How to feel 4GB RAM and Santa Rosa platform?

I have DELL XPSM1530:

T9300
4GB RAM
256MB DDR2 GeForce8600M GT
200GB 7200rpm drive

I have used it for almost 2 months now. It is quite fast but I don't really feel the speed and also last time I have a small problem with skipped Skype / Yahoo Messenger phone call.

It makes a question in my head, why this can still be happen with that configuration?

How to over it out?

Thank u.

 

XP or Vista?

 

Two things you might want to check especially if your running Vista. Go to your power options.

Control Panel-> System Maintenance-> Power Options-> and select "HIGH PERFORMANCE" as your power plan.

Go into your BIOS and under CPU options turn off Intel's CPU on-demand throttle feature. If you disable it you'll get full power. Keep in mind though that turning off this feature will increase the heat factor a little more as your CPU is now in the "come on, bring it" state.

 

You must understand, after a certain amount of RAM, the more RAM you add won't necessarily make things faster. For example, Vista will use about 600-1000 MB of RAM at boot up, depends how many startup programs you have. If you have 3 GB of RAM for example, you will still have quite a lot RAM left for other things. Not sure if you understand what I mean, but after a certain amount, it will not make much of a difference in speed for normal applications even if you add more RAM.

As for why you system feels slow, it could be many other factors. Startup programs, certain anti-virus programs, etc., can make system become slow.

 

I don't think this is the best way to figure out why the system is running slow. A properly configured computer, with "On Demand" or "Balanced" power option should not make your computer that much slower than with "High Performance" profile. This is why they designed the speed step technology. While on the "Balanced" profile, your CPU will still go full speed if needed.

 

You need to tweak Windows (XP or Vista)

- use msconfig to remove startup programs
- disable indexing of hard disks
- tweak services with Black Viper list (Google BV)
- Run Disk Cleanup
- Disable visual effects if you wish
- Lastly, defrag your disk

 

This is very true, as i've seen this for myself yesterday when I uninstalled my Antivirus program...it uses 12 processes. When I took it off the total processes in task manager went from 32 to 20. That's a big jump if u ask me..so ur virus program or startup programs can be slowing it down as stewie said..and also a possible virus or malware.

 

Actually it is not a first bad question at all. If the user is under Vista and has "Max Battery" selected, his computer will be locked to the lowest multiplier, and run much slower then if Balanced or High Performance is selected.

 

I use Vista Ultimate. Recently I use AC adapter not battery.

1. How to turn harddrive indexing off?
2. If I turn off the Vista visual effects, then what can I enjoy from Vista?

Thank you.

 

Sorry guys! If I am wrong neg rep me! Except flip! OK boys here goes!

Ever consider network issues possibly not even on your end? I mean that screams those kind of things not what all are saying?

I don't know that is my best.

 

I don't know about the network issue because my Internet connection is very fast.

Also I have checked that the Vista indexing service is off. So what else I should do?

I haven't defrag my laptop yet. I have done it 1 month ago. This XPS is still new. I bought it on May 2008.

Thank you.