Best Practices for Computer Performance and Safety

Introduction
In the course of my work as a sales consultant here at Puget Systems, I am often asked how I recommend setting up a computer. After all, providing advice like that on hardware configurations is my job! However, there are some deeper insights into how a computer can be set up which go beyond just selecting the right hardware. There are things I don't often have the opportunity to discuss, and which aren't really within the purview of a system builder. I wanted to take some time to write about the ideas and practices I use in my own computer setups, in the hope that some of this advice will help others to get the most out of their computers.

Hardware Considerations

I primarily want to share setup insights not directly related to the hardware in any given system, but in order to facilitate that advice there are a couple of basic principles of computer design I would like to encourage.

Use a Dual Hard Drive Setup - I strongly recommend having two hard drives: a smaller, fast one for Windows and applications, and a larger one for data storage. Some folks might need even more data drives (which is fine), but the important part is to separate your data from your OS installation and programs. There are several advantages to this approach, including:

You can reinstall Windows or programs without affecting saved data files
Data can be backed up easily and independent of application files
The data drive could be moved to a new computer in the future
You can invest in a high-speed drive for your OS / applications without having to buy into large capacity that might be cost-prohibitive
You can get a large, slow data drive without having to worry as much about affecting application performance (though data stored on that drive would be slower)
Both drives can be active and accessing data at the same time without slowing each other down
Personally, as of writing this document, I use a 80GB Intel SSD for my main drive with a 500GB data drive. I also use an external 1TB disk for backups.

If you want to make it easy to save data to your secondary drive without having to manually change where every file is saved, consider migrating your Documents folder to the drive. You can do this by opening the User folder (top-right option in Windows 7's start menu). In the window that opens, right-click on each of the folders listed there - My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, etc - and go to Properties. Select the Location tab and then click on Move to relocate the folder to your preferred drive.

Get Lots of RAM - It has always been my opinion that more RAM (random access memory) is better than faster RAM. There is anywhere from a 0 - 5% performance spread in most applications between the slowest and fastest DDR3 RAM currently available. This is very small, considering the higher cost of enthusiast memory. However, there is a massive performance difference between having enough memory for everything you are running and falling short of that amount. When you don't have enough memory, Windows will use hard drive space to make up the difference, and that is infinitely slower than RAM, causing a system to grind to a near-halt.

You do need to balance out the amount of memory you get with the cost, and while prices on memory usually trend downward over time they can fluctuate greatly in the short-term. Right now I think that 6, 8 or 12GB is reasonable, depending largely on how many slots for memory a given motherboard has. 4GB is sufficient for more basic usage, but if you tend to run multiple programs at once, I'd aim higher.

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If you only remember one thing

It's been a long year and a half since I started managing (well, created) the Computer Hardware topic here at Suite101. But alas, it is time for me to move on. With the creation of HARDgame.Com, a gaming hardware site I am running with my partner, Vince Freeman, the time that I have to manage this Suite101 Topic has been getting smaller and smaller. Which is why that I have decided to resign my position as a contributing editor at Suite101. I would like to thank all the Suite101 members who visit this page. You're the people who have made Suite101 grow to what it is today. Also, as a note to anyone out there who is passing through, think about becoming a Suite101 member - it doesn't cost anything and allows you to get involved in discussions about Computer Hardware and the hundreds of other Suite101 topics. In addition, it allows entrance into any of the Suite101 contests and/or giveaways.

For my last article, I thought it would be fitting to give some the important tips on buying computer hardware (buying is the easiest place to make a mistake). As the title indicates, if you forget everything you've heard about buying computer hardware, just remember these three things.

Number One: Make sure you know what you're buying.

While this sounds rather simple, it is very easy to make an impulse purchase without really knowing about the product (Reading a product's specification sheet on the web doesn't count either). Unless you're very familiar with the industry and its happenings, be sure to get a few opinions about your upcoming purchase. There are several good Internet sites out there with good, honest, useful reviews and previews. If you can't seem to find a review of what you're looking to buy, try looking on some computer hardware newsgroups. Be sure to take some posts with a grain of salt because newsgroups are often places were people place either huge rants or raves about a product. If you're lucky you should be able to find some sound advice on any given product.

