Quick Question re: RAM vs HDD vs Processor speed

Just wondering, what is the difference between having a fast processor or a fast Hard Drive or a lot of RAM?
For example, if I had a high end processor, where would I see the most speed improvements? And same question for a fast HDD or a lot of RAM.

I saw this clip

Code:

http://i.gizmodo.com/5166798/24-solid-state-drives-open-all-of-microsoft-office-in-5-seconds

and noticed that they said they opened Office in .5 seconds. I understand that they have a very fast SSD, but is the Hard Drive all that matters in the speed of opening Office? They never mentioned how much of the speed was due to the processor or RAM.


Thanks

 

hdd is mostly the bottleneck. does your pc have to calculate something to open office? not really, it just loads the exe and files into ram. office doesn't require much ram (nowadays you have 1+ gb in any ordinary system).

i can watch 720p hd movies on my 1.2ghz core2duo, it's enough to do mostly anything (except full-1080p-hd-movies). computing power or ram needs are never big, hdd is about always the main bottleneck. that's why the ssd thread at the top of this forum is so big

 

It depends on what you want to to do. For tasks where a lot of information has to be loaded from the hard drive to RAM or written to the drive, the HDD is the bottleneck. It doesn't matter how fast your RAM and CPU are, you can only load data into RAM as fast as you can read the HDD. Because HDDs are mechanical whereas RAM and CPUs are electronic, the latter have long ago surpassed the former in speed (the difference is orders of magnitude). If you need to do other stuff (like encode video or compile code), a faster hard drive is not going to help you as much as a faster CPU.

 

I agree with davepermen, the hdd is mostly the bottleneck in a laptop.

 

Ok thank you for the help.
So it seems that my processor speed is most important for encoding and maybe photo/video editing? What about startup speed? And is the processor involved at all when it comes to loading a program from the HDD into RAM?

And RAM is important because if you don't have enough, then programs fight over use of RAM and if you don't have much RAM then opening new programs can become slow.

And HDDs seem to be for loading programs into RAM?

Question- As you can see in my sig, my processor and RAM are powerful. My HDD is 250GB 5400rpm. My computer runs very fast to me even though my HDD isn't top of the line. Does the power of my processor and RAM give me such speed?

Lastly, in my HDD preferences from the device manager, I don't have enable advanced performance checked. Should I turn it on? Will I notice an improvement in speed (and startup) since you say that the HDD is the biggest bottleneck? I have my laptop 99% plugged in and the battery is always in too so I should be ok, right? Will turning "enable advanced performance" on decrease the life span of my HDD in any way?

Thanks!

 

Startup speed involves a lot of reading the HDD so it will be bottlenecked by the HDD. The processor does its part, but most processors are so fast that the HDD is what limits the performance.

Yes. Everything your computer does has to go through the CPU. However, the CPU is very fast so usually the limiting factor is something else.

More or less. If you don't have enough RAM, the computer begins to use the pagefile on the HDD in place of RAM which slows things down by orders of magnitude because RAM is a whole lot faster than your hard drive.

HDDs are for long term storage. RAM is fast, but volatile -- information in it disappears when you cut the power. But yes, your computer will typically load programs from HDD to RAM before it can make use of them.

"Runs very fast" is subjective -- I remember that more than 10 years ago I upgraded from my first computer to my second one and thought "Whoa, this thing is fast"... but of course it is nothing compared to even the laptop I'm using now. Your hard drive is probably limiting you, but not enough for you to mind just yet. Enjoy it while it lasts and hopefully by the time you feel the need for something faster, the SSDs will have matured to the point where you can buy a decent one for a reasonable price.

 

thank you for your in depth answers. - By looking at my specs, would you agree that my processor and RAM should be strong enough to last me a while? And if my HDD ever does start to really limit me, then I guess I could purchase an SSD.

- Any thoughts on whether or not I should "enable advanced performance"?

Thanks

 

Yes.

I wouldn't do it. As far as I can tell, what it actually does is make your drive's cache not write-through. That is, in certain instances the system will consider something written to the drive when it has only actually been written to the cache. This is a bug because the cache is volatile (cut the power and you lose your data), but certain programs benefit from it because it's a fairly old bug in Windows and they were written in a way that exploits it for performance. You can read more about it here and in the technet article that blog links to.

 

if you're using a laptop, i dont see why not.. the power shouldn't cut off since you have a battery attached.. and i trust that you wont take the battery off while the computer is still on

 

Processor speed is always important when encoding.

 

You want to see how SSD effects your boot? - check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt6VbOY3xE0

 

wow. SSD is definitely faster. So since the Hard Drive is such an important factor when it comes to opening programs and startup, would you recommend that I enable advanced performance on my HDD? I've seen mixed opinions.

 

I've been reading a lot of mix reviews regarding whether or not I should enable advanced performance on my HDD. Most recommend it, and just warn about the risk of losing data but I'm using a laptop so a power outage wouldn't affect me. Some others say that it just enables an old bug.

What should I do?

EDIT: I posted on another forum, and a distinguished member said that:

I'm leaning towards enabling it. Any one else have any opinions?

Thanks!

 

ALWAYS enable "advanced performance" under write caching on a laptop - the battery is a built in UPS (constant power supply in lay-speak).

 

I was just about to enable it, but I read the following thread:

Do you still think it's worth enabling?

 

Yes.
That link is a bit misleading.
Once again - on a laptop - since it has a seperate power supply aside from A/C - you should enable this for max performance.

 

oh, ok thank you.

I saw this video on Youtube related to this:

It seems to definitely show a speed boost so why do the people in that forum claim that this is a bad setting to enable?

Technically, how does it work?

Thanks

 

It's not a bug, it's optional and well documented right at the checkbox. I've enabled it, as my notebook has a battery (well, my new one has one which works ), and so there isn't much to worry. But you leave the path of 100% savety to know when something is saved, that it's save. But it's optional, and well documented. So don't call it bug.

 

ok so if it's proven to give performance enhancements and I'm safe from losing power suddenly since I have a battery as my backup, then I suppose that I should enable it.

Quick Question:
What if, for some reason, my computer freezes and I have to hold the power button to force shut it down - would that be the equivalent to "pulling the plug"? I'm not too concerned with losing an open document or something, I'd be worried if it caused damage to my entire HDD.

 

anyone have any thoughts?

 

When it comes to data integrity, I tend to stick to being as safe as possible. I only have the "Enable write caching on the disk" option on my computers. I suggest not enabling the second checkbox - why take a risk? Chances are, any performance increase gained from doing such will be minimal/not noticeable.
My best guess is, if the computer freezes, the disk is probably no longer being accessed. As long as that is the case, then a sudden loss of power shouldn't affect anything. If the disk is being written to during a sudden shutdown, then that might cause some problems.

There are safer ways to increase disk performance. Defraggler is a great free defragmentation tool that will organize the data on your hard drive in a way that they can be accessed faster. Additionally, use CCleaner to clean up junk files on your hard drive.

Your dv7t has two hard drive bays (correct me if I'm wrong). You should think about doing RAID 1 if your machine allows. I have two RAID 1 arrays in my desktop; RAID 1 mirrors data across a minimum of two hard drives, so if one drive fails, the data is not lost as it is mirrored on the other(s). It has saved my neck more than once.

 

Thanks Chaz. I think you're right in saying that it's best to be as safe as possible.