Help improving boss´ pc

L

leonemesis

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Messages
198
Guys, could use some advice.

Recently installed new pc for the boss to use here at the office. First off, here are the specs:

Core 2 Quad Q8200
ASUS P5Q
4 GB Corsair DDR2
ATI Radeon HD4650
750GB HDD
OCZ 400W PSU

So, the machine is using Windows XP, it´s a fresh install, still the pc doesn´t seem to be "snappy" enough, it´s not as responsive as the phenom he had before this pc, so all the time I get complaints that it´s not as good as the other one, when in fact it should be working flawless.

Updated drivers, ran check disk and defrag, but still I can´t seem to figure out what´s holding it back.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

Oh and, I thought about trying to get him to buy an SSD, but as we are not in the US, it would cost too much and I´m not sure how good of an improvement it would be, so I ruled that out.

Thanks for your time.
 
Install Vista/7, problem solved :)

Make sure ALL the drivers are updated. Chipset, Video, etc.
 
Yeah, I´m dying to put 7 on the thing, yet the bastard doesn´t want to upgrade. Will wait a little bit to force him to upgrade, for now I just want to get him off my back.

Tried that, no luck. Well, one thing that came to mind, he was using an nvidia video card before, now he´s got an ATI card, would the drivers/catalyst control center be an issue?

I use an HD4870 at home, never had any issue, so did not consider this.
 
Have you ever thought about it just being all in his head? You are talking about two relatively high end systems, so how much faster do you expect XP to be, in just moving around the OS? You don't need much horsepower to get Explorer, My Computer, and basic apps to open quickly and be snappy.
 
First you said this:

Recently installed new pc for the boss to use here at the office.
Click to expand...

And followed it up with this --
Well, one thing that came to mind, he was using an nvidia video card before, now he´s got an ATI card, would the drivers/catalyst control center be an issue?
Click to expand...

You didn't image his old system on to the new one, did you? If so -- thats your problem.
 
DeaconFrost said:
Have you ever thought about it just being all in his head? You are talking about two relatively high end systems, so how much faster do you expect XP to be, in just moving around the OS? You don't need much horsepower to get Explorer, My Computer, and basic apps to open quickly and be snappy.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I thought of that, but sometimes when he lets me tinker with it a little bit, I do notice some delays in changing between windows, or things as simple as acessing a file in root folder.

I always check if it´s antivirus scanning, but no, hard disk is not showing heavy activity or eating resources.

It´s really bugging me. If it was me using, I don´t think it would be an issue, but you see, as he had the other machine and it was quite "snappy", he assumes this one should be better, or at least the same.

Still open to suggestions, thanks for the help.
 
Demon10000 said:
First you said this:



And followed it up with this --


You didn't image his old system on to the new one, did you? If so -- thats your problem.
Click to expand...

No I didn´t, it´s a fresh install, what I meant is, he´s using a different card, therefore a different driver, so just wondering if there would be anything related to the software used by ATI cards.
 
leonemesis said:
Yeah, I´m dying to put 7 on the thing, yet the bastard doesn´t want to upgrade. Will wait a little bit to force him to upgrade, for now I just want to get him off my back.
Click to expand...

Tell him its a driver issue and ask him to try Vista/7 for a week to see if it fixes the problem.
 
Set his MenuShowDelay to 0 and say 'look how fast the Start menu goes now!'
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Tell him its a driver issue and ask him to try Vista/7 for a week to see if it fixes the problem.
Click to expand...

Well, I´d like to tell him that and move to 7, but it´s not quite released yet. And about vista, the bastard is friggin stubborn and still thinks Vista sucks like when it was released and had driver issues. I tried several times to convince him to upgrade.

It´s awful that we often have to deal with people that simply won´t budge on their opinion, we know it´s friggin ignorant attitude, but I´m just trying to get my ass out of line, lol.
 
Forget the Vista/Win7 stuff.. if he doesn't want to go to it, then all you're going to do is piss him off by nagging him about it.

What you can do to have the 'wow start now' is to order him a quality SSD. That'll start a fire in his panties. :D


edit: and evidently I missed the line where you said that you ruled out an SSD. :p IMO you should reconsider... they're nice.
 
Last edited:
Frobozz said:
Forget the Vista/Win7 stuff.. if he doesn't want to go to it, then all you're going to do is piss him off by nagging him about it.

What you can do to have the 'wow start now' is to order him a quality SSD. That'll start a fire in his panties. :D


edit: and evidently I missed the line where you said that you ruled out an SSD. :p IMO you should reconsider... they're nice.
Click to expand...

Well, I suppose I could reconsider, but still, I´m a bit concerned as to what exactly should I get... If it was for myself, I´d definitely buy one from Intel, as it seems to be one of the best, if not the best, but they cost quite some green.