Number Two: One is never enough.

Today it seems that almost every product box is boasting "50% faster than....". Statements like such can easily confuse the inexperienced buyer. Keep in mind that it is very easy to manipulate benchmarks. It's always a good idea to get your benchmarks from a trusted, independent publication (online or print). One final caution about benchmarks is to be sure to look at a variety of tests. One benchmark is never enough. One benchmark can't give an accurate representation of real world performance (with a few rare exceptions). Besides, the more benchmarks there are, the easier it is to find weaknesses and/or strengths of a product. But don't stop at just benchmarks - get as many opinions on a product as you can. The success of many products can be based on personal preferences, varying a good amount from person to person. By reading several reviews it is much easier to determine if you will enjoy (or dislike) any given product. Finally, always be sure to comparison shop. As the title suggests, one price quote is never enough.

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Gateway EC1430u Review

Netbooks are great. They're light (under three pounds), low-priced ($300 to $400), handy traveling companions that are great for surfing the Web and checking e-mail and adequate for light productivity work.

But a lot of users dream of a netbook-plus: something with the speed and storage for more serious work, the muscle for multitasking, the oomph for image editing -- but not anything much bigger and heavier than a netbook, and certainly not something priced over $1,000 as fancy ultraportables are. A netbook on steroids, you might say. A notebook in netbook's clothing, so to speak. The Gateway EC1430u ($550), to be precise.

This glossy black member of what Gateway calls its EC14 series (there's a cherry red but otherwise identical model EC1437u) is slightly larger than most netbooks, measuring 8.0 by 11.2 by 1.2 inches and weighing 3.2 pounds. That's due to its 11.6- rather than the usual 10-inch display -- a 1,366 by 768-pixel panel with sunny LED backlighting.

Besides making room for 720p HD videos that won't fit into most netbooks' 1,024 by 600 resolution, the screen provides punchy colors and crisp text, although we found all but the top two or three brightness settings too dim for our taste. It's still small as far as the overall viewing experience goes (we don't start counting "real" laptop screens till we get to 13.3 inches), but it's sharp.
Also on the small side: the gesture-enabled touchpad, which has a pair of stiff chrome buttons beneath it. The keyboard, by contrast, is full-sized (in fact, the A through apostrophe keys span a fraction more than the usual desktop 8 inches), with a shallow but responsive typing feel. It has no layout quirks except for the common one of Home and End doubling up with the PgUp and PgDn keys.

The Myth of Fingerprints

The Gateway's glossy black plastic lid is handsome, but attracts plenty of smudges and fingerprints. It's accented by a silver strip with the company name and logo that attracts plenty of nicks and scratches.
On the system's left side are VGA and HDMI video outputs plus a USB 2.0 port. Two more USB ports are on the right, alongside Ethernet, headphone, and microphone connectors and an SD/xD/MMC/MS flash-card slot. There's a slide switch on the front edge with the Bluetooth logo, but our test unit did not have Bluetooth. The ultraportable would also be a natural for integrated 3G wireless, but it isn't available.
The operating system is the 64-bit edition of Windows 7 Home Premium, with preloaded software including the 60-day trial versions of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 and Norton Internet Security 2009. Gateway's consumer bloatware habit shows up in desktop icons for eBay, Netflix, and the WildTangent game service. Like other slimlines, the EC1430u does not have a built-in optical drive, but CyberLink's PowerDVD player is supplied anyway.


The CPU under the hood is Intel's Pentium SU4100, a 1.3GHz dual-core with 800MHz front-side bus and 2MB of Level 2 cache. It's teamed with 3GB of DDR2 memory and a 320GB, 5,400-rpm Hitachi hard disk -- in other words, double the cores, double the storage, and triple the memory of your average netbook.

That translates into benchmarks in which the EC1430u shows double to triple the performance of a netbook, though it trails true desktop-replacement-candidate thin-and-light laptops such as HP's $899 ProBook 5310m.

