Keeping computers FAST!

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Waqas Ahmed, May 16, 2015.

  1. Waqas Ahmed

    Waqas Ahmed Nibble Poster

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    At the uni, and when I was back in secondary school, I remember that despite the low-end specs of the desktops, they were always actually fast. Like they wouldn't slow down over time

    Sure there's utilities out there like say the Auslogics stuff, which aim to make your PC faster, but these are manual things that you'd have to enable, and I'm pretty sure they don't do that!

    At work, the computers were really quite slow. I've never really done any thing (much) server-y, or much desktop-y work. It's always been pure networks, and that's always bugged me, if only so I could make my computer run as fast as it was from day one

    I thought "Hmm perhaps it's the image" but then they still get updates, which does add to the whole bloatiness of every thing!
     
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  2. SimonD
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    SimonD Terabyte Poster

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    It's a culmination of a number of things. first of all any new software installed \ removed will always leave something behind causing slow downs. OS Patching bloats the OS as well, driver upgrades etc.

    As a rule I actually refresh the OS every 18 months or so (I actually have an Acronis True Image for Windows 8 that I re-install and then patch) and start a fresh again.

    I also restrict what I install on to a machine, I have a gaming rig that pretty much has games on it, I have a management PC that has my 'stuff' on it (video editors, graphics editors, blogging tools, screen capture software, VMware clients etc).
     
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  3. JK2447
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    Another thumbs up for rebuilding your machine every so often, its shocking how much garbage builds up. I'm a fan of going into msconfig and telling non essential stuff that it can jog on at boot time. I think iTunes is great but why has it got to run all kinds when I boot my machine. I stop it and when I want to run it, it's fine.
     
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  4. SimonD
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    SimonD Terabyte Poster

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    See I refuse to run iTunes on a Windows box now, it sticks on OSX because that's what it was really designed to run on.
     
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  5. JK2447
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    JK2447 Petabyte Poster Administrator Premium Member

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    I'm not a conspiracy theorist but iTunes is definitely 100% better on a Mac. Totally agree mate. It works on Windows but it's almost as if its deliberately bloated and not as slick :(
     
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  6. SimonD
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    SimonD Terabyte Poster

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    Exactly but on top of that I do love playing with OSX, a few years ago I would have shuddered at that thought but now days....
     
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  7. JK2447
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    JK2447 Petabyte Poster Administrator Premium Member

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    I distinctly recall as late as ... 2009, I was still anti apple. To be fair I had a worked with a guy who's an ultra fanboi which totally put me off. One of those guys who would start making things up to win the debate. Ipad 1 is faster than a quad core android tablet etc. I've realised the error of my ways thankfully. I've got ipads, imac, apple tv, love them all. OSX is great, and free upgrades! What the....!
     
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  8. SimonD
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    SimonD Terabyte Poster

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    I know what you mean :) but I still love my Windows PC, it's better for gaming and has a lot more software available than either OSX or Linux (I went Ubuntu for a while, great for the most part, difficult where gaming was concerned, especially BattleField games, although WoW wasn't too bad under WINE).
     
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  9. JK2447
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    JK2447 Petabyte Poster Administrator Premium Member

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    Out of interest, a good spec Mac, you can get that dual boot software can't you, bootcamp is it called? I'm just wondering what performance benchmarks would look like if you could get the same testing software available on Mac and Windows.... It might not be a fair test but I'd bet a *nix based system would be lighter on resources than Windows...
     
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  10. zxspectrum

    zxspectrum Terabyte Poster Forum Leader Gold Member

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    I got in to being anti apple after buying an Iphone 4. At first it was amazing but as the updates came, it got slower and laggier etc.

    On the desktop side I have never had much to do with Mac os until my recent role. I do like it, one thing i must say is that Apple remote desktop is pure class. I can simply install software or push updates out while the user is logged on. We have AB tutor for window as well as for the Macs, but nothing can beat ARD for me.

    I want to get more mac os behind me. But to be fair i also want to do everything as well ha ha

    Ed
     
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  11. SimonD
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    SimonD Terabyte Poster

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    Bootcamp is great but I game with a couple of GTX 780 Ti cards, not something that would easily work in a Mac without tinkering with the Kext files (Mac drivers). I once played with a Hackingtosh but really wouldn't do it seriously as a dual boot.

