Components that matter for boot times

[Theodwros Tenizis]

Hey guys i recenty was talking with a friend about computers and more specific about boot times and we actually had a question that we were unable to find an answer to. So the question is this: For booting, what is actually matters exept your disk? Does your motherboard or cpu or ram play a part for the booting time? And if so i guess the time difference will be minimum?

 

[Kohwali]

Well the disk should have the most impact on boot times. Boot times will also be affected by the OS.

EDIT: Here is a thread very similar to the question you are asking http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/275654-28-boot-speed-processor-type

Looks like the only thing that affects boot times should be HDD/SSD read/write speeds - assuming this is a modern day computer.

 

[kanewolf]

Most of your boot time is dependent on the software that runs at boot. The more software that loads the slower your boot time. Software that does internet checks for new versions will slow things down.

 

[Kohwali]

Most of your boot time is dependent on the software that runs at boot. The more software that loads the slower your boot time. Software that does internet checks for new versions will slow things down.

Agreed. CCleaner has a function that allows you to see which programs load during start up and lets you disable the ones you don't want to automatically start up.

 

[holyprof]

I guess you are asking about hardware, not software.

CPU speed, motherboard complexity, presence of CD/DVD/Bluray drives, all this will impact boot times, but you will hardly feel it. Only noticeable factor is the input/output system (HDD or SSD).

 

[Theodwros Tenizis]

Yeah but what about the new pcie ssds? For example almost all of them have over 600 read and writes and they are very slow on startup. Even with fresh windows. On a personal experience ocz revodrive 350 240gb has 1000read and 950 write and i though it would be fast but it was taking about 40 sometimes 50 seconds to boot up and get to windows (windows 8,rampage v, 5930k and 16gigs of ram). While working in windows is freaking fast at everything, copying opening games programs but why so slow on startup? Thats why i asked if anything else matters.

 

[holyprof]

PCI-E SSDs have their own firmware that needs to run at start, it must be increasing your boot time. They were meant for servers mostly and as we all know server boot time doesn't matter because they are made to run 24/7

 

[Kohwali]

My Windows 7 64-bit boots up in 35 seconds on a 7200RPM HDD.

Maybe you have too many programs on startup.

A flash SSD on Windows 8.1 should be booting up 10x faster.

 

[Theodwros Tenizis]

PCI-E SSDs have their own firmware that needs to run at start, it must be increasing your boot time. They were meant for servers mostly and as we all know server boot time doesn't matter because they are made to run 24/7

Thats true. Didnt know that pcie ssd were made for servers! Thanks

 

[Theodwros Tenizis]

My Windows 7 64-bit boots up in 35 seconds on a 7200RPM HDD.

Maybe you have too many programs on startup.

A flash SSD on Windows 8.1 should be booting up 10x faster.

Nop. The Ocz had fresh original windows 8.1 installed and nothing on startup. Thats why i was dissapointed about that SSD. I sold the disk a while ago and i am left with a normal HDD WD until i find something good to buy for boot.

 

[mmaatt747]

Most motherboards are designed to boot from SATA devices, not PCIe devices. Because of this, PCIe SSDs load drivers before the BIOS so that the drive will be visible on the boot screen. This will change as PCIe SSD's become more common.

 

[Theodwros Tenizis]

Most motherboards are designed to boot from SATA devices, not PCIe devices. Because of this, PCIe SSDs load drivers before the BIOS so that the drive will be visible on the boot screen. This will change as PCIe SSD's become more common.

Very helpfull answer didnt know that thanks!

 

[jsmithepa]

My sataIII SSD boots Win7 in like 20 seconds. But I don't really care, normally I just let my box goes to sleep and wakes up in seconds. I've gotten used to sleep mode like smart phones. Actually powering it off, why? in off mode, it still sucks some standby power btw unless you physically pull the cord.

 

[Theodwros Tenizis]

My sataIII SSD boots Win7 in like 20 seconds. But I don't really care, normally I just let my box goes to sleep and wakes up in seconds. I've gotten used to sleep mode like smart phones. Actually powering it off, why? in off mode, it still sucks some standby power btw unless you physically pull the cord.

Thats one way that someone can see it but personally i prefer shutting it down normally. In my old rig i was doing the exactly same thing like you and seriously havent powered it off for over a year until a day my disk died. Now i am not like this. Maybe i am wrong but shutting it down normally and powering it on later in my opinion its one way to check if anything works ok while you wait for boot. But hey you have a point

 

[jsmithepa]

until a day my disk died.

IMO, that your disk died was a coincidence. When it comes to data, no matter what theory ones subscribes to, always have backups and then ur covered. Storage is dirt cheap these days.

I agree that cold booting once in a while is a healthy thing.

For folks who are really into this, looks like Intel and MS partnered to have a quicker boot on 8.1. My 2014 Mobo has a 8.1 Quick boot but of course am running W7.

I used to work in data centers, those suckers took like 2 hours to boot, so these seconds differences just don't register on me.