New laptop seems slow?

toon_mad · 9 Nov 2011 at 11:32

Hi, got a new gaming laptop last week, the main spec is:

Medion Erazer X6815
Intel Core i7-2670QM Sandy Bridge
Intel HD / 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 555M Optimus
4GB DDR3 @ 1333mhz
640GB Sata Hard Drive

The laptop is very fast usually, can play games like Rage, Fifa 12, Crysis 2 no problem all max settings.

However, in Windows it begins to crawl if multi tasking. For example, say if I copy files or using Winrar to archive files, if I try doing anything else with those running it takes absolutely ages - its as if I have to do one thing at a time.

Is it normal for that to be that slow?

Appreciate some advice cheers

4T5 · 9 Nov 2011 at 11:39

Is it full of manufacturer BS programs ?

Sasahara · 9 Nov 2011 at 11:40

It's not a SSD. :/

Old magnetic drives can only do one thing at a time.

toon_mad · 9 Nov 2011 at 12:57

4T5 said:
Is it full of manufacturer BS programs ?

Nope, first thing I always do is full clean format of my own Windows 7

Sasahara said:
It's not a SSD. :/

Old magnetic drives can only do one thing at a time.

True.

Kind of defeats the object doesn't it of having such a great processor when you can't do many things at once - ahhh

Mercutio · 9 Nov 2011 at 13:28

If it's just a single laptop drive then it's likely not able to do masses of things at the same time quickly that require disk access.

Either SSD or chill the multi-tasking a tiny bit. If an SSD is a bit of a push even throwing a momentus XT in there may help depending on your usage habits.

Hagar · 9 Nov 2011 at 13:38

Multitasking has been around long before SSD so that should not be an issue, copying and moving files should be easy when doing other things. Disks usually have more than one surface to read / write. Otherwise your average HDD TV recorder could not record and play simultaneously.
Sounds a bit like memory hogging to me. What pagefile are you running?

Socrates470BC · 9 Nov 2011 at 13:39

Most likely bottleneck on laptops is the hard drive, because most run at only 5400rpm, whilst most desktop HDDs run at 7200rpm.

You can get 7200rpm HDD's for laptops, but retailers and manufacturers do not always offer this information up front.

Socrates470BC · 9 Nov 2011 at 13:41

toon_mad said:
Nope, first thing I always do is full clean format of my own Windows 7

Did you remember to install the hardware specific drivers after you did a clean install of Windows?

toon_mad · 9 Nov 2011 at 14:37

Socrates470BC said:
Most likely bottleneck on laptops is the hard drive, because most run at only 5400rpm, whilst most desktop HDDs run at 7200rpm.

You can get 7200rpm HDD's for laptops, but retailers and manufacturers do not always offer this information up front.

It seems mine is only 5400rpm which seems odd for a gaming laptop.

Socrates470BC said:
Did you remember to install the hardware specific drivers after you did a clean install of Windows?

Yeah, installed all the chipset drivers etc.

Sasahara · 9 Nov 2011 at 15:08

nkata said:
Multitasking has been around long before SSD so that should not be an issue, copying and moving files should be easy when doing other things. Disks usually have more than one surface to read / write. Otherwise your average HDD TV recorder could not record and play simultaneously.
Sounds a bit like memory hogging to me. What pagefile are you running?

HDD do not do true multitasking it will perform one action after another.
It will have 1 actuator motor to move the heads to the required read/write position.

When doing more than one task it will switch between them. This is not recommended when it involves large files as seek times involved will make the take may times longer than just doing them one after another.

HDD TV recorders recording and playing back at the same time isn't heavy use so the HDD can easily cope switching between both tasks.

If you are copying files or using Winrar to archive files to the same HDD, you are already doing 2 heavy(assuming large files) tasks. Starting a third read/write process on the HDD will have a huge effect.

Obviously a 5400 rmp laptop drive is the worst for this, but even a good 7200 rmp desktop drive will be poor when running 3+ heavy read/write processes.

SSD on the other hand can run parallel data streams, true multitasking.

But anyway getting back on topic, unless you change to SSD or get 2 drive (if your laptop has the spare bay) you won't get a big difference in performance doing those simultaneous heavy read/write tasks.

toon_mad · 9 Nov 2011 at 16:54

Thanks for the informative post Sasahara

The hard drive was specified as 7200rpm but as I always seem to find in laptops, the specifications usually are not 100% accurate

I will decide if its worth uprgrading the drive or not, tbh though its not always when I multi task - but its annoying when you do and you have to wait

Cheers

Orcvader · 9 Nov 2011 at 17:08

I was in a similiar position as you, I swapped my laptop's 5400rpm drive (was developing a fault) with a 7200rpm, and I do notice it now boots faster as well as less waiting time on certain applications. You can check out some of the 2.5" drives here: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=14&subid=896&sortby=priceAsc

Another option is to check the Seagate Hybrid drives, which is a hybrid of both HDD and SSD. But they're very expensive at the moment... Saying that due to the Thailand flood all drives are expensive

.

Another option is to take out the disk drive if you don't need it, grab an adapter and install an SSD on there.

Socrates470BC · 9 Nov 2011 at 17:14

I had a Dell Studio with a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB (ST9500420AS), bought April 2010 and the Drive crashed last night. Just forked out £104 for a replacement. These drives were only £60 a few weeks back.

Has anyone notcied a problem with dell Laptop Drives or the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB (ST9500420AS) drive in particular. Hoping I was just unlucky.

Dell Laptop had 1-year Warranty, but drive when purchased from retailer comes with 3-year warranty.