    I do like the Mac hardware but again I prefer being able to spec out my brand of motherboard, flavour of CPU and ram as well as GPU, if I want to watercool it, it's much easier to do it with a PC than a Mac and let's be fair there are more PC games than Mac ports.
     
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  12. Waqas Ahmed

    Waqas Ahmed Nibble Poster

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    Ahhh I've done an Acronis True image backup on my current laptop tbf. I don't really game, and I'm quite power conscious, so if I do game, I use a console system instead. Sure, you get better value out of a gaming PC, but when I'm rarely using it for that purpose, it seems a waste of money. I find with a PC, Im tempted to upgrade every so often (More so than a laptop)

    And tbf, that's exactly what I did. Re-installed Win8, installed all the programs, ran Acronis. I have done the slightly bad thing of popping it on my C drive, but I'd pop it on a hard drive, and then re-install it

    Regardless, I've gone and bought myself a used HP elitebook, and after the upgrades, I'll have two drives in there any way! (One for data, one for OS/programs)

    Personally, for me, I want a desktop-y environment, but I also want a laptop, hence getting a business laptop, plonk it on a docking station, use it as a desktop with a couple of monitors attached. If I need to take it away, I just take the laptop off the docking station :)

    Hmmm msconfig no longer works in Win8! Well not as it used to. It's in task manager instead. I think it's to make it easier for people who aren't really techy to speed their computers up!

    Hmm as for iTunes, I don't have any "i" products myself. I have had younger cousins forget their pin codes (I have no idea why they need a pin code. Theyre not that old... ) But any way, I only use iTunes to restore their iPod back for them (Back to factory resets. Their parents can put all the stuff back on for em) Otherwise, Mediamonkey is pretty good. Much more intuitive. At least, the last time I used it any way! Though I do prefer how the non Apple stuff works which is a simple drag and drop. Boom.

    Hmm I like OS X, but I dont want to pay like £400-£500 just to use that tbh! And I dont like the fact that Macs aren't so easily upgrade-able (The laptops that is), and that you can get better hardware for cheaper prices. Sure, the build quality is pretty good on Macs, but theyre not as good as business laptops (ie: the high end market Macs are in) in terms of build quality, and even they can cost less to buy, and you get a three year warranty usually too. They do however devalue incredibly well, compared to other products. The HP I bought - cost me £211. With upgrades, around £320. Three years ago, that would have cost... £1500 (It's also still faster than my current laptop in terms of hardware!) I am popping an SSD in it though for OS/programs (Samsung 850 evo 120GB)

    You can idd, using that. See that's the thing with hardware. I know I mentioned hardware up above not being so great on the Macs as they are on Windows for example, but it's hard to compare from one OS to another OS, because they have different requirements. I'd imagine that a Unix based system would be lighter on resources too tbf! I wish Windows was linux/unix based tbh!
     
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  13. JK2447
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    JK2447 Petabyte Poster Administrator Premium Member

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    @theinternet ah yes that's right, it has moved in win8 hasn't it, not a bad thing. We are still on windows 7 in our plac.
    Macs are great but apple like to lock those suckers down. Work amazing but the pc will always attract people who want to customise and upgrade. That is limited with apple products I find
     
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  14. Waqas Ahmed

    Waqas Ahmed Nibble Poster

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    Ahh I get Windows 8.1 Pro for free! Well at least if I make sure to download it before the uni stops my account! At my place, last time, there were some PC's still running XP! The laptop we had was running XP, but that wasn't too bad, because despite it having a shite battery life, we just needed it for some ping commands and that were it!

    And yeah they do. Apparently when they sold em separately, they nearly went bankrupt, which probably explains why they're such ruthless bastards today! And yeah that's pretty much it tbf. I like getting used, good quality products tbh, and something I can easily upgrade. With the laptop I've got, I'm replacing the thermal paste, the CMOS battery ( I thought I may as well, when IM stripping it apart, and dont want to to strip it again), the RAM > 8GB, the DVD drive, to a caddy , the hard drive to an SSD and moving the hard drive in to a caddy too) Cos it's an elitebook, it's dead easy to do all that! It also docks, so again I have best of both worlds. A laptop that is docked, attached to a couple of monitors, and I can take it out of the docking station if needs be!
     
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