The system's PCMark Vantage score is 2,769; its 3DMark06 score, in another predictable showing for Intel's not-gaming-or-workstation-class GMA 4500MHD graphics, is a sluggish 527. But it rendered Cinebench R10's sample scene in five minutes (score 2,949), compared to the approximately 17 minutes of most netbooks, and it felt satisfactorily snappy as we switched among Word and Excel documents, an image-editing program, and Web videos.

Built To Last

Happily, the Gateway performed more like a netbook than a notebook when it came to battery life. We never saw the eight hours touted on a sticker on our test unit's screen bezel, but we managed six hours of unplugged operation despite fairly heavy hard-drive access including a system restore and a multimedia slide show.

Percentage-wise, the jump from a netbook's $400 to the Gateway's $550 price is a big one, but we don't think $150 extra is too much to pay for the extra performance and real-computer credentials of the EC1430u. (We think it would be an absolute killer at $499, though.)

And if someone asks you, "Is that one of those netbooks?" You can smile and say, "Why, yes. Yes it is."

HardwareCentral Intelligence

Gateway EC1430u Gateway $550 Available: Now On a 5-star scale: Features: Performance: Value: Total: 11 out of 15

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Tips on buying a new computer

I'm often asked questions similar to, "Should I upgrade to a Pentium-II 300?" or "What new system should I get". With any upgrade or new purchase decision, many factors contribute to making the purchase. However, there are some main points that everyone should keep in mind for when they upgrade in the future.

First of all, set a budget for yourself. All too often, people are focused on getting a "X" processor with lots of ram, etc. Unless you're buying the ultimate dream machine, you'll want to be careful, because sometimes the price can get out of hand. Additionally, focus on all the components of any given system that a salesman is showing you. Often computers on the display will either have added extras that you don't want or need, or they will have sub-par components such as a slow video card or bad sound card. Personally when I am buying a new computer, I set my budget and look for the best computer I can get and still fit it in my budget. This entails getting a custom built (in my case, home-built) computer, but in the end it is worth it because I've got the system I want, and it fits into my budget.

A very important factor to focus on when buying a new system is to research what hardware will be released in the near future. For example, if you were looking to buy a new Pentium-II system a few weeks ago and knew that AMD would be releasing their K6-2 processor on May 28th; you could have saved $50-150 (depending on which P-II processor) by waiting for the price cuts after the K6-2 release. Additionally, I often hear upset customers that wish they had waited to get new technology. For example, I knew someone who bought a DVD-ROM drive one month before DVD-RAM drives came out. Ouch.

Finally, the golden rule of buying a new computer is to purchase a custom-built computer if at all possible. The main advantage being that a custom-built computer offers an easy upgrade because of its generic case design that supports almost all motherboards. With proprietary computers (made by manufacturers like Dell, Compaq, and Packard Bell to name a few), the motherboard is not upgradable, and when it comes time to upgrade, usually the only option is a whole new system. Whereas with a custom-built computer and a generic case, all that needs to be done is a simple motherboard and CPU swap.

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Universal Serial Bus technology

With the recent release of Windows 98, the Universal Serial Bus (USB) has become a new buzzword in the computer industry. What's so great about USB? Well, the serial bus has been long neglected in the way of upgrades. We've seen faster video cards (2D and the introduction of 3D), faster and larger hard drives, much faster CPUs, new 3D sound card technology, and faster motherboards. It seems that almost every component in the system has been improved with the exception of the serial bus. Aside from the invention of PS/2 a few years ago, absolutely nothing has happened with the buses until USB came along.

The Universal Serial Bus has several benefits over the older serial bus. One is a greatly increased bandwidth. USB has a bandwidth of 12 megabytes per second, which is plenty of bandwidth for any peripheral. At most, an ADSL modem would probably take up to 6 Mb/s of bandwidth, and other small devices won't take up more than a megabyte with the exception of some USB speakers. In addition to the increased bandwidth, USB also supports up to 127 devices. I'm not exactly sure who would use 127 different devices, but it's always nice to have the upgrade possibilities. USB devices can be powered through the Universal Serial Bus as well. Not all USB devices are powered, but it is nice that the possibility is there.


