A primer on speed. How do I speed up PC?

[George]

I'm using a fairly ok PC, 2003 model, it has WinXP-pro, 2.5 GHz, 512MB Ram.
This PC is for mostly business stuff...Word, Excel, ACT, Outlook, Acrobat,
Photoshop, etc. Is there a way to "easily/quickly" see what's causing this
PC to run slower that what seems normal, and a way to easily adjust this?

Further... isn't a PC's speed (for an average John Doe, not for a PhD doing
processor-intense data analyses at Los Alamos labs) "generally" about 1)
what programs are running, 2) the amount of RAM, and 3) maybe slightly about
the processor? If so, then for each of these...

1) PROGRAMS... Is using <alt><cntl><del> the way to quickly see what's
slowing things down? For instance, in the below case, does this mean that
Outlook is probably using a lot of RAM (65meg?) and that if I closed it and
the HP printer, and other things.... the PC should speed up? ( )yes ( )no
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Image Name User name CPU Mem Usage
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
outlook.exe J. Doe 00 65100K
hpqtra03.exe J. Doe 00 11300K
mcagent.exe J. Doe 00 8600K
acrotray.exe J. Doe 00 2764K
(various stuff) J. Doe 00 (varies)
system idle proc J. Doe 99 16K
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--

2) RAM... Isn't the amount of RAM the big speedup/slowdown thing (big
programs notwithstanding)? Is it true that if I added up all the "Mem
usage" things above and they're under about 512MB, then my PC should be
running as fast as it can.... and if the things above were over 512MB, then
slowdown begins because the PC is going to/from hard drive for memory? If I
experience slowdown, would it be a "good general rule" that adding
(doubling) the RAM will almost always improve speed, is cheap, and "can't
hurt". ( )yes ( )no

3) PROCESSOR... is it true that something like 2.5 GHz is way plenty enough,
and as long as you're in the GHz ballpark, CPU speed has little to do with
performance, and more to do with marketing hype? ( )yes ( )no

Thanks,
George

 

[Ron Martell]

I'm using a fairly ok PC, 2003 model, it has WinXP-pro, 2.5 GHz, 512MB Ram.
This PC is for mostly business stuff...Word, Excel, ACT, Outlook, Acrobat,
Photoshop, etc. Is there a way to "easily/quickly" see what's causing this
PC to run slower that what seems normal, and a way to easily adjust this?

Further... isn't a PC's speed (for an average John Doe, not for a PhD doing
processor-intense data analyses at Los Alamos labs) "generally" about 1)
what programs are running, 2) the amount of RAM, and 3) maybe slightly about
the processor? If so, then for each of these...

1) PROGRAMS... Is using <alt><cntl><del> the way to quickly see what's
slowing things down? For instance, in the below case, does this mean that
Outlook is probably using a lot of RAM (65meg?) and that if I closed it and
the HP printer, and other things.... the PC should speed up? ( )yes ( )no

Maybe yes, maybe no. (see below)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Image Name User name CPU Mem Usage
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
outlook.exe J. Doe 00 65100K
hpqtra03.exe J. Doe 00 11300K
mcagent.exe J. Doe 00 8600K
acrotray.exe J. Doe 00 2764K
(various stuff) J. Doe 00 (varies)
system idle proc J. Doe 99 16K
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--

2) RAM... Isn't the amount of RAM the big speedup/slowdown thing (big
programs notwithstanding)? Is it true that if I added up all the "Mem
usage" things above and they're under about 512MB, then my PC should be
running as fast as it can.... and if the things above were over 512MB, then
slowdown begins because the PC is going to/from hard drive for memory? If I
experience slowdown, would it be a "good general rule" that adding
(doubling) the RAM will almost always improve speed, is cheap, and "can't
hurt". ( )yes ( )no

Maybe yes, maybe no (see below)

3) PROCESSOR... is it true that something like 2.5 GHz is way plenty enough,
and as long as you're in the GHz ballpark, CPU speed has little to do with
performance, and more to do with marketing hype? ( )yes ( )no

No. CPU has a great deal to do with overall performance, just as
engine RPM has a great deal to do with the speed of a car. But it
does not operate in isolation and if the performance bottleneck is
elsewhere (e.g. lack of RAM) then increased CPU speed may do little to
improve the situation.

