A highly configured, high performance PC
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Richard Lund wrote:
Is there some setting I'm missing?
I'm not sure you are missing anything. I just found that my boot time went from about 2 minutes to around 17 seconds when I installed the ssd. I have pretty much removed everything but the OS and application data from the ssd(why on earth it is so difficult to move the app data boggles my mind). I have not enabled hibernate on my disk as I have a 64 bit machine(hibernate is disabled on Windows 7 64 bit) and I have not enabled it. I did build the computer myself so I made sure that no junkware got installed on it from the beginning. There may be some bios setting that needs updating or the driver for your ssd may need updating - other than that I can't think of anything that may help to reduce your boot time.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
Thanks for your reply - though I was really hoping for a "yes, flip this toggle and stand back." :) I've definitely not got much in the way of junk installed. I know that Kaspersky has some impact on startup, but in the past it was never particularly onerous, and I've disabled a lot of other startup items. The BIOS and SSD drivers are all current. It's just a little annoying to have this monster PC take four times longer than my Surface Pro to start up - that's about 6 or 7 seconds from cold boot to the desktop. In fact I can boot the Surface, login and check Code Project, and shut it down again before the new PC has even got to the login screen! I shall live with it as a continuing good excuse to wander off and do something else while it's starting. :java: Rich.
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GuyThiebaut wrote:
As Dave mentioned ensure that there is an SSD as the OS drive - it is the one thing that will make the biggest difference in boot time
I just got a new PC built for me a couple of weeks ago (and would definitely recommend Chillblast[^] for this) which has an SSD as its primary drive. But I don't see anything particularly impressive in terms of boot time - if anything, it may be slightly slower to start than the six-year-old HD-based PC that it replaced. Is there some setting I'm missing? I've noticed that hibernate is not enabled, and therefore the hybrid "fast" boot is also not enabled, but I put that down to some of the scare stories I've read about this massively increasing usage (and consequently reducing time to failure) of the SSD. Should I just stop being a wuss and turn it all on? Rich.
Richard Lund wrote:
which has an SSD as its primary drive. But I don't see anything particularly impressive in terms of boot time
Which OS are you using? Make sure your OS supports TRIM function for SSD (if not then SSD will be faster in the beginning and then it will become slower in performance). Also make sure you do not have IDE mode set for your SATA controller in your BIOS. It should be AHCI for SSDs. (Note: if you change the option and if you do not have drivers installed for AHCI, your windows might not boot - you can always try and change it back) All of my Windows 8 PCs with SSD boots in less than 5 sec, and Windows 7 + SSD boots in less than 15 sec. Run some HDD benchmark software to see what are the read speeds of your SSD (If they are more than 450MB/Sec then something wrong in the software/driver side, your normal HDD will have around 50-70 MB/sec read speeds so you can see the difference here).
Richard Lund wrote:
Should I just stop being a wuss and turn it all on
Hibernate does wear off your SSD (it has limited no of writes), so you might want to skip that and try to find out the problem causing slower performance. also if you have large amount of RAM then hibernate is slower anyways.
Remind Me This - Manage, Collaborate and Execute your Project in the Cloud
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Build your own, lots of ram, i7 CPU, SSD as primary, fast HDD as secondary. See my article as an idea for some bits and bobs. This was pre Haswell. Major Component Upgrades with a twist, benchmarks and all![^]
Dave Find Me On: Web|Facebook|Twitter|LinkedIn
Folding Stats: Team CodeProject
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I'm going to buy a PC, can anybody suggest a very good brand with highest possible performance, model details, recommended RAM, hard drive, processor speed, monitor, etc. I will be using it to run lots of applications like 4 instances of VS, 2 instances of DB server, development & productivity tools like Fiddler, ReSharper, optimizers, etc. I want to know about the best possible configuration. Thanks all...
I assume you can get Dell in India? Years ago my first job after arriving in the USA, was to build computers on the IBM server line near Raleigh, NC. So I am not afraid to build my own, but my preferred approach is to buy a basic complete box from Dell, (preferably with a core i7 processor), demote the system drive to a secondary data drive and add a 256 SSD for the system drive. Memory gets bumped up to 12GB and make sure you have a decent quality video card, especially if you are going to use applications that require fast graphics. Make sure the card can drive two 1920 X 1080 monitors. I find a second monitor better for my productivity than a very fast video card. The SSD just about doubles the speed of many disk operations, especially at boot time. If you wish you can transfer the image from the original Dell HD to the SSD using an application like Acronis. A special, free version of Acronis is available from the Western Digital support website. But that version only works if you have at least one WD drive attached to the machine. If no WD drives: You will need to buy the full Acronis from the distributor, but it is not too expensive. If the bacic box does not have USB3, that is easy and inexpensive to add. I use a card from WD, bought through Amazon. Dell is currently having a clearance sale on older Vostro boxes, that are still plenty good performance. It may be worth to go sniffing around their website to see what's cooking there.
