Looking at New Hardware

CaptainKirk · 2010-12-28 20:02:48

My PC is 3 years old and I want to replace it. It has Lancaster8-GL6, Intel 945GC, Pentium E2180 (C) (2.0GHz /800 MHz) 1 MB L2 cache, 2 GB (2 x 1 GB) DDR2 PC2-5300 (2 DIMMS); Runs @ 533, 320 GB 7200 rpm SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec).

Problem is that sometimes the whole system is slow, it makes a bit of a scraping noise now when it boots up, and Win 7 in VBox just rebooted my whole PC twice in a row. I need to run Win 7 on occasion to check how my websites render in IE8.

I open a lot of windows generally (in Xfce) and if I open a LOT and I don't use one for a while, then when I switch to it, it's slow to open. Overall things are slow, like Firefox.

I spoke to someone now and he is offering me an Intel H55 with i3 or i5, 4G RAM and a 500 GB disk. I didn't yet get the full details of each, but the price is 560 USD for i3 and 755 USD for i5.

I wanted to ask for any advice. This sounds reasonable to me but I am not a hardware person.

Thanks.

karol · 2010-12-28 20:16:23

Maybe an SSD would help. Some people recommend getting one instead of a better cpu.
The prices sound reasonable for me too.

CaptainKirk · 2010-12-28 21:21:23

One of these : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive ? Interesting idea. I will ask about that.

karol · 2010-12-28 21:24:33

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SS … iderations

stqn · 2010-12-28 22:17:43

CaptainKirk wrote:

Problem is that sometimes the whole system is slow, it makes a bit of a scraping noise now when it boots up, and Win 7 in VBox just rebooted my whole PC twice in a row.

I'd say if the hard drive makes a strange noise, it might needs replacing. And reboots can be due to many things... Maybe the thermal paste needs changing after 3 years.

CaptainKirk wrote:

I open a lot of windows generally (in Xfce) and if I open a LOT and I don't use one for a while, then when I switch to it, it's slow to open.

Setting swappiness to 0 should help.

CaptainKirk wrote:

I spoke to someone now and he is offering me an Intel H55 with i3 or i5, 4G RAM and a 500 GB disk. I didn't yet get the full details of each, but the price is 560 USD for i3 and 755 USD for i5.

I paid 460 euros for my H55, i3 550, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD computer... So that sounds about right especially if you're not building it yourself. Prices may be lower in the USA though... I don't know.

rusty99 · 2010-12-28 23:47:50

Have a look at http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd … 800-2.html

brianhanna · 2010-12-29 03:46:11

You might consider just changing hard drives and getting more RAM too. If your PC still makes noises it didn't make before, it's probably just a fan that you can change easily as well.

I'd guess your window switching lag times are due to running low on memory. Those inactive windows are probably going onto your swap space. You can check that with top or htop. Maybe upgrading to 4 or 8 GB of RAM would fix that (of course that also means switching to 64-bit).

CaptainKirk · 2010-12-29 11:31:57

Thanks for the swappiness tip!

I live in Israel. Anyhow SDD is certainly not for me, at 20 times the price.

Thanks.

.:B:. · 2010-12-29 11:59:29

I'd rather research the causes of your system slowing down than spend money on new hardware. 2 GB of RAM should be plenty, and while your CPU isn't top of the line, it should be good enough to do what you're doing. You certainly don't need an i3 or i5, that's a waste of money just to solve your problem.

And btw, if you're considering upgrades for those prices, you can certainly consider buying a decent SSD - two or three, even - and use that as your system disk. Keep your conventional hard drive as a storage drive.

CaptainKirk · 2010-12-29 13:22:56

I have posted before about the speed but haven't found the problem:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=101741
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=86468
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=84624

.:B:. · 2010-12-29 16:12:33

1) nouveau isn't the quickest driver around; especially if you use higher resolutions (my brother's laptop 1440x900 screen doesn't draw quickly with nouveau). That's one.
2) Your disk speeds are normal and the dmesg or log excerpts you pasted do not show any anomalies. You think you have a slow disk, but your hdparm output suggests otherwise. I think that one is more between your ears than anything else - you think your system is old, dated. Some of your post make it sound like you want a new system and are looking for a way to justify that purchase (and I don't know why, if it's your own money and you can afford it).
3) Your timings are done by 'looking at the clock', I'd say repeat your tests ten times and time them - with a timer, or perform some other benchmarks that you can compare to existing ones online (there are file system benchmark results online to be found for Linux filesystems).
4) You don't seem to have replaced any of your system's parts - RAM, HD - while that might shed some light on your problem. I didn't see you benchmark your RAM either (nor test the performance of your graphics driver).
5) You really should try a clean install, pick another DE/WM (if you think your system is dated, pick something lightweight, like LXDE, or just Openbox, or Fluxbox, or PekWM - plenty to choose from. I'm running on a 1,2 GHz (yes) Core 2 Duo dualcore, 2 GB RAM, an Intel 945 GPU, and a slow and first generation SSD (which performs nowhere near what present day SSDs do), and my system runs fine. Had it for more than two years, still the original install.

Don't get me wrong, but you should start with a clean slate, and see how it goes from there. And test your system and compare numbers. Benchmark. Test your hardware.

CaptainKirk · 2010-12-29 20:18:37

Very interesting response. No I don't *really* want to buy a new system. I would prefer to save my money and my time setting up a new PC.

