Slow computer- great hardware.

[lewiskolb]

Hey.
I bought a computer about a ear ago, and it seems to be going really slow.
its got i5 750 @2.67 quad
GTX 550ti
6GB ram

and it will take a good 20mins on after effects to render an 8 second clip at 1080p, and 3ds 2-3 hours to do an 8 second mental ray render.

im running (an illegitimate copy of) win7. a mate of mine who works in a computer shop said that could be the problem.
whereas ubuntu, which i have installed on a separate HD, runs brilliantly fast, which i would use all the time if it had the compatibility of windows.
thanks.

 

[Ubrales]

You should get a legal licence of Win 7 along with the updates.

 

[lewiskolb]

but hat would mean im paying money to bill gates

 

[Good_Humour]

but hat would mean im paying money to bill gates

lolol What's wrong with Bill Gates? Your mate from the computer shop is probably right. I agree with Ubrales.


As I take it, the computer was fast when you bought it and progressively became slower. This is normal. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Do you do a lot of computer surfing? As you probably know, Windows computers are pretty vulnerable to malware. You should do a scan with Malwarebytes (http://www.malwarebytes.org/), Microsoft Security Essentials (also free) or some other software you like to make sure it's not malware at the root of your problem. If you want, you can purchase a retail copy of Norton or McAfee.

A computer, after a year, also gets pretty fragmented in the hard drive. Over time the hard drive becomes inefficient and loses the ability to store data sequentially, and the read/write head has to move more. This means, in simpler terms, that when comparing two hard drives, one fragmented and one not, the former must work harder and thus longer to access stored information than the latter. Called fragmentation, data is scattered in small pieces rather than being stored in large chunks. Oftentimes this is what causes computers to slow down. How to defragment is in the spoiler.

Spoiler

Fortunately for you and many other users, Windows has a built-in utility to resolve fragmentation. Go to My Computer and right-click your C: drive. Select "Properties" from the menu and navigate to the tab "Tools." See the section "Defragmentation" and click the button "Defragment now..." If you anaylze the disks first, it will tell you by percentage how fragmented your hard drive is. Then you can defragment, BUT make sure that you won't need your computer for the next few hours and have your programs closed as this can take a while. Doing this overnight will work.

As for Ubuntu, it is inherently fast. That is one of its strengths. Also, malware doesn't pose as much of a threat to Linux and other Unix-like systems [strike]such as OSX[/strike] due largely to their relatively small market share and the way these systems were designed. However, the threat exists and is very real.

Sofware may not be the issue though. If your hard drive uses the IDE (PATA) interface standard, it's literally not "up to speed" (pun intended) with the current Serial ATA standards. You can tell if you open up your computer and there's a huge grey ribbon cable attached to the hard drive.

Three other possibilites include failing memory and and underpowered power supply unit. Both are improbable, but I cannot tell based on the limited information provided. Or maybe you're running a 32-bit OS or 32-bit After Effects and cannot use 6GB of RAM; how am I to know?


As it is, this is like solving a math problem without enough information. What is here is all I can do to help with what you've given. If you're technically adept, you can check it out yourself, otherwise taking it into a shop wouldn't be such a bad idea.


P.S. I'll let someone else more knowledgeable answer your After Effects problem.

 

[abekl]

We don't support people who are running illeg. copes of Windows.

 

[hunter315]

You will get no support from us while using an illegal copy of Windows.