Cornelius Henning And how will we preserve the wisdom men will need, when their violent passions are spent? - From the Legend of Shangrila (The Lost Horizon)
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Richard Lund wrote:
Is there some setting I'm missing?
I'm not sure you are missing anything. I just found that my boot time went from about 2 minutes to around 17 seconds when I installed the ssd. I have pretty much removed everything but the OS and application data from the ssd(why on earth it is so difficult to move the app data boggles my mind). I have not enabled hibernate on my disk as I have a 64 bit machine(hibernate is disabled on Windows 7 64 bit) and I have not enabled it. I did build the computer myself so I made sure that no junkware got installed on it from the beginning. There may be some bios setting that needs updating or the driver for your ssd may need updating - other than that I can't think of anything that may help to reduce your boot time.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
Good, it was informative.
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I assume you can get Dell in India? Years ago my first job after arriving in the USA, was to build computers on the IBM server line near Raleigh, NC. So I am not afraid to build my own, but my preferred approach is to buy a basic complete box from Dell, (preferably with a core i7 processor), demote the system drive to a secondary data drive and add a 256 SSD for the system drive. Memory gets bumped up to 12GB and make sure you have a decent quality video card, especially if you are going to use applications that require fast graphics. Make sure the card can drive two 1920 X 1080 monitors. I find a second monitor better for my productivity than a very fast video card. The SSD just about doubles the speed of many disk operations, especially at boot time. If you wish you can transfer the image from the original Dell HD to the SSD using an application like Acronis. A special, free version of Acronis is available from the Western Digital support website. But that version only works if you have at least one WD drive attached to the machine. If no WD drives: You will need to buy the full Acronis from the distributor, but it is not too expensive. If the bacic box does not have USB3, that is easy and inexpensive to add. I use a card from WD, bought through Amazon. Dell is currently having a clearance sale on older Vostro boxes, that are still plenty good performance. It may be worth to go sniffing around their website to see what's cooking there.
Cornelius Henning And how will we preserve the wisdom men will need, when their violent passions are spent? - From the Legend of Shangrila (The Lost Horizon)
Woww, it's great and its huge information. Thanks a lot * 100 times....thanks for sharing. Yes, Dell is available.
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Richard Lund wrote:
which has an SSD as its primary drive. But I don't see anything particularly impressive in terms of boot time
Which OS are you using? Make sure your OS supports TRIM function for SSD (if not then SSD will be faster in the beginning and then it will become slower in performance). Also make sure you do not have IDE mode set for your SATA controller in your BIOS. It should be AHCI for SSDs. (Note: if you change the option and if you do not have drivers installed for AHCI, your windows might not boot - you can always try and change it back) All of my Windows 8 PCs with SSD boots in less than 5 sec, and Windows 7 + SSD boots in less than 15 sec. Run some HDD benchmark software to see what are the read speeds of your SSD (If they are more than 450MB/Sec then something wrong in the software/driver side, your normal HDD will have around 50-70 MB/sec read speeds so you can see the difference here).
Richard Lund wrote:
Should I just stop being a wuss and turn it all on
Hibernate does wear off your SSD (it has limited no of writes), so you might want to skip that and try to find out the problem causing slower performance. also if you have large amount of RAM then hibernate is slower anyways.
Remind Me This - Manage, Collaborate and Execute your Project in the Cloud
Rutvik Dave wrote:
Which OS are you using?
Windows 8 professional 64-bit. The SATA setting in the BIOS is set to AHCI. I also had a quick look to make sure that the SSD was plugged into the 6GBps motherboard connector instead of one of the slower speed ones, and that's ok too. PC Speed HD benchmarker says that it can read the SSD at 520MB/Sec, which is the maximum according to the manufacturer's website. My spinning drive can read at 184MB/Sec which seems pretty good. For timings, discounting the time spent showing the BIOS start screen (seems unfair to blame Windows for that) I have about a 20-25 second wait showing the blue window and the spinning lights, then about another 10 seconds saying "Welcome" after I've logged in. The latter time will be a lot lower if I wait a while before logging in - I assume it's starting services at this point. So it's not slow, but not quite what I was expecting given how everyone else raves about SSD performance; and how quick the Surface Pro is in comparison. Rich.