Is there any alternative that would perform nearly as good and does not cost as much? Okay, I know, google is my friend, doesn´t hurt to ask, now does it? :p

By the way some 64GB would suffice.
 
What brand and model of hard drive? 500GB isn't very descriptive.

If its a slow hard drive that will have a large impact on performance and they are most often overlooked.
 
Bviper said:
What brand and model of hard drive? 500GB isn't very descriptive.

If its a slow hard drive that will have a large impact on performance and they are most often overlooked.
Click to expand...

It´s a Seagate Barracuda 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB buffer. Shouldn´t be that bad, it´s not an old drive.
 
This guy sounds like my boss lol, if he isnt a stingy bastard then grab a couple of SSDs and raid them. That will hopefully shut him up.

Also is he complaining about the Internet not being snappy enough? Or the programs run locally on the system?

My boss constantly complain about the Internet being "slow" but refuses to upgrade our T1 line lol. It also doesn't help that he uses IE7 with 20 tabs open at the same time.
 
32bit or 64bit?

Switching to Win7 won't make it "snappier". The general menu response and window animations are faster (or non existent) in XP. I'd expect it's either driver issues and power settings (hard drive spin up) that are causing the pauses you're experiencing. Check into power settings to see if your hard drive and CPU are being set into "low power" modes.
 
Ritorix said:
Set his MenuShowDelay to 0 and say 'look how fast the Start menu goes now!'
Click to expand...
leonemesis said:
That will only work for the start menu right? I´ll look into that, thanks for the tip.
Click to expand...

That was meant as a joke, but hey whatever makes him happy. Sometimes its about perception - if the system seems faster, it must be faster. :D

That works in every version of windows btw, including 7. The default is still a 400ms delay for all menus in 7, same as in XP, and can be reduced to zero. For a really sneaky way to make things seem faster, check this out.
 
Last edited:
IMO the disk is your bottleneck... Put the OS on a Raptor or something and it should work better I'd think.

What processes are running? You might post them up, or at least look in msconfig to see what services and programs startup. MSCONFIG is the best tool you can use to speedup your system...
 
Jutsu said:
This guy sounds like my boss lol, if he isnt a stingy bastard then grab a couple of SSDs and raid them. That will hopefully shut him up.

Also is he complaining about the Internet not being snappy enough? Or the programs run locally on the system?

My boss constantly complain about the Internet being "slow" but refuses to upgrade our T1 line lol. It also doesn't help that he uses IE7 with 20 tabs open at the same time.
Click to expand...

Yeah, darn bastard bosses are everywhere, lol.

He is complaining about programs overall and menu responses, switching between programs, that kind thing. Fortunately he is aware that internet speed is related to the connection type we use and depends on how much he pays. He´s using firefox too, so that sorta helps.

I´ve been looking into the ssd thing, still not sure what to get though, so many brands and stuff.
 
bonsai said:
32bit or 64bit?

Switching to Win7 won't make it "snappier". The general menu response and window animations are faster (or non existent) in XP. I'd expect it's either driver issues and power settings (hard drive spin up) that are causing the pauses you're experiencing. Check into power settings to see if your hard drive and CPU are being set into "low power" modes.
Click to expand...

About 7, yes that´s quite possible, but couln´t give it try anyway, the dude doesn´t want to update.

I don´t think I´ve checked, but I don´t remember seeing anything related in the BIOS, I usually check it out to see if there´s anything out of the ordinary. Thanks for the tip.
 
Ritorix said:
That was meant as a joke, but hey whatever makes him happy. Sometimes its about perception - if the system seems faster, it must be faster. :D

That works in every version of windows btw, including 7. The default is still a 400ms delay for all menus in 7, same as in XP, and can be reduced to zero. For a really sneaky way to make things seem faster, check this out.
Click to expand...

Ha, I failed to see that as a joke, but as you said, as long as it seems faster and the dude is happy, he will stop bugging me, that´s what counts right? :D

Thanks for the link, too bad I could not try it out in his pc yet.
 
TechieSooner said:
IMO the disk is your bottleneck... Put the OS on a Raptor or something and it should work better I'd think.

What processes are running? You might post them up, or at least look in msconfig to see what services and programs startup. MSCONFIG is the best tool you can use to speedup your system...
Click to expand...

I think it might be the issue too, but when think it through, it shouldn´t be much different than before, he was using a 500GB 7200 RPM from Seagate, same barracuda line, if I not mistaken.

Didn´t see anything unusual, even uninstalled antivirus (Symantec Endpoint Protection) to make sure, but same behavior.
Disabled some stuff in the msconfig already, like google, java and adobe update stuff. The only software that loads at startup is skype and justvoip.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top