Nearly every day clients complain about the speed of their computer system. In their mind, the “fix” for this is to replace the computer! I disagree entirely.
There are so many factors that contribute to slow response times of computer systems and applications:
- Low on system memory (RAM) 8GB should be the minimum these days
- Too many programs running in the background
- Your Anti Virus program (I call them Anti Performance programs)
- Defrag your hard disk (Windows users)
- Reload your operating system from scratch
Having said that, one of the biggest performance gains that I have seen lately is the emergence of Solid State Hard Drives. SSD hard drives are phenomenal!
Example 1: client had a Foxpro database running on a $20,000 server. Reindexing the database took 55 minutes on a SCSI RAID Volume. I installed a small development server and tested the reindex on SSD drives and the reindex took only 2 minutes.
Example 2: laptop that use to take 2 minutes to boot to the desktop on the old 500GB SATA hard drive, started in only 14 seconds on a 120GB SSD. Applications now open “instantly” and you really have to see it to believe how much difference a SSD can make.
SSD drives are typically 2.5″ which is the laptop format, but can be adapted to fit into a PC or Desktop machine.
In conclusion: solid state drives are a much cheaper option than replacing your PC and can greatly improve overall performance of your system.