1 Issue, and 9 Questions

AlexRD · Sep 13, 2008

1) Computer freezes up when playing music on Windows Media Player 11.
On other players, it doesn`t.

2) Which Cooling Pad should i take, so that my laptop gets really cool?
I`m going to buy a new HD (7200 RPM) and it will get hot,
and i really don`t want it burned. My laptop is 17".
( I was thinking on making my own cooler, a very powerful :sarc:

If you know a video that explains how, please post. )

3) HD Doesn`t work the way it should. It only Copies 10 MB Per Second,
on Archives.
( I think, since 7200 Copies RPM 3.0 GB/s, 5400 RPM Copies 1.5 GB/s, then 4200 would copy 0.75 GB/s? )

4) How can i see which Motherboard my notebook has?
( I have a feeling i asked something really dumb )

5) Where can i see the Temperature from my Laptop? (Processor, HD, etc.)
(If there is a program, which program?)

6) How can i see which Soundcard my Laptop has?

7) How can i see which coolers my Laptop has? (Like, How fast, etc.)

8) How do Hard Drives work ?
Like, the more RPM it has means what in Performance ?

9) Which is the Best Player? ( That has all the Codecs, Nice looking, etc )

10) Can Laptops be Overclocked?
Or can i Raise the Cooler Speed?

SWAT · Sep 13, 2008

1. Use VLC Player.
3.HDD won't always copy at 3gb/s, that's just it's limit. It depends on many things.
4.CPU-Z Is a good program that says all your computer hardware
9.VLC has nearly all codecs, ive never had a file that vlc couldn't run.
Also VLC has downloadable skins, 2 of them are like media player 11.

AlexRD · Sep 13, 2008

SWAT said:
1. Use VLC Player.
3.HDD won't always copy at 3gb/s, that's just it's limit. It depends on many things.
4.CPU-Z Is a good program that says all your computer hardware
9.VLC has nearly all codecs, ive never had a file that vlc couldn't run.
Also VLC has downloadable skins, 2 of them are like media player 11.

Cpu-Z doesn`t show which motherboard i have, nor the temperature. But it helped a lot, now i know which bios i am using =)
Where do i download the Skins?

SIW2 · Sep 13, 2008

Hi Alex,

Giving away my favourites now,

try SIV

http://rh-software.com/

and the SIW free version

http://www.gtopala.com/

for a simple one, try HWMonitor1.11 from here

http://cpuid.com/

hope this is what you're looking for

SIW2

AlexRD · Sep 14, 2008

SIW2 said:
Hi Alex,

Giving away my favourites now,

try SIV

http://rh-software.com/

and the SIW free version

http://www.gtopala.com/

for a simple one, try HWMonitor1.11 from here

CPUID

hope this is what you're looking for

SIW2

Hi

Lansweeper keeps asking for a SQL on the intallation, or something which i don`t know what it is.
And SIV i`m going to test it now.
Tested it , and it is a bit complicated =O
Aint there a program that is simple?
Like:

Core 1 - 50
Core 2 - 47
HD - 55
Graphic card - 67

Btw, is it normal to have a 84 Celsius Graphic Card?
Or 64 Celsius ACPI??
ON HW Monitor it Shows it.. But there are too few devices shown..
It doesn`t show the cooler speed for example
So, is there anyone who knows Number, 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ?

And i`m using VLC and it worked !

damocles · Sep 14, 2008

Try Sandra diagnostics

SiSoftware Zone

It should give you most of the info about your system.

3 & 8, I've only seen my hard drive go up to 1gb/sec once and it loaded a 2.5gb file in....well around 2.5 secs - usually it faffs around at between 10 to 70mb/sec depending on what's being used at that particular time. If you have search index and superfetch enabled there is a good chance that will impact on read write times as the drive cannot read or write in two or more locations at the same time. With RPM, the higher, 15,000 RPM, the better the performance...a 4200 RPM drive will be slooooowwwwww in comparison.

10, Have a look at your bios to see if you O/c the laptop - It may be possible if you have a gaming laptop.

AlexRD · Sep 14, 2008

damocles said:
Try Sandra diagnostics

SiSoftware Zone

It should give you most of the info about your system.

3 & 8, I've only seen my hard drive go up to 1gb/sec once and it loaded a 2.5gb file in....well around 2.5 secs - usually it faffs around at between 10 to 70mb/sec depending on what's being used at that particular time. If you have search index and superfetch enabled there is a good chance that will impact on read write times as the drive cannot read or write in two or more locations at the same time. With RPM, the higher, 15,000 RPM, the better the performance...a 4200 RPM drive will be slooooowwwwww in comparison.

