How fast should PC be?

joydivision

joydivision

Well-Known Member
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Location
Manchester, UK
E5400 Dual Core 2.7Ghz
2GB RAM
Windows XP SP3
MSE

Clean install just built, its the machine which has been causing me so much trouble and have resorted to a new build. I am keeping some quite at this stager so it dosn't hinder replies but will reveal it in a bit.

It takes 45 seconds from switch on to boot into the Windows XP desktop then another 10 seconds before its usable. To me this seems too slow.

Am I being a bit over fussy or is there a problem? I suspect it could be that flaming new hard drive even though all the tests come back ok. If this is the case how do I explain to the client they have just spent £160 on new parts only for it to that HD I replaced two months ago?

Once it boots its super fast, loads firefox in a second (after the first loading) but I am worried my client may get a bit annoyed if he sees its taking a 1 minute to boot up as me may be expecting somthing super quick.

I am close to going mad over this job.

It is an IDE drive so I realise it will be slower than an SATA one but I have built new Intel Core Dou machines before using an IDE drive without any issues with speed for normal usage.
 
Nothing there apart from MSE and the audio mixer. Its a brand new install.

Checked the SMART logs and everything looks healthy, the hard drive diagnostic tests comes up fine and the performance is on full bars.

When it loads its super fast, it takes a second to load up Firefox etc and compared to how it was before its a completly different system. I just like everything to be perfect.
 
whats the spec of the old machine?, is there a huge difference in spec.

45 secs to a min, doesnt appear to be all that bad to me.
 
His old machine would hang for an hour etc. Full story again as this is getting a bit messy now (aplogies).

Two months ago replaed faulty hard drive - client tells me its still slow, test the HD its fine, but its 8 years old I suspected the CPU was over heating. Changed the heatsinks etc and no joy. I swapped the RAM/PSU for known goods too.

So I gave up after losts of tests and replaced the motherboard/PSU/CPU and RAM.

Old spec was

P4 2.4Ghz (2003)
512MB RAM
160GB IDE HD (new)

New spec
E5400 Core Dou (branded as Pentium)
2GB 800Mhz DDR2 RAM
160GB IDE HD (same as above)
New 400W FSP PSU with 17 amps on both rails.

Once its boots its lightening fast I just don't understand why it takes so long to boot, my parents AMD X2 3800 system is 10 seconds quicker and thats a slower processor and not a clean install.
 
should have clarified - you could use it to see if there are any background items running that are not appearing in msconfig etc
 
I should may be have been clearer as I didn't make it clear at all. The slowness seems to be loading bar on the XP screen, that takes around 30 seconds, once explorere.exe is loaded it only takes about 10 seconds before it can be used.

I've N&Ped old Dells with a lot lower spec that seem to boot up much quicker than this. Could be partly just due to poor support for the CPU with XP until all the drivers are loaded?
 
Personally, If i can get my tune up jobs starting up a minute or under - I'm happy.

This being a new build, I can see why you might be frustrated... But I wouldn't worry too much.
 
It may be possible to go into the BIOS, and turn off the POST test and the splash screen (if there is one) if you are so concerned about time. 45sec-1min on an IDE drive sounds about right. I wouldn't call it fast, wouldn't call it slow either.
 
Sorted it. I had a break watched some TV and then had another look. I went into the BIOS and discovered it had a default for IDE comptability mode. I changed this to optimized and it booted in less than 30 seconds :) This is what I was expecting based on previous systems of this spec I have built.

Sometimes I just need to learn when to take a break :) Just having a Kick Kat now in time for the next job of the night! Its only 1:14am here so the night is young.
 
joydivision said:
E5400 Dual Core 2.7Ghz
2 I suspect it could be that flaming new hard drive even though all the tests come back ok. If this is the case how do I explain to the client they have just spent £160 on new parts only for it to that HD I replaced two months ago?
Click to expand...

What kind of performance did you get when you booted from a linux disc? If that ran crappy, then it probably isn't the hard drive. Because you are still questioning the hard drive, I'm assuming that the CD was running pretty good?
 
Are your relying on the XP drivers or did you get the mobo specific ones?

If you suspect it's the HDD then swap in a new one.

Also bear in mind that Windows takes a few boots to optimise the prefetch etc. I.e. it will boot faster after a number of successful boots.
 
As said I above I have fixed it :). It was a BIOS setting which was slowing down the IDE controller :) Changed it to Optimum SATA/IDE settings and it now boots 20 seconds quicker :) From the when the first welcome screen appears to the task bar it takes 2 seconds, before this bit was taking 10.
 
joydivision said:
As said I above I have fixed it :). It was a BIOS setting which was slowing down the IDE controller :) Changed it to Optimum SATA/IDE settings and it now boots 20 seconds quicker :) From the when the first welcome screen appears to the task bar it takes 2 seconds, before this bit was taking 10.
Click to expand...

nice. Good tip to check the BIOS for settings like this when dealing with a slow PC.
 
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