|
For a regular user, meaning surfing the web, checking emails and editing some Word documents, a Pentium 700 MHz CPU with 512 MB memory and running Windows XP should be fast enough. Why your brand new PC is still slow?
First, you need to understand the limitations of your hardware. Any running programs will take some resources, not only the one you can see, but also the one running in the background. CPU will load the program from the hard drive to memory, process it, and then show the result on monitor. If the CPU and memory equal to your brain, the hard drive will be the bookshelf. It will take longer to find the answer in the book on the shelf. The size of the memory determines how much the CPU can remember, if there is no more space in memory, CPU will put the less important program back to the shelf which is the hard drive (also called, virtual memory) and process the new request in memory. More you asking for, more will be put back to the hard drive if it running out of physical memory. To proof it, you will hear some noise from the spinning hard drive. When you have a lot of programs opened and keep switching between them, most likely, you will wait longer and longer. So, close the unused programs can help the performance.
How to use the virtual memory more efficient? The following figure shows the disk usage. Contiguous files will be loaded much fast. If there is not enough room, file will be stored all over the place. Reserve contiguous free space for virtual memory will definitely speed up the computer. Close as many programs as you can, then go to Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Advanced > Virtual Memory > Change, Select No Paging file, click Set, then OK. Repeat it on all drives, reboot the machine. Now, you can run the disk defragmenter. All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. When finished, you can turn on the virtual memory on all drives. Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Advanced > Virtual Memory > Change, select Custom Size, set the Initial Size to 1.5x the size of the real memory, Maximum Size to 3x. For 512 MB real memory, 768 MB initial and 1536 MB maximum are recommended. Always keep in mind, DO NOT open too many programs.
Still have problems, you can find answers from this book, Hacking Windows XP by Steve Sinchak.
|