Testing pc’s performance

By Cassie HughesBy Cassie Hughes

WHAT?

My project is going to be on the Performance of several

Different PC’s,

I will be testing 1-5 different computers and their

performance,

I expect to find the computers running under spec, have little or no

space left, and have duplicates of files taking up needed space.

WHAT?

My project is going to be on the Performance of several

Different PC’s,

I will be testing 1-5 different computers and their

performance,

I expect to find the computers running under spec, have little or no

space left, and have duplicates of files taking up needed space.

WHY?To find out how to actually test the performance of a PC,To make sure they are all running correctly and up-to-spec,I will be looking at how they are running and what disk space isbeing used up and where,

To make other users aware of the PC’s Performance and what space is on them.

WHY?To find out how to actually test the performance of a PC,To make sure they are all running correctly and up-to-spec,I will be looking at how they are running and what disk space isbeing used up and where,

To make other users aware of the PC’s Performance and what space is on them.

WHERE?I will use performance manager and TreeSize to find

out all the data and information I need.

I will use the computers in ITeC.

WHERE?I will use performance manager and TreeSize to find

out all the data and information I need.

I will use the computers in ITeC.

HOW?

I will put all the data together double check it, Put it

into graphs and pie charts then present all my data and

information that I find out.

HOW?

I will put all the data together double check it, Put it

into graphs and pie charts then present all my data and

information that I find out.

To find this out I will use

Windows Performance

Manager and TreeSize

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.

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.

� 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 -

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 your chosen sample rate). 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 you want to find out about the data (Maximum

usage? Mean? Median? Percentage of time spent above a certain value?)

� Decide what levels you think represent "normal" performance. State why. Draw lines on your graph to

illustrate normal performance.

� What levels would indicate problems?

Test Reason Expected Result Actual

Result

Comments

Windows Performance

Monitoring

-% 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 (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 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

3 document

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

� One of the main things that can impact on PC performance is disk space.

� Use a tool such as TreeSize to collect data on the current usage of disk space.

� Present the data as a pie chart (choose carefully whch data you will include)

� What percentage is taken up by Windows itself? Applications? User data? Swap file?)

� Make comments on your results. Could it be made more efficient or 'cleaned up'?

� If possible carry out the clean up and optimisation tasks. How much space have you

saved? What percentage does this represent?

� 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?

I used Crucial.com to run a memory scan my computer to

give me the information I needed,

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

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

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 £692.38 Inc VAT

Cost Inc VAT

Memory 16Gb kit (8GBx2) £95.99

Processor Xeon E3-1290 v2 £692.38

Time About a hour £30.00

Total: 817.76

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 the same memory (16GB) but also can be upgraded to 32 at a later date which

is a positive,

• It has a 3 TB Hard drive, SATA, 7200 rpm, a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660, 1.5 GB GDDR5

graphics card

• 10 USB slots.

• The only down side is the processer would be lightly slower- ntel® Core™ i7-3770

processor (3.4 GHz, 8 MB cache)

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

� But you will be spending £212.23 more.

Upgrading -

� Same amount of RAM

� More Processor speed

� Spending £212.23 less

Looking at the results even though the new computer looks better and you will be gaining a lot more from buying a

new computer, I think its best to upgrade, because its a lot cheaper to do that and your still gaining and making your

computer that bit better.

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 have so many thing

running and when your doing a lot on the computer, Keeping a eye on how it is running and perfuming and how

much

space you have left on it.

� At the end write a conclusion to include:

� What you found out.

� The value of monitoring performance (supported by figures)

� The value of monitoring disk space and doing routine maintenance cleanup (supported by figures)

� Relative value/cost/benefit of upgrading vs new pc Supported by figures

� Were your results what you expected?