1. M3/D2: George Smith-Moore
M3: Evaluate the performance of a
computer system.
D2: Explain and justify improvements that
could be made to a computer system.
Whenevaluatingthe performanceof acomputersystem, the mostbasicthingto do isto check the
scoringsystemprovidedbyMicrosoftWindows.The scoringsystemisaguideline of how effectively
each piece of hardware will runthe OS,itrangesfrom 1.0 to 7.9, there isa set criteriaforthe 7.9
scoring, and anythingabove thiswouldstill onlyreceivethe 7.9rating. The ratingis basedonhow to
run windowssmoothly.Of course the scoringsystemisbasedonthe lowestscore,alowerthan7.9
score does not meana sub-parexperience.The scoringsystemalsopreviewshow durablethe
systemiswhenputunderstrain.BelowIhave attacheda picture of the scoringsystem.
*The extractbelowwastakenfromWikipedia
‘Computerperformance canbe measuredby comparingseveral results,these are:
Short response time foragivenpiece of work
Highthroughput(rate of processingwork)
Low utilizationof computingresource(s)
Highavailabilityof the computingsystemorapplication (yetasthisisnot a
commercial server,thiscannotbe measured)
Fast (orhighlycompact) data compressionanddecompression
Highbandwidth
Short data transmissiontime’
2. M3/D2: George Smith-Moore
So,whentestingthe system,I have lookedatwhatisconsideredanacceptable time.Thisisshownin
the testtable below,below thatare the pictureswhichillustrate myclaims.
TEST 1 (Image takenfromthe internet,asI couldnottake the image myself,yetthe recordedtimes
were roughly1 minute froma coldstart).
4. M3/D2: George Smith-Moore
TEST 3 unfortunately,Icouldnottake screenshotsof the CPU/RAMusage whilstinthe game as it
was infull screenandI couldnotchange it. Thisis alsotrue for the Benchmarkresults,due tothe
nature of the game and the fact that it wasin full screen,Icouldnotshow evidence of the
benchmark,yetthe resultsshowonthe lowestof settings,abelow parFPS.
TEST 4 thisimage showsthe time ittook to compressalarge file intoa zippedfolder.
5. M3/D2: George Smith-Moore
TEST 6 thisshows the time it tookto copya large folderfromone locationtoanother.
Above Ihad usedthe resource manager,butanotherwayto measure the computersperformance is
throughthe windowstaskmanager.Bylookingatthe taskmanager(as shownbelow),thiswastaken
duringthe idle period,the RAMusage isquite highandso an increase couldbe considered,although
there are some backgroundapplications/processesrunning,changingthesewouldfree upboth
RAMspace andCPU processingpower.
6. M3/D2: George Smith-Moore
To improve the computersperformance,anupgrade towindows8.1 (orwaituntil windows 10is to
be released),orremove some bloatware (withapossiblecleaninstall of windows).Inthe wayof
software,thiswouldspeedupthe performance of the computergreatly,yetasmore of the software
getsput back ontothe system,the computerwouldbecome slowerovertime.Sointermsof
software,anOS upgrade wouldimprove bootspeed,aswithwindows8,the kernel fusesthe
hibernate modeswithshutdown,allowingforamuchfasterboot.Alsoon lowerendmachines
where resource use iscritical,windows8is betterasit useslessincomparisontowindows7.I can
recommendremovingunwantedsoftware,yetthisisnotan ‘upgrade’of sorts.
Whenlookingatthe hardware aspect,it can be brokendownintothe differentpartsforupgrades.
CPU: thisis the firstversionof the i7 series,if younotice,itisstill the highestscoringfactor
on the windowsscore index.Itisroughlyaspowerful asthe newesti5serieschips.Yetthere
are a fewreasonsforupgrading,these beingthatthe CPUisnow quite oldandso wouldnot
workas well asbefore (eventhoughitdoesquite well inthe test(above)).The windows
score index doesnottake wearand tear intoconsideration.Anotherreason toupgrade isfor
compatibility,touse anewermotherboard(whichwouldhave the newerUSBformat,and
the newerPCIe standard) youmusthave a compatible chip,sotouse the newergraphics
processors,anewermotherboardwouldbe needed. Alsothere isthe upgrade toa CPU that
isable to be overclocked.
CPU COOLER/FANS:Thiscouldbe upgradedtoa bettermodel inordertobettercool the
CPU, thiswouldallowoverclocking,whichwouldimprovethe speedof the CPUandallow
processingtobe done withmuch greaterspeed.
7. M3/D2: George Smith-Moore
MOTHERBOARD: As statedabove,the real reasonforupgradingthisisfor the newer
standardparts whichwouldinherentlyimprove performance,take the PCIe formatsinto
consideration,PCIex162.0 has a maximumspeedof 8GB/swhereasPCIe x163.0 has a max
speedfor16GB/s. Alsoovertime the motherboardmayhave become damagedandso
wouldnotworkas efficiently,forinstanceif one of the lanesbecomesdamages,thenthe
processedinformationwouldtravel alonganotherlane,takingalonger route andputting
more strainon the otherroutesand so shorteningtheirlifespan.
RAM: Althoughthe RAMisof the neweststandard,itisbyfar not the fasteststandardas
DDR3 RAMcan be 2100MHz whereasthisRAMis1600MHz. So althoughthisisa single
reason,anotheristhat Motherboardshave fourslots,andso buyinga largersingle stickof
RAMnot onlyfreesupspace for more RAMbut alsoismore efficientasthe more RAM
modules,the (albeitveryslightly) slowertheybecome.RAMcanbe overclocked if the
correct one isbought.More RAMwouldease the strainon the RAMalreadyinplace (as
showninthe imagesabove) andwouldallow greaterfunctionality.
STORAGE: Whenwritingtothe HDD, althoughitis connectedviathe SATA cable,the HDD
rpm alsodeterminesthe speed.Soanupgrade toeithera fasterHDD, a standalone SSDor
evena PCIe connectedSSD.Thiswouldgreatlyimprove speedtothe storage mediumandso
wouldincrease the speedinwhichfilescanbe accessed,andmoved.
OPTICALDRIVE:althoughthiswasnot tested,whenwritingorreadingmediafromadisk,the
optical drive speeddeterminesthe computersfunctionality.Sobyimprovingthisfroma(for
instance) x8read/write to anx24 read/write youhave atheoretical triplingof speed.
GPU: whenlookingatthe speedof the GPU, you looktowardsthe benchmarksforthe game
that I tested(ROME2). It is obviousthatthe GPU is the bottleneck,aseventhoughitscores
relativelyhighonthe windowsscale,thisistorunthe windowsGUI,not to playgames.
Consideringgameshave takenmassive leapsinrecentyears,itonlymore sodwarfsthe
powerof the card. BelowIhave placeda comparisonchartto illustrate mypoint,itisthe
weakestof the pack,and all of these cardsare extremelyoutdated.Onthe lowestof settings
thisgame receivedanalmostunplayable26.6FPS,yetwhenactuallyplayingthe game,in
areas thatwere not GPU intensive,itloweredtoaslittle as16 FPS,thisshowsthe reasonto
upgrade thiscard, justto improve the functionalityof the computer.