Many new devices coming on to the market will use USB. Some of the devices may be a surprise, whereas USB isn't just limited to the standard fanfare of keyboards and mice. In the coming months you'll see more and more digital cameras (still and video), modems (ADSL, ISDN, and analog), monitors (CRT and LCD), keyboards, mice, speakers, joysticks, and telephones. In fact, some of these products are available today. One of the more interesting USB products is a USB speaker. But don't speakers need to be plugged into a sound card? This is not the case with USB speakers. They have a sound hardware inside and the audio signal is digitally transmitted across the USB bus. It may seem that the future of sound cards is doomed, but USB speakers will probably stay in the business sector at least for the time being because they can't offer the advanced 3D sound and MIDI features that sound cards can.


Of course no new technology is without its drawbacks and USB has a few of its own. One being that for full USB support you'll need Windows 95 OSR 2.1 with the USB patch, OSR 2.5, or Windows 98. A great feature of USB is that it supports up to 127 devices. However, only two USB ports are on the motherboard and in order to use more than two devices, additional USB hubs must be purchased, which can cost $80 or more. (Some USB devices offer pass-thru connectors, but many do not.)

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Clarkdale's Efficiency: Core i5-661 Versus Core 2, Athlon II, And Phenom II

Intel’s new Core i3 and i5 dual-cores arrived with a bang, offering more performance than the Core 2 Duo family they’ll eventually replace. The integration of a graphics unit into the processor may be a key enabler to maximizing efficiency of LGA 1156 systems, but just how much more efficient is Intel’s new platform? We grabbed an H55-based motherboard and the Core i5-661 (centering on the Clarkdale core) to compare with Intel's Core 2 Duo E8600 and G45 chipset. We also compared against an AMD 785G-based system running both an efficient Athlon II X2 240e and the fast Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition.


Intel is working towards greater integration. The H55/H57/Q57 platforms with Core i3/i5 Clarkfield CPUs now move the graphics unit and the memory controller out of the chipset and into the processor. The memory controller was already relocated on the Core i7 (Bloomfield) in the high-end market and Core i5/i7 (Lynnfield) in the upper-mainstream. The low-end Atom platform also follows with next-generation Pine Trail, which also transitions the platform from three to only two chips. Today, though, Intel is focused on the lucrative mainstream desktop and mobile segments. For purposes here, we’ll concentrate on the desktop side.

• Core 2 Duo E8600 Dual...
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  • Compuvest
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  • CDW.com
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Our technology launch article by Chris Angelini already covered all aspects of the new processors, such as the integrated HD Graphics unit, Turbo Boost in the context of integrated graphics, the additional instructions to accelerate AES encryption and decryption, and specifications and clock speeds. Now it’s time to have a closer look at system power consumption and efficiency in terms of performance per watt. Intel now has its 32nm silver bullet, which should make the dual-cores much more efficient at base clock rates. Most people expected Intel’s new dual-cores to dominate in efficiency, but we wanted to have a close look at the power characteristics.

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AMD Plans a Dozen 'Danube' Mobile CPUs

In May of next year, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) will make its biggest mobile push to date with the release of "Danube," a new generation of notebook processors featuring a newer core technology, a new chipset, and choices spanning from single- to quad-core.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) has disclosed some details on Danube, but the hobbyist site XBitLabs.com picked up some further information on things like the core structure, as well as speeds and feeds.

AMD declined to comment on rumors and speculation.

AMD has lagged behind Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) in its support for the mobile sector, only recently hitting the market with something to counter its rival's highly successful Centrino platform.