Back to the RAM usage and RAM upgrade questions. Reducing RAM usage
by closing applications will help performance if, and only if, the
computer is actually using the virtual memory paging file with the
applications open. Using the paging file in this context means that
actual movement of active memory content from RAM to the paging file
so as to allow the RAM to be used for other, currently more important
usages. Closing applications will reduce the total RAM requirement
resulting in less need to use the paging file.

Adding more memory can noticeably improve performance only if the
added memory results in reduced usage of the virtual memory paging
file. Therefore if the paging file is not currently being used to any
significant extent then adding more memory will not provide a
significant improvement.

Unfortunately there is no ready way of determing actual paging file
usage provided with Windows XP - it does not have an equivalent to the
'Memory Manager - Swap File In Use" reporting provided by the System
Monitor utility in Windows 95/98/Me.

There is a free utility that you can download and run which will
provide this information for you. It was written by MVP Bill James and
you can get if from
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm or from
http://billsway.com/notes_public/WinXP_Tweaks/

If that utility shows actual page file usage of 50 mb or more on a
regular basis then that is indicative of fairly significant paging
file activity. Adding more RAM will reduce or even eliminate entirely
this activity thereby improving performance.

This apples regardless of how much or how little RAM is currently
installed in the computer, at least up to the 4 gb RAM maximum for
Windows XP.

Hope this explains the situation.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[Sandman]

I doubt going into these questions in detail (which would be required)
would be a good idea here. From what I can tell, you are looking for
reassurance. No expert, but my opinion based on your post.
512mb of RAM is basic for XP, in my opinion, even tho' some would say it
is very adequate... Adding another 512 might make a difference you would
notice, but then XP will use as much as you can throw at it anyway. You
could be running alot of 'special effects' that come enabled within XP such
as window animations, shadows under moose pointers, fade-out on menu items :
all contained within the System applet under Advanced, Visual effects
etc....If you uncheck most of that stuff, it might help.. Turn-off Indexing
on your HD..... Adjust your Page File size (ONLY if you know how this
works)... DO a 'search' with your browser to find any performance tweaks you
can do in addition, ...
You can run, minimized to the system tray, WIndows Task Manager so you
can see how much CPU useage is going on and when...But then, you have to be
able to interpret PageFile useage etc and for that you need more knowledge
than I imagine you have at this point or you wouldn't be asking here...And
my opinion on questions 2 and 3 is YES, NO.....
You have NOT said what AntiVirus program or Trojan remover tool you
might have running, or whether you might have an infected PC(?)
Finally, some of the prograams you mentioned are graphic intensive,
especially if you have several open at once. (and i don't know how you work
with your desktop)
Since you are looking for 'easily/quickly' I am not sure you are willing to
carefully check these options; some folks load all kinds of stuff into the
OS and figure it should just handle everything, and as good as XP is, it
isn't magic.

 

[HeyBub]

I'm using a fairly ok PC, 2003 model, it has WinXP-pro, 2.5 GHz,
512MB Ram. This PC is for mostly business stuff...Word, Excel, ACT,
Outlook, Acrobat, Photoshop, etc. Is there a way to "easily/quickly"
see what's causing this PC to run slower that what seems normal, and
a way to easily adjust this?

A computer is only as fast as its slowest part and that slowest part depends
on what you're doing.

I would think, for example, that games are most affected by processor or
video speed limits.

Ordinary commercial applications are most sensitive to disk access speeds. A
general ledger program accepts a key-stroke, gets a record, adds a number to
it, then puts the record. Not much thinking about the transaction.

Servers are most sensitive to the amount of RAM available (more applications
without the need for paging).