[SOLVED] New PC build is slow at opening programs ?

[monk-z]

I built a cheap PC and everything turned out fine but it is very slow opening programs like texstudio and stata. I have an old Lenovo all-in-one that is probably the lowest specs possible for a functioning computer and it opens stata and texstudio in about 4 seconds. The new PC takes 25-30 seconds.

Once the programs are running they are fine, it is just very frustrating opening them. I wonder if it is related to the GPU opening the GUI as texstudio compiles documents very quickly in the terminal and stata runs fine in the terminal.

Below are the specs of both machines. My question is simply how is the old Lenovo so much faster at opening programs and is there anything I can do to fix the new pc?

Lenovo All-in-One (bought in 2014)

• OS: Linux Mint 20.3
• Kernel: 5.4.0-97
• CPU: Intel Celeron 2x2.4 Ghz
• GPU: Integrated (Mesa Intel HD)
• PSU: 120 W
• Core temp: 30
• Screen: (built in 1920x1080)
• DRAM: 4GB DDR3 1600 m/s
• configured dram speed: 1333 m/s
• Harddrive: HDD 1TB (10% used)
• mobo: Sharkbay
• sysbench cpu: 1357 events per second
• stata/texstudio: 4-5 seconds to open

New PC Build:

• OS: Linux Mint 20.3
• Kernel: 5.4.0-97
• CPU: Intel Core i3-10100 @ 8x 3.601GHz
• GPU: Mesa Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630 (CML GT2)
• PSU: 500 W (Silverstone SX 500)
• Core temp: 25
• Screen: 2 Benq1920x1080
• DRAM: 16GB DDR4 2133 m/s
• configured dram speed: 2133 m/s
• Hard drive: HDD 1TB (10% used) (No SDD)
• mobo: asrock b460m pro4
• Bios version: P1.50
• sysbench cpu: 2795 events per second
• stata/texstudio: 25-30 seconds to open

Surprisingly, I use the Lenovo all the time with no problem making pdfs and slides with latex and analyzing small datasets with stata. It never worked with Windows but after the hard drive died I replaced it with a new HDD and Linux. The same USB drive was used to install Linux on both machines so they went through the exact same updates. And started with the same OS. Stata doesn't play well with Linux but rstudio also takes about 25-30 seconds to open on the new pc.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Firs off, they are not the same platforms. Secondly, your specs seem incomplete, please parse the specs to both builds like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:

As for your motherboard, you have one more BIOS version pending update, to P1.60. As for the rams used on the new build, got a link to said ram(kit)? HDD's found in the recent years tend to be 5400RPM drives and can equate to your slow loading time for the apps. How is your OS boot up time? You should look into getting an SSD, for sure.

 

[Dreznon]

try updating the drivers of your system. since you built it, it will most likely need them to be updated. on prebuilds, the manufacturer updates them before selling. its not hard just google search the name of each of your hardware and attach "driver" after the name of your hardware.

maybe try your ram in different slots first?

 

[monk-z]

Lutfij, thank you for your reply! It is well noted about the SSD and the different platforms. I updated the bios to 1.6 which went fine but didn't solve the problem.

The HDD drive is 7200. Let me list the specs for the new build and what I have for the old pc (less detailed) as you suggested.

Old PC
CPU: Intel Celeron 2x2.4 Ghz
Motherboard: Sharkbay
Ram: 4GB DDR3 1600 m/s
SSD/HDD: No SSD /Seagate Barracuda 1 tb
GPU: Integrated (Mesa Intel HD)
PSU: 120 W
Chassis: All in one

New Build
CPU: Intel Core i3-10100 @ 3.601GHz
Motherboard: asrock b460m pro4
Ram: CORSAIR DDR4 Memory Module VENGEANCE LPX 8GBx2
SSD/HDD: No SSD /Seagate Barracuda 1 tb
GPU:Mesa Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630 (CML GT2)
PSU: PSU: 500 W (Silverstone SX 500)
Chassis: Desktop (Fractal Design Focus G )

The OS boots at an acceptable speed for HDD. The only issue is a few applications. Most applications also open at an expected speed for HDD which is no problem (like tex editors or libreoffice).

The ram kit is = Kit CMK16GX4M2A2666C16

If you had any other thoughts I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[monk-z]

Thank you for replying Dreznon. The pc only boots if the RAM is installed in 2 and 4 so I can't switch the slots. I will take the driver question to a Linux forum. Hopefully, that is not the issue.

 

[Mr.Spock]

the i3 is only quad core btw so not quite 8x, but you may want to check that AHCI is on in bios on that motherboard.
there might be filesystem differences to which may be the source of differences - may want to check that also

 

[monk-z]

That is odd. I cut and pasted the CPU specs from the print out of "screenfetch" without paying attention. I assume it is just an error with that tool (and nothing to worry about) because if I check the CPU specs any other way it of course shows the correct 4 cores.

Thank you for the suggestions. AHCI is enabled and RAID is disabled.

As for the filesystem. They should be identical between the 2 machines. But I will take a closer look into that (and do some reading about filesystems).

 

[monk-z]

I went ahead and installed an SSD which eliminated all the problems. Now the new pc runs perfect and much faster than the old one of course.

It still bothers me a little that there would be such a difference in performance between the machines when both had the same HDD/OS/file system and so on but I guess I just have to accept that there are all kinds of differences between the two platforms that I can't account for.

Thank you everyone for trying to help. This was my first PC build and I did it with my 10 yo daughter to help get her interested in computers. We learned a lot, had a good time, the pc was relatively cheap and is running great.