The document discusses evaluating a computer's performance through monitoring software. It describes using TreeSize to analyze disk space usage and Windows Performance Monitor to track processor and memory usage over time. Testing was done by opening common programs and monitoring the impact on resources. The results showed lower than expected impact. Upgrading the computer's memory and processor was considered, but ultimately a new computer was found to be a better value for the money given its specifications and lower cost compared to upgrading. Regular performance monitoring was recommended to track computer health over time.

1. By Cassie Hughes

3. To find this out I will use
Windows Performance
Manager and TreeSize

4. TreeSize Professional is a powerful and flexible hard disk space manager
 Manage and clean up disk space efficiently
 Visualize disk usage
 Detailed analyses, down to all directory levels
 Find and remove redundant files
 Numerous export and reporting possibilities
Manage disk space and scan your hard disks:
Find out which folders are the largest on your drives and recover precious disk space. Use
TreeSize as a hard disk cleanup tool - It will find the space hogs and remove them.
Search for Redundant Files:
The integrated versatile file search helps you find old, big, temporary, and duplicate files on
drives, entire servers or the entire network. Search results can be moved, deleted or exported.

5. You can use Windows Performance Monitor to examine how programs you run affect your
computer's performance. both in real time and by collecting log data for later analysis.
Windows Performance Monitor uses performance counters, event trace data, and configuration
information, which can be combined into Data Collector Sets.
Performance counters are measurements of system state or activity. They can be included in the
Operating system or can be part of individual applications.
Event trace data is collected from trace providers, which are components of the operating
system or of individual applications that report actions or events.

6.  Functionality - does it work
 Peripherals anything that’s plugged in - mouse, keyboard
 Performance - task manager
 Resource Usage - how much memory is it using
 Transmission - testing the signals in the wires
 Connectivity - is the signal getting there okay.. Or getting
lost. PING?
 Load Distribution - big servers sharing a network or several
networks
 Security - passwords
 Stress/Burn in - see if its stable
 Diagnostic - does it send error messages if something
doesn't work?

7. For this task I will:
 Setup monitoring software to log PC performance (Processor and Memory).
 Record the data for a realistic span of time - (How long will depend on my chosen sample rate), and i will
make sure the PC is in normal usage during this time to get realistic data.
 Compile the data in a spreadsheet and present on a graph.
 Label the graph to identify any spikes or rises and falls.
 Decide what figures I want to find out about the data (Maximum usage? Mean? Median? Percentage of
time spent above a certain value?)
 Have to decide what levels I think represent "normal" performance. State why. Then draw lines on my
graph to illustrate normal performance.
 What levels would indicate problems?

8. Computer
(TFT room)
Operating System Name Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Operating System Version 32-bit
System Manufacturer Zoostorm
System Model 7872-1061/A
Processor Type Intel® Pentium(R) (CPUG640
Processor Speed 2.80GHz
Hard Drive Size 465GB
Available Space on Hard Drive 423GB
Total RAM 6.00GB
File System e.g. NTFS NTFS

9. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Memory Used Processor Used
Opened up and
browsed
Facebook
Opened up
Microsoft Word and
3 documents
Opened up
Photo shop -
loaded 2
pictures
Opened up
YouTube

10. Test Reason Expected Result Actual
Result
Comments
Windows Performance
Monitor
- % Processor Use
- % Committed Bytes
10 minutes sampling every 2
seconds
To check that system performs
normally.
How much time is tied up in
carrying out calculations – how
heavily loaded the system is.
Long enough to give general
idea, sample rate short enough
to catch brief spikes.
Processor use < 37% (less than)
Mean % Memory Use < 15 (less
than)
9%
23%
Was lower than I expected.
Maybe I didn’t do enough or
load enough things on at the
time of the test.
Was higher that I’d hoped
for.
I underestimated the
memory requirements.
Open up and browse
Facebook on Firefox
Used frequently
To check performance when
accessing the network/internet
Processor Usage Spike <80
Memory usage increased by <20
48%
Gone up by
2%
Lower than I expected it to
go.
Only gone up slightly
Open up Photoshop - and
load two photos
Common use and heavy usage Processor Usage Spike <Close to
max
Memory usage increased to 60%
66%
25%
Not close to max.. A lot
lower than I expected
Much lower than I expected
Open up Microsoft Word and
three documents
Processor Usage Spike <80
Memory usage increased by
20%
58%
23%
Much lower than I expected
Only gone up slightly
Launch a video on YouTube
and run for 3-4 minutes
To check performance when
accessing the network/internet
Processor Usage Spike x2
(launching the browser) <80
Processor usage spiky during
video
Memory usage increased to 60%
34%
27%
Opened up 3 videos and it
failed every time… came up
with a error
Eventually opened one and
it ran for 3minutes.
Close all applications Check that memory and
processor usage back to original
levels
Processor to drop back to idol
Memory use <20%
Dropped back down to
starting point.
Workstation Identification: TFT2-200

11.  One of the main things that can impact on PC performance is disk space.
 I use a tool such as TreeSize to collect data on the current usage of disk space.
 I then present the data as a pie chart - I made sure chose carefully which data I wanted to include.
 The chart shows what percentage is taken up by Windows itself, Applications, User data, Swap files.
 I also made comments on my results - and had to decide if it could it be made more efficient or 'cleaned up'?
 If possible I will carry out the clean up and optimisation tasks - see how much space have I saved? What
percentage does this represent?

