what should i upgrade to increase loading speeds ?

hey

I got a toshiba A200 1AX laptop

specs are
2.0 ghz T7250
2gb DDR 2 667 mhz pc 5300 ram
200 HD 4200 RPM (the downfall of the laptop ?)
ATI HD 2600

I play call of duty 4 i want to increase my loading speed when entering into a multiplayer server. Its pretty slow compared to my friends dell laptop who has almost same specs as me but he's got 3GB of ram and a 250 gb 5400 rpm hard drive. His loading speeds are way faster than mine. What should i upgrade my ram or my hard disk ? will my warranty void if i put the 2nd hard disk drive ?

and i got vista 32 bit windows so upgrading to 4gb of ram will be no use. max i would go is to 3 gigs of ram.

thanks

 

You'll be better of upgrading the HDD to a 320GB 7200RPM or a 500GB 5400RPM to decrease those loading times.

You could also wait for the new 500GB 7200RMs, or buy a small SSD.

RAM seems to be fine. You can monitor the usage in Task Manager, and if it is over 60-70%, upgrade to 3GB.

HDD and RAM are user-upgradeable parts, and generally do not void the manufacturer's warranty.

 

See what your friend has loaded as far as processes are concerned in task manager. He may have "trimmed the fat" or that Dell may not have been loaded with as much bloatware that Toshiba is notorious for.

 

You are correct

Why did they put a 4200 rpm hard drive in this

Is there somthing special about this drive, as in 1.8" form factor?


Alex

 

my cashed memory is around 1090 idle :S pretty weird. my system idle process is taking around 60 % of my cpu usage for nothing.

well he just got it like a week back he hasnt done anything much with it. as soon as he got what he did was install cod 4.

 

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heres a printscreen

 

heres another [/URL] [/IMG]

 

click on cpu tab
See whats using that extra cpu

 

Yeah, it looks like your CPU is running like crazy, and after an hour and a half being up it should be resting quietly.

 

Vista's memory management is different from that of XP. And the System Idle process is nothing to worry about as well. It runs to kinda keep the system alive, when no other program is using the CPU. It is extremely low priority and immediately hands over the CPU power to a program which needs it.

Everything seems to be fine.

Try upgrading the HDD first, and see your OS fly!

 

I agree with your memory management and HDD statements, but I have to disagree with you when you said that everything looks fine. Judging by his (her?) menu bar there is nothing running that should be causing his CPU to by running that high, and whatever process is chewing up his CPU may also be dragging down his overall system performance.

EDIT
Except maybe for his media player (his picture cuts out on the right side of my screen). How does your CPU usage look when you have media player shut off?

 

Seems fine to me.



CPU usage = (100 - System Idle Process)%

The 18% must be going here and there which wouldn't really slow down the system.

This is the simplest article I could find on System Idle Process. (Heck! I forgot you could check each process's description in tskmgr )

The major bottleneck in performance is the 4200RPM HDD.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=288101

 

thanks

can you recommend a 320 gb HDD for around 100 $ ? 500 gb ( a bit out of my budget)

here are some that i have found

320GB 2.5" WD SATA Laptop HDD Hard Disk Drive - $105 AUD
320 GB, 3 Gb/s, 8 MB Cache, 5400 RPM

Samsung 320GB 8MB SATA Internal Hard Drive 2.5 LAPTOP - $114 AUD


Average Latency: 5.6ms
Average Seek Time: 12ms
Cache: 8MB
Features: Fluid Dynamic Bearing Spindle Motor Technology Load/Unload Head Technology Multi-Burst On-The-Fly Error Correction SilentSeek Hybrid Latch System for Reliability and Quietness
Form Factor: 2.5"

SEAGATE Momentus 2.5" SATA 200GB 7200rpm - $ 139AUD

Model:
Specifications 200 GB
Model Number ST9200420ASG
Interface SATA 3.0Gb/s
Cache 16 MBytes
Capacity 200 GB
Guaranteed Sectors 390,721,968
PHYSICAL
Height (max) 9.5 mm (0.374 inches)
Width (max) 69.85 mm (2.75 inches)
Length (max) 100.5 mm (3.975 inches)
Weight (typical) 115 grams (0.254 pounds)
PERFORMANCE
Spindle Speed 7,200 rpm
Average latency 4.17 msec
Random read seek time 11.0 msec
Random write seek time 13.0 msec
RELIABILITY
Annual Failure Rate 0.68%

 

You can post in that thread above for advice.

Erm....Try going for the 320GB 7200RPM drives.

In the US, they are about $100.

Seagate 7200.3, WD Black and Hitachi 7K320 are the favorites.

If you search, you'll find loads of opinions, benchmarks, etc of these drives.

 

thanks for the info

 

Also, with online play, make sure that you have a fast internet connection. I play Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 and I have a 200GB 7200RPM HD, and it takes nearly forever to get into the server, but my hard drive isn't really active during that process, so it's just my slower internet.

 

I got ADSL 2+ avg download speed of around 20 mbps sometimes falls to around 15mbps

 

Alright, then the internet is just another factor out of the picture.