Computer Performance Performance Performance! Submitted by Louis Lopez, MILE Technologies 713-783-6453, LLopez@MILEtechnologies.com, www.MILEtechnologies.com QUESTION FOR LISTENERS: What is slow in your computer or network system? CALL WITH THE ANSWER: 713-STEVEN-K (713-783-8365) Here are the key focal points of performance and where you can get the most gain... CPU is almost ALWAYS the reason your computer is slow: Of all of the things you can not upgrade, the CPU is the hardest to get more speed out of it without replacing it. Partitioning the drive can hurt performance: Partitioning a drive means cutting it up into pieces so instead of just a C: drive you have a D: drive also or more. Actually having two drives can speed up performance dramatically. Put the Operating System (Windows) on the C: drive and add another hard drive to put programs on and even a third hard drive for data. If you cut a really big drive into three logical drives, the speed can work against you because the operating system will make three requests to one drive simultaneously slowing the requests down. Load the correct drivers or suffer the consequences: The most important drivers are the chipset drivers and the video card drivers. If you do not load the correct drivers for your video card, the processor of the video card is not being properly addressed and your video speed could be a fiftieth of the correct speed. Not addressing hardware properly (those yellow question marks in device manager) can mean blue screens or slowdowns. Adding RAM will help nothing at a certain point: Add RAM because you need RAM, not because you think it will make a computer run faster. A typical server needs 4GB of RAM, a DVD video editing or AutoCAD user needs 4GB of RAM. A serious photographer needs about 3GB of RAM. A person who takes a jillion pictures and the typical user needs about 2GB of RAM for Vista and 1GB of RAM for Windows XP. Anything more and you are wasting your money on RAM that will never get bit. A faster video card can mean faster performance: The processor of a video card could offload the processing power the CPU needs to do its job. Think of a good video card being a helper to the CPU. Don’t go too cheap with entry level computer speeds: Many people have bought the $299.00 special and added enough things to it to make it $500-700 bucks or more. This computer will be too slow in about a year. Add $100-200 bucks or more and get a faster processor up front. This protects the investment and gives you better performance from the employee. What does all of this mean? Get professional help before you consider the purchase. Play it smart when it comes to making decisions on purchases, especially large scale. About Our Show Advisors: MILE Technologies is leading the way in service offerings for your technology needs. Their technicians help your organization maximize efficiency and maintain maximum uptime. Their core values are the principles of integrity, truth, and fairness. Their success is measured on your success. Your up-time and secure systems are a priority. Contact MILE Technologies today at 713-783-6453 or visit www.MILEtechnologies.com.