Another tale of the cheap computer today. Now, again, I like inexpensive, but I HATE cheap – there is a difference!
My friends at the local ISP were talking about a customer who had just received a new PC as a gift from family members. This speed demon was equipped with Vista Basic (no flashy Aero interface) and only 512MB RAM; probably a 5400 rpm hard drive as well (should have 7200).
This person was complaining that her internet was slow. No, her PC was slow. When, after 5 minutes from boot time there are still icons loading in the system tray, that indicates 2 problems:
- Cheap hardware
- Too much “free” software trying to load up (hint: uninstall what you don’t need)
- Probably a hog anti virus program (McAfee or Symantec Norton, the worst I’ve found)
The cheap hardware MIGHT benefit, since it’s Vista, from a memory upgrade via Ready Boost. If you won’t spring for the real stuff (system RAM, that is), then be advised that certain flash memory, be it SD cards or USB sticks, can act as additional RAM in Windows Vista. This is called Ready Boost. Now, the flash memory MUST be Ready Boost compatible. If it doesn’t say, don’t count on it.
Is Ready Boost RAM as good as system RAM? No, but it’s better than swapping to the hard disk, especially if the hard disk is a pukey 5400 rpm jobby.
This SanDisk 2GB Cruzer Micro USB 2.0 w/ Ready Boost is supposed to be on sale this week at Buy.com for $9.29 after $20 mail in rebate.
With a laptop, you might opt for an SD Card for your Ready Boost since it can be inserted and just left there – it doesn’t stick out of the unit at all.
Either way, if your Vista PC is struggling, it’s worth a try.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree, ReadyBoost is a nice new windows vista feature that will slightly increase your pc speed. I’ve been using a flash drive for a month know and it’s working great. It’s not a lot faster but it still worth having one.
You rarely find any 5400 rpm internal drives these days, even for cheap PCs (almost all are 7200 rpm), so its unlikely that it is the culprit for the slowdown.
Higher memory is definitely beneficial, but for the lowest flavors of Vista, you might be able to squeeze by with 512MB, if you disable all the unnecessary crap in the startup tray, and use an anti-virus solution that doesnt bog down the PC. You might want to check whether the anti-virus is running full scans at bootup…that might be a reason why it takes 5 mins to finish booting up. Remove all the bloatware! Go with something lean and mean like AVG or AVS.
A highly likely problem, and one that WILL make itself felt down the line, *particularly* for PCs with low system memory (since windows has to page the harddrive more often to make up for the lack of RAM) is fragmentation of files on the harddrive. Heavily fragmented files on the disk drastically increase read/write times on the drive, so the whole PC slows down.
The best way is to use a good commercial defragger, which can run in the automatic mode in the background, thus defragmenting files on-the-fly. Once in a while, do a defrag of the Master File Table, and the system files (bott-time-defragemntation). This will speed up boot times and greatly improve overall system perfomance.
It is extremely important that you select a defragger that uses up low system resources given the abovementioned hardware configuration. I personally use Diskeeper Pro, and it is brilliant. I runs in the background all the time, and uses up very low system reources. (I am running XP, not Vista, on a P4 2.4 GHz / 512 MB RAM/ 120 GB HDD system). I use CCleaner to clean out unwanted files from my HDD every few days and run one thorough system defrag with Diskeeper . This combination keeps my system in great shape.
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Thanks for the extensive comment.
Believe it or not I still do see some 5400 drives; why I don’t know because the 7200′s are cheap enough.
I agree that defragging can be beneficial, and it’s possible to be fragged even when brand new, like this one was, though not as likely.
Appreciate the post.
I WANT YOU SENT windows-vista-a-cheap-computer-and-vista-ready-boost/
THANK YOU!