To Speed Up Your Computer

[radhak]

Interesting article here : A screaming-fast PC changed my life.

I have the same symptoms as him, but I have a far older machine (Pentium IV from 2003) on XP, and have been mulling a new machine just for the performance (and not because I can't run any apps!).

Reading that article, and the links within ( here), I am thinking I should simply change my main drive to this SSD HDD).

Whaddya say? I may not even have to upgrade to Windows 7...!

[unknown poster]

It is unlikely that your P4 from 2003 has the appropriate Serial ATA interface to accept a newer drive. Even if it did, the SATA spec has changed over the last few years and you wouldn't get full benefit from the newer drive.

That drive by itself is half the price of a brand new i5 based desktop with a decent hard drive, tons of RAM, etc. The difference you would experience from a better processor, graphics, RAM, etc, would be more than twice what you would see from trying to shoehorn an SSD into a ancient P4 system.

[LCHIEN]

if you use raw computing power then a fast CPU makes sense. But if you tend to open a lot of windows and a lot of browesr windows and tabs, then your biggest bottleneck is probably RAM memory limit and the need to swap parts of your loaded programs to memory. In that case a fast SSD and setting your system to cache and swap virtual memory to this drive will give you a huge performance improvement.

[radhak]

the difference you would experience from a better processor, graphics, RAM, etc, would be more than twice what you would see from trying to shoehorn an SSD into a ancient P4 system.

And that is the fallacy - most users don't use the full CPU or graphics, at I know I don't : I play no games, and I rarely see my CPU running at 100%. RAM, yes, but since I have upgraded to 3 GB, I have not seen too many reasons a new machine would be better off. And that is what the article is emphasizing - a new machine runs well only till it is new, and then gets bogged down as usual. I have helped many in my circle upgrade, and have seen this time and again.

But you have a point : I better make sure my mobo can handle this new HDD.

edit : on second thoughts, I did add a new HDD this year with the new SATA, and it works great. So I guess I'd just need to buy an adaptor/sled to fit this notebook HDD to a desktop.

[jdon]

I doubt that adding an SSD to your system will make a noticeable difference in performance- your CPU/motherboard are most likely the bottleneck. SSDs are still pretty expensive for what you get, esp. in terms of capacity.

IMHO you'd get a better return on investment by upgrading CPU and MB- you could find a screamer combo for what you'd pay for an SSD.

[jackellis]

In addition...

Make sure you have plenty of spare disk space.

Defragment your hard drive(s) periodically.

Clean up your registry (carefully and with the help of some kind of tool)

Check for viruses and spyware.

I'm one of those folks whose computer desktop looks like my physical desktop. I typically can't install enough memory in my computers to deal with it all.

[BobSch]

Clean out you temp files and browser cache.

[sparkeyjames]

Add more memory. Make sure your paging file is large enough. Defrag your drive. Check to make sure your not running too many background programs. All that stuff put together and your once fast machine will seem like it's got sand in the gears.

[Bruce Cohen]

Buy A Mac

Bruce

[gsmittle]

Buy A Mac

Bruce

+1 on that!

[russd]

Puppy Linux

Try Puppy linux


http://puppylinux.org/main/index.php...%20Started.htm


I use a Mac Also.

[radhak]

All great suggestions, but if you read the article and its links and comments, you'd see that the SSD drive has worked wonders for many Mac's, and Linus Torvalds has raved about it way back in 2008, even when the technology was still evolving.

[woodturner]

Buy A Mac

He said he wanted a COMPUTER

Seriously, if he is looking for speed and versatility, a PC will be a better choice than a Mac. If he is looking for simpler interface, somewhat fewer viruses, and potentially an orphan, the Mac might be a better choice.

Linux on a PC is probably the overall best choice, though.

[Cochese]

Upgrading only one piece of the puzzle isn't going to get you the speed you want. With a machine that old, the best and least expensive upgrades aren't going to apply to you.

If you would like some help getting the best bang for your buck, I'd be happy to help. I've been putting together builds for myself and my family for awhile.

[gsmittle]

I've been hearing the "potentially an orphan" line since 1984.

I guess I'm just a kid at heart, as there are 12 "toy computers" in my house right now.

g.