It made its first real effort with "Puma" in early 2008, followed by "Yukon," "Congo," and "Tigris," with "Congo" aimed at the ultraportable, low-voltage market. These platforms always featured a few processors, a chipset, and graphics.
Prior generations of mobile processors have used AMD's K8 microarchitecture, AMD's first 64-bit architecture that dates back to 2003. The Danube generation is built on K10, the company's "Barcelona"-era architecture, which improves both integer and floating-point performance.
The jump to Barcelona also means AMD's first triple- and quad-core mobile processors: Of the dozen forthcoming CPUs, one is single-core, six are dual-core, two are triple-core, and three are quad-core. They will support DDR3 memory running at either 1066MHz or 1333MHz and have HyperTransport 3 interconnect speeds of 3.6GHz.
Danube will use the same core logic as the current Tigris platform, which has an ATI Radeon 4200-series DirectX 10.1 graphics controller. Laptops built with Danube are likely to use discrete GPUs either from AMD's ATI unit or from Nvidia.
However, the I/O controller will be new with quite a lot of high-speed features, such as up to 14 USB 2.0 ports, six Serial ATA-600 ports with RAID support, and Gigabit Ethernet.
The chips will be made using 45-nanometer silicon-on-insulator (SoI) process technology and have very low thermal envelopes, from 25 watts to 45 watts. The quad-core Phenom II P920 will have a 25-watt draw and run at 1.6GHz. The Phenom II N930, also quad-core, will run at 2.06GHz and 35 watts, and the X920 BE will be the fastest and hottest chip, with a 2.3GHz clock and 45-watt draw.
The X920 BE is joined by the dual core Phenom II X620 BE, where BE stands for Black Edition. Like AMD's desktop CPUs with the same label, these are unlocked chips, making it easy to overclock them. However, it would take a brave soul to overclock a laptop, as their components are not as accessible as desktops' and there isn't room for sizable heat sinks.
While Intel has focused on its laptop platform more in recent years, and clearly benefited from the consumer shift in that direction, AMD is closing that gap, said Nathan Brookwood, research fellow with Insight 64.

"For sure AMD has been focusing more and more on their mobile platforms over the last couple of years. Obviously they have to balance what they put into the near-term efforts using classic integrated graphics with their Fusion product," he told InternetNews.com.

"The good news there is all the work ISVs do now to develop software to utilize GPUs will be portable without any work needed to run on Fusion processors that show up in late 2010 or 2011," he added.

The jump from K8 to K10 will also be a help for AMD's mobile offerings, said Brookwood. "[The] K10 core has improved integer and floating-point performance, but I think that the main thing is for desktop replacement and mainstream products, you will have a bump in performance. If you go the desktop replacement route with a quad-core processor, then you will get a big bump in performance, because AMD was not offering quad-core in a mobile platform before," he said.

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Super Talent's 512GB RAIDDrive: RAID On An Add-In Card

The concept is as simple as it is conclusive: if the current generation of flash SSD drives can’t deliver more than 200 to 250 MB/s, let’s just take several of them and create something faster. Super Talent’s RAID drive is nothing more than a high performance RAID controller with four on-board flash SSDs. We received a model that runs in a RAID 0 configuration, based on four 128GB SSDs, and the result is quite impressive.

SATA/600 Coming
Most flash-based SSDs aren’t really bottlenecked much in terms of throughput yet, but SATA at 6 Gb/s (up to 600 MB/s utilizable) is available, representing the next logical step up in potential interface performance. Next-generation SSDs will certainly be capable of delivering higher throughput. Do we need this? Absolutely. Fast flash-based storage products have a noticeable impact on system performance. It can be hard to quantify this because we’re not talking about conventional benchmarking, but whenever you launch Windows or applications or put the system into hibernation (or back), you will be thankful for having a fast storage device.

Prices Drop, But Remain High
You can get fast flash SSDs for under $300. This still has to be considered an enthusiast price tag, because hardly any average user (including me) would be willing to spend that much money on a 128GB drive. A terabyte (1TB) hard drive costs less than one-third of this. Still, popular offerings, such as Intel’s X25-M, Kingston’s SSDNow, and fast Vertex SSDs by OCZ can be purchased at increasingly affordable levels, especially if you’re willing to dip under the 100GB capacity mark. The only recommendation we’d offer is to go for capacities allowing you to keep roughly 30% of the drive unused.

Super Talent: Brute Force SSD RAID
With the RAIDDrive, Super Talent anticipates next-generation flash SSD products, which will likely use even more than today’s eight to ten memory channels in an effort to accelerate performance. Putting four SSDs into a RAID 0 array essentially expands this multi-channel architecture. With that said, let’s look at Super Talent’s MLC-based 512GB RAIDDrive, the RGS0512M.

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