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I assume you can get Dell in India? Years ago my first job after arriving in the USA, was to build computers on the IBM server line near Raleigh, NC. So I am not afraid to build my own, but my preferred approach is to buy a basic complete box from Dell, (preferably with a core i7 processor), demote the system drive to a secondary data drive and add a 256 SSD for the system drive. Memory gets bumped up to 12GB and make sure you have a decent quality video card, especially if you are going to use applications that require fast graphics. Make sure the card can drive two 1920 X 1080 monitors. I find a second monitor better for my productivity than a very fast video card. The SSD just about doubles the speed of many disk operations, especially at boot time. If you wish you can transfer the image from the original Dell HD to the SSD using an application like Acronis. A special, free version of Acronis is available from the Western Digital support website. But that version only works if you have at least one WD drive attached to the machine. If no WD drives: You will need to buy the full Acronis from the distributor, but it is not too expensive. If the bacic box does not have USB3, that is easy and inexpensive to add. I use a card from WD, bought through Amazon. Dell is currently having a clearance sale on older Vostro boxes, that are still plenty good performance. It may be worth to go sniffing around their website to see what's cooking there.
Cornelius Henning And how will we preserve the wisdom men will need, when their violent passions are spent? - From the Legend of Shangrila (The Lost Horizon)
I second Acronis as a backup and imaging tool - I have been using it for over 5 years and in my opinion it is worth the cost.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Rutvik Dave wrote:
Which OS are you using?
Windows 8 professional 64-bit. The SATA setting in the BIOS is set to AHCI. I also had a quick look to make sure that the SSD was plugged into the 6GBps motherboard connector instead of one of the slower speed ones, and that's ok too. PC Speed HD benchmarker says that it can read the SSD at 520MB/Sec, which is the maximum according to the manufacturer's website. My spinning drive can read at 184MB/Sec which seems pretty good. For timings, discounting the time spent showing the BIOS start screen (seems unfair to blame Windows for that) I have about a 20-25 second wait showing the blue window and the spinning lights, then about another 10 seconds saying "Welcome" after I've logged in. The latter time will be a lot lower if I wait a while before logging in - I assume it's starting services at this point. So it's not slow, but not quite what I was expecting given how everyone else raves about SSD performance; and how quick the Surface Pro is in comparison. Rich.
Richard Lund wrote:
I have about a 20-25 second
Yes most of the BIOS are slow, or it might be some legacy hardware causing the slow down( i.e. Old HDD, USB Device, SD Card Reader etc..). And your Surface Pro has custom built BIOS just for the device, that's why it is fast. I have Dell Latitude and Thinkpad laptops they both have BIOS that takes less than 2 sec. But most of the generalized motherboards have slower BIOS.
Richard Lund wrote:
about another 10 seconds
Ah, that seems pretty good.
Richard Lund wrote:
how everyone else raves about SSD performance;
It just not the boot time, you should feel the overall system much more responsive. specially the IO intensive tasks. If I have to go back on the HDD based PC, I might get violent, which might result in the total destruction of the PC with bare hands. :-D
Remind Me This - Manage, Collaborate and Execute your Project in the Cloud
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Rutvik Dave wrote:
Which OS are you using?
Windows 8 professional 64-bit. The SATA setting in the BIOS is set to AHCI. I also had a quick look to make sure that the SSD was plugged into the 6GBps motherboard connector instead of one of the slower speed ones, and that's ok too. PC Speed HD benchmarker says that it can read the SSD at 520MB/Sec, which is the maximum according to the manufacturer's website. My spinning drive can read at 184MB/Sec which seems pretty good. For timings, discounting the time spent showing the BIOS start screen (seems unfair to blame Windows for that) I have about a 20-25 second wait showing the blue window and the spinning lights, then about another 10 seconds saying "Welcome" after I've logged in. The latter time will be a lot lower if I wait a while before logging in - I assume it's starting services at this point. So it's not slow, but not quite what I was expecting given how everyone else raves about SSD performance; and how quick the Surface Pro is in comparison. Rich.
There is usually a Fast Boot option in the BIOS which you only tend to enable when adding new hardware or are experiencing problems. This bypasses some of the diagnostic power on tests etc., hides bios graphic displays, doesn't search for new drives etc. That can shave a fair bit of time off the boot before it even gets to the OS loader.
Dave Find Me On: Web|Facebook|Twitter|LinkedIn
Folding Stats: Team CodeProject