani
1873 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #230574 3-Jul-2009 08:30
Send private message

I dont know what you were expecting? a super computer? a pc that will boot into windows in 5 seconds flat? The i7 isnt the be all end all in cpus, its still only a 2.6ghz processor (quite a fast one at that but still) Xp is a 7 year old operating system with literally countless amounts of patches, all this equates to a dog of an OS, and yes xp dosnt do multicores very well either. If you moved to windows seven fulltime you would notice a big difference in performance over xp. However your ram and hard drives are going to hold you back on that front too. Velociraptors are the way to go with an i7



bigal_nz

635 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user


  #230579 3-Jul-2009 09:02
Send private message

garvani: I dont know what you were expecting? a super computer? a pc that will boot into windows in 5 seconds flat? The i7 isnt the be all end all in cpus, its still only a 2.6ghz processor


No but I did expect a more tangeable gain, given that I am making quite a large jump in processor. With all those cores I had hoped that while my system was starting up I would be able to start doing things more quickly - while its still starting up.

garvani: If you moved to windows seven fulltime you would notice a big difference in performance over xp. However your ram and hard drives are going to hold you back on that front too. Velociraptors are the way to go with an i7


Thats exactly the sort of info I wanted to know. Sounds like W7 is the way to go. Thanks for the tip on the velociraptors too.

-Al

Adamal
544 posts

Ultimate Geek


  #230637 3-Jul-2009 11:36
Send private message

Nahh, go SSD for the OS drive. Keep the other drives for storage.

You've gone a large jump, yes, but with only one stick of RAM, it's like having a twin turbo Viper while running space saver spare tyres on the back!

You'll notice the difference once you're running Triple Channel.

Ragnor
8218 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #230655 3-Jul-2009 12:55
Send private message

Hard drive speed is likely holding you back. A faster cpu isn't going to help much if disk speed is holding back you system.

Ram has already been mentioned, but triple channel will help also.

bigal_nz

635 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user


  #230657 3-Jul-2009 13:01
Send private message

I would love SSD, but even a 60Gig is pretty ouch.

 
 
 

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.
Adamal
544 posts

Ultimate Geek


  #230659 3-Jul-2009 13:12
Send private message

You also need to be weary of some of them out there. Most of them say they will be able to do X amount of transfer reading and writing, but when put under the microscope, the amount of IO operations they do is pathetic, which has a huge hit on performance.

Mine is an OCZ Core V2, and it offers very good performance for the price. They are very well supported on their website as well. They frequently browse places like Newegg, and if people report problems, they'll repond on there, giving them directions to particular threads in their support forums.

It may pay to hold back a bit for at least a few months. Don't be surprised if theres a terrabyte one out in a few months, and the speeds keep getting a lot better. They're really starting to advance with them.

bigal_nz

635 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user


  #230665 3-Jul-2009 13:20
Send private message

Yes, I think I read on Toms Hardware that Intel are about to announce some new ones. I would probably buy a intel one, or perhaps a OCZ if they are as good as you say.

What OS/Specs are you running? How long it take you to boot?

Ilmarin
94 posts

Master Geek


  #230672 3-Jul-2009 13:25
Send private message

Stay tuned for Intel's 34nm SSDs due out shortly... pundits (myself included) are crossing fingers for lower $/GB. Prices may come down even further by Christmas as production ramps up and yields hopefully improve. I'll be considering replacing my 150GB OS partition (on a Seagate 7200.11) with one when the price dips below NZD $5/GB, although I'm not holding my breath for that happening in 2009.

Adamal
544 posts

Ultimate Geek


  #230676 3-Jul-2009 13:36
Send private message

bigal_nz:
What OS/Specs are you running? How long it take you to boot?



3ghz Core 2 Duo @ 3.6Ghz
4GB DDR2-1066
HD4870
Windows 7 RC1

Not sure how long it takes actually, I seldom power my machine down. But most stuff is really quick. Outlook opens like BAM! A lot of stuff is like that. The main point of an SSD is the low access time of the drives.

Eg, my RAID0 consisting of 2 Seagate 1TB's has an access time of 14ms, where as my SSD is .2ms. The difference is noticable!

Also, is it 'big al' or 'bi gal'?

bigal_nz

635 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user


  #230680 3-Jul-2009 13:41
Send private message

yep - that sounds pretty sweet

bigal_nz

635 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user


  #230685 3-Jul-2009 13:46
Send private message

bigal_nz: yep - that sounds pretty sweet


It used to be bi gal, but sorry I am strictly a carpet muncher now ;-)

paradoxsm
3000 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #230720 3-Jul-2009 15:20
Send private message

:-P lolz.

I upgraded my ailing AMD 3800 to a 6000+ and got quite a substantial improvement, I'm intending to run this into the ground now and buy a decent laptop next time around.

Adamal
544 posts

Ultimate Geek


  #230736 3-Jul-2009 15:40
Send private message

bigal_nz:
bigal_nz: yep - that sounds pretty sweet


It used to be bi gal, but sorry I am strictly a carpet muncher now ;-)


Really? I prefer hardwood floors over carpet. IF ya know what I mean.

Was just wondering anyway, I thought it was 'Big Al' hahah

Anyway, your first problem to resolve is the RAM. Hard drives are a bottleneck to an extent. Once stuff is thrown in to RAM, you're limiting the speed at which that data can be accessed at by only having a single channel of memory.
You'll notice more of an improvement from getting more RAM and going triple channel than you will with getting faster HDD's.

 1 | 2
View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic





News and reviews »

Air New Zealand Starts AI adoption with OpenAI
Posted 24-Jul-2025 16:00


eero Pro 7 Review
Posted 23-Jul-2025 12:07


BeeStation Plus Review
Posted 21-Jul-2025 14:21


eero Unveils New Wi-Fi 7 Products in New Zealand
Posted 21-Jul-2025 00:01


WiZ Introduces HDMI Sync Box and other Light Devices
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:32


RedShield Enhances DDoS and Bot Attack Protection
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:26


Seagate Ships 30TB Drives
Posted 17-Jul-2025 11:24


Oclean AirPump A10 Water Flosser Review
Posted 13-Jul-2025 11:05


Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Brings New Edge-To-Edge FlexWindow
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Epson Launches New AM-C550Z WorkForce Enterprise printer
Posted 9-Jul-2025 18:22


Samsung Releases Smart Monitor M9
Posted 9-Jul-2025 17:46


Nearly Half of Older Kiwis Still Write their Passwords on Paper
Posted 9-Jul-2025 08:42


D-Link 4G+ Cat6 Wi-Fi 6 DWR-933M Mobile Hotspot Review
Posted 1-Jul-2025 11:34


Oppo A5 Series Launches With New Levels of Durability
Posted 30-Jun-2025 10:15









Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.