As far as benchmarks, what do you suggest? I ran hardinfo and here it is: http://tinyurl.com/39vp8fk When I ran FPU FFT in hardinfo it killed hardinfo. Twice.

I tried phoronix-test-suite but whatever test I tried to install couldn't download the required files.

I ran bonnie++ :

$ bonnie++
Writing with putc()...done
Writing intelligently...done
Rewriting...done
Reading with getc()...done
Reading intelligently...done
start 'em...done...done...done...
Create files in sequential order...done.
Stat files in sequential order...done.
Delete files in sequential order...done.
Create files in random order...done.
Stat files in random order...done.
Delete files in random order...done.
Version 1.03e       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
                    -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
localhost        4G 36193  77 40698  11 19811   4 36694  69 51031   6 130.9   1
                    ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
                    -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16 26588  50 +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++
localhost,4G,36193,77,40698,11,19811,4,36694,69,51031,6,130.9,1,16,26588,50,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++

If you have any other suggestions for benchmarks, please let me know and I will try them.

Thank you very much.

stqn · 2010-12-29 21:34:54

Boot from a live CD or USB stick, test your memory, see if your computer works better when you don't use your hard drive...

.:B:. · 2010-12-29 21:39:24

MemTest86+ for your RAM.

CaptainKirk · 2011-01-01 19:54:55

stqn wrote:

Boot from a live CD or USB stick, test your memory, see if your computer works better when you don't use your hard drive...

This is an interesting idea. But anyhow in my experience in the past, it's always slower to run from a live CD. Whenever I have tried this anyhow it has been....

.:B:. wrote:

MemTest86+ for your RAM.

I ran it for 30 hours. Did 38 passes.

Here is a screenshot just before I rebooted it: http://tinyurl.com/3xwygqy

No errors.

It seems to me (in my limited understanding) that this machine passes all of the tests. But in practice, it's really slow. For example, now I have open Chromium (11 tabs)and Thunderbird and that's it. I closed all other windows on my desktop. Here is my conky now: http://tinyurl.com/2uckxye

Now I launch Firefox from my main Xfce menu and it takes 4 or seconds to come up. I tried this a few times in a row. That 4 or 5 seconds is just for it to draw itself. It still hasn't loaded Gmail yet. Is this normal? I think that's pretty slow. Maybe I'm wrong.

But the truth is that that's not even SO bad. What's bad is when I have a lot of apps open, then things really slow down. I tried opening a bunch of things now and conky died. Just disappeared. Anyhow once I use the machine for a day or two without rebooting it gets slow.

Maybe I am doing something wrong.

Any thoughts are appreciated--my guess was that my HP Pavilion just needs replacing.

Thank you.

stqn · 2011-01-01 20:13:32

Yes, Firefox is slow to load, it's normal.

When an app "disappears" in my experience it's because there no more free memory and the kernel randomly kills an application (it's not really random but it certainly feels like it.) If you ask me it's a pretty stupid behaviour, but that's what it is.

Things "really slowing down" probably indicate that swap is being used. But you certainly should be able to find that out by yourself...

.:B:. · 2011-01-01 20:21:23

So your RAM is good, but you really should backup your HD and try a new install. And another graphical environment. I never found Xfce to be fast, especially with more recent releases.

CaptainKirk · 2011-01-01 20:40:23

conky didn't disappear due to swap--the RAM was not even half used then. Anyway VBox then rebooted the whole machine.

@.:B:. I could reinstall, but can I ask what that would accomplish? Would reinstalling fresh put files in better places on the drive or is it something else?

I am looking at LXDE now again, but I don't *think* that Xfce is the main issue because I see that the machine slows down as more apps are opened. Unless that's also normal...

CPU Gastronomy · 2011-01-01 20:55:38

With Virtual Box, it is when you start the software or when you start the virtual machine ?

Maybe it is something with the configuration of VBox or of the virtual machine (an update or anything) because it crashes only when you start it.

You can try to uninstall VirtualBox (and keep only the virtual hard drive) and then reinstall it.

EDIT : For the slowdowns, check for the CPU ressources eater.

reEdit : A few another shots of possible solutions :

-If it has been a few years you have the PC, maybe it needs some cleaning in the case (not with water and soap please ;p );
-If you hear some scratching noises when you boot the computer, is it the hard drive ?

Last edited by CPU Gastronomy (2011-01-01 21:02:09)

CaptainKirk · 2011-01-01 21:01:55

VBox launches but when I try to run Win 7 or Win Vista, then it reboots my physical PC. Yes, I think this may be due to an update.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-12-28 20:02:48

Looking at New Hardware

#2 2010-12-28 20:16:23

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#3 2010-12-28 21:21:23

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#4 2010-12-28 21:24:33

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#5 2010-12-28 22:17:43

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#6 2010-12-28 23:47:50

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#7 2010-12-29 03:46:11

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#8 2010-12-29 11:31:57

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#9 2010-12-29 11:59:29

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#10 2010-12-29 13:22:56

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#11 2010-12-29 16:12:33

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#12 2010-12-29 20:18:37

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#13 2010-12-29 21:34:54

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#14 2010-12-29 21:39:24

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#15 2011-01-01 19:54:55

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#16 2011-01-01 20:13:32

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#17 2011-01-01 20:21:23

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#18 2011-01-01 20:40:23

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#19 2011-01-01 20:55:38

Re: Looking at New Hardware

#20 2011-01-01 21:01:55

Re: Looking at New Hardware

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