10, Have a look at your bios to see if you O/c the laptop - It may be possible if you have a gaming laptop.

Yes, in fact my laptop is a gaming laptop.
i`m going to try that out, but where on bios do i see if my laptop can be overclocked?

damocles · Sep 14, 2008

Depends on the bios, but there may be advanced configuration settings for your CPU and Memory voltages and timings. If you're new to O/Cing please seek advice before tinkering. Many people here are great at this sort of thing.

Mine ( a desktop ) has dedicated overclocking settings - but I won't touch it ( long story ).

ltwally · Sep 15, 2008

AlexRD said:
8) How do Hard Drives work ?
Like, the more RPM it has means what in Performance ?

Two things impact hard-disk performance: rotational speed and areal density.

1) Rotation speed is measured in RPM's. The largest impact of your rotational speed is access times - how fast the hard drive moves to a new location. This is very important when you read lots of information scattered all over your drive(s). This is much less important for a desktop than it is things like a SQL server, where the hard disk heads change locations constantly.

Of course, a high RPM drive has an impact on MB/s, but it is not as much as you might think.

2) Areal density refers to how many gigabytes are stored on the platters inside your hard disk. This figure can be determined by reading up on your hard disk. Divide the total disk size by the number of platters, as listed by the manufacturer. The higher this number, in general, the faster your transfer rates.

In my experience, the biggest impact on how many MB/s your disk will achieve is the areal density.

Think of it like this: if your drive is capable of reading 1cm of data per second, craming twice as much data per centimeter literally doubles your transfer rates while simultaneously doubling your storage capacity.

I hope that makes sense. I'm a trained server admin, not a trained educator

AlexRD · Sep 15, 2008

ltwally said:
AlexRD said:

8) How do Hard Drives work ?
Like, the more RPM it has means what in Performance ?

Click to expand...

Two things impact hard-disk performance: rotational speed and areal density.

1) Rotation speed is measured in RPM's. The largest impact of your rotational speed is access times - how fast the hard drive moves to a new location. This is very important when you read lots of information scattered all over your drive(s). This is much less important for a desktop than it is things like a SQL server, where the hard disk heads change locations constantly.

Of course, a high RPM drive has an impact on MB/s, but it is not as much as you might think.

2) Areal density refers to how many gigabytes are stored on the platters inside your hard disk. This figure can be determined by reading up on your hard disk. Divide the total disk size by the number of platters, as listed by the manufacturer. The higher this number, in general, the faster your transfer rates.

In my experience, the biggest impact on how many MB/s your disk will achieve is the areal density.

Think of it like this: if your drive is capable of reading 1cm of data per second, craming twice as much data per centimeter literally doubles your transfer rates while simultaneously doubling your storage capacity.

I hope that makes sense. I'm a trained server admin, not a trained educator

Yeah! thanks a lot ! It made sense for me.
So, the higher the RPM the fastest the acess time.
Like, if i have a 4200 RPM HD, and the avg seek time is at 27 MS, so a 7200 RPM would have probably ... 10 - 13 MS?

Btw, what is Platters?

Come on people, just 2 and 3 to answer please.

Alex.

ltwally · Sep 15, 2008

A hard drive is comprised of one or more platters. The platter is the physical disk. Think of a hard disk like one or more floppy disks stacked on top of each other.

Here is a picture of an open drive. You can see that this hard drive has three platters.

http://www.pctechguide.com/images/31HardDrive.jpg

Let's say that hard drive is 750gigs: 750gigs / 3 platters == 250gigs per platter.

Let's compare it with a 320gig drive with only one platter: 320 gigs / 1 platter == 320gigs per platter.

Assuming that the two drives are comparable in all other respects, the 320gig drive will likely have a small to modest advantage in its transfer rate.

ltwally · Sep 15, 2008

AlexRD said:
Yeah! thanks a lot ! It made sense for me.
So, the higher the RPM the fastest the acess time.
Like, if i have a 4200 RPM HD, and the avg seek time is at 27 MS, so a 7200 RPM would have probably ... 10 - 13 MS?

I'd like to add this: rotational speed does have an impact on raw transfer speed (how many MB/s), it's just not the primary benefit of a high RPM drive.

The fastest hard drive you can currently get for SATA, both in terms of access times and transfer rates, is the Western Digital VelociRaptor 300gig.

Be prepaired to pay for it, though. You can get a pair of 1 TB drives for about the same cost as a single 300 GB VelociRaptor.

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