12. The operating system taking up the
most space followed by the
applications on the computer.
You would normally have space taken
up by the recycle bin and Users but the
computer I was working on was fairly
new so there was a very minute space
taken up.
42%
33%
5%
2%
0%
18%
Operating System
Applications
Users
ProgramData
Recycle Bin
Other System Files eg.
Paging

13.  Identify the specification of the machine.
 Identify the maximum memory it could take and the fastest processor the current motherboard
would support (i.e. the Socket Type).
 Locate graphical benchmarking information for memory and processor performance
improvements. (e.g. From PassMark) Work out the likely percentage improvement over the
current setup.
 Locate cost information for upgrading memory and processor.
 Locate cost information for a new computer of at least that spec.
 Examine the data - what would be the best value for money? Upgrading or buying new?

14. Computer
(TFT room)
Operating System Name Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Operating System Version
32-bit
System Manufacturer Zoostorm
System Model 7872-1061/A
Processor Type Intel® Pentium(R) (CPUG640
Processor Speed 2.80GHz
Hard Drive Size 465GB
Available Space on Hard Drive 423GB
Total RAM 6.00GB
File System e.g. NTFS NTFS

15. I used Crucial.com to run a memory scan on my chosen computer to give me the information I
needed - It tells you exactly what memory is on the computer - and extra memory installed.
It also gives you information and options to buy
new memory that is compatible with your
computer.

16. As you can see after running the memory scan on
crucial.com it is able to tell me that my system is -
Your GA-H61M-S2PV System Specs
Scan id - 6E946BE331D926C3
Memory:
DDR3 PC3-12800, DDR3 PC3-10600, DDR3 PC3-14900
Memory Type: DDR3 PC3-12800, DDR3 PC3-10600, DDR3 PC3-14900
DDR3 (non ECC)
Maximum Memory: 16GB
Current Installed Memory: 6GB
Total Memory Slots: 2
Available Memory Slots: 0

17. Guaranteed - compatible upgrades for the PC - GA-H61M-S2PV
Would cost £79.99 ex. VAT £95.99 inc. VAT
For that price you would get:
16Gb kit (8GBx2)
DDR3 PC3 -12800, CL=11, Unbuffered, NON-ECC,
DDR3-1600, 1.5v, 1024Meg x 64, Part #: CT2KIT102464BA160B

18. GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1155 - GA - H61M - S2PV (rev. 1.0)
The fastest compatible processor with a 1155 socket is:
Xeon E3-1290 v2 which is faster than the current G640 that is
installed in this PC.
To buy a Xeon E3-1290 v2 which is faster than the current G640 that
is installed in this PC it would cost £ £682.04 Inc VAT

19. Cost Inc VAT
Memory 16Gb kit (8GBx2) £95.99
Processor Xeon E3-1290 v2 £682.04
Time About a hour £30.00
Total: £808.03
Cost to upgrade:
Cost of buying new:
Not many places will sell a computer with this exact spec so I found a PC which isn't exactly the same spec but
its close enough with only a few differences.
• It has less memory 8GB (instead of 16GB which you have now)
• It has a 1 TB Hard drive, Intel® Core™ i7-3770 Processor (3.4 GHz, 3.9 GHz with Turboboost, 8 MB cache)
• USB slots - USB 3.0 x 2, USB 2.0 x 4.
• Motherboard is a Intel H61
• Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce GT 620
• The only down side is the 8GB memory (upgrading will give you 16GB)

20. Computer
(with added Processor and memory)
New Computer
Operating System Name Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Microsoft Windows 8
Operating System Version 32-bit 64-bit
System Manufacturer Zoostorm HP
System Model 7872-1061/A P6-2494ea
Processor Type Xeon E3-1290 v2 Intel® Core™ i7-3770 Processor (3.4
GHz, 3.9 GHz with Turboboost, 8 MB
cache)
Processor Speed 3.7GHz 3.4 GHz
Hard Drive Size 465GB 1 TB Hard drive, SATA, 7200 rpm
Available Space on Hard Drive 423GB
Total RAM 16GB 8 GB DDR3
File System e.g. NTFS NTFS NTFS
Cost: Cost to upgrade
£808.03
Cost to buy new:
£699.99

21. Looking at that table you can see the differences in upgrading or buying a
new computer.
The new computer -
 You get a new computer
 Bigger hard drive
 Better operating system
 Newer version of windows
 Unfortunately it will have less RAM - but it can be upgraded at a later date
 And you will be spending £108.04 less
Upgrading -
 More RAM - you will have 16GB
 More processor speed
 Spending £108.04 more

22. Looking at the results you can see it is £108.04 cheaper to buy a new computer - you get a better computer
except for the RAM, but for that minor issues you get a better processor, better operating
system, bigger hardrive and a new version of windows and of course saving yourself some money.
When I did the Windows Performance test and the TreeSise the computer wasn't and still isn't fully overloaded. So an
upgrade at the moment isn't needed.
It is a good idea to do a scan on your computer using Windows Performance Monitor or TreeSize about once a month
just to keep up-to-date on how your computer is working and how it is performing when you do have so many things
running and when your doing a lot on the computer.
Making sure your keeping a eye on how it is running and performing and how much
space you have left on it.
I didn't expect to find that buying a computer would be cheaper but in this case it is.