Tech Tip: Extra Life From Your Old Computer

One of the things I did this week was try to upgrade my netbook computer with an SSD (Solid State Disk) drive to make it faster and more bearable to use (more on what that is in a minute… bear with me). It’s always been kind of slow, and I figured if I could put $100 into it instead of buying a whole new one, that would be a good thing, right?  Well, that didn’t work out so well… performance with the SSD was actually far worse than it was with the hard drive that was in it, and the “fix” to make it work right just ended up not being worth it… so I had an SSD without a home.  After playing around with a couple other ideas, I decided to put it into an old Toshiba laptop I’ve had for a little over 3 years because it has always felt a little slow.  And boy, what a difference it made.

An SSD is a storage device that acts like a hard disk drive, but uses memory chips instead of a spinning platter to store data.  Since there are no moving parts, they are very fast.  They’ve been prohibitively expensive until fairly recently (and it’s still expensive to get something with a lot of storage capacity) but they’re finally in the realm of being affordable for the masses as long as your storage needs aren’t extreme.  The SSD I bought was an OCZ Vertex 2 60GB model which I picked up on sale for just over $100.  Since I don’t store music or movies on that laptop, this was plenty large enough.  Windows 7, Microsoft Office, and Photoshop take up around 20 GB total, which gives me plenty of room to spare for anything else I might need to put on it.  The difference in performance was enormous!

If you can work a screwdriver you can install an SSD drive in your computer.  The physical installation is very easy.  The only part that might get a bit tricky is getting Windows installed onto it.  If your computer came with a Restore DVD, or you have an original Windows installation DVD, setting it up is a piece of cake.  If it didn’t, you may want to invest in a data transfer kit (this one is my favorite).

Prior to installing the SSD, my Toshiba laptop would take about 60-75 seconds to boot.  With the SSD it takes about 13 seconds.  That’s logo screen to usable desktop, folks.  While it previously took about 5-10 seconds to load Microsoft Word on the hard drive, it now loads in less than 1 second on the SSD.  Photoshop loads in 6 seconds instead of 40, and web browsers come up instantly.  Launching most programs occurs almost instantaneously.  As I was installing Windows updates (I started with a fresh copy of Windows), I was amazed to see the majority of them install about one per second instead of watching the minutes tick by.  From start to finish (empty drive to installing Windows to installing all available updates) it only took about 30 minutes to do everything.  And this computer is SO fast now… even though it’s over 3 years old and wasn’t that much to shout about when it was new.

Swapping out a hard drive for an SSD isn’t the only easy and relatively inexpensive thing you can do to speed up an aging computer.  Upgrading the memory is also very easy and doesn’t cost that much (the Crucial web site has a scanner that can tell you what type of memory your computer needs).  I upgraded my Toshiba laptop to 4GB of RAM for $35 a couple months ago, and recently upgraded a different laptop to 8GB of RAM for $85.  The desktop computer I built last month got 8GB of RAM for about $80 as well.  If you’re running a computer with just 1 or 2GB of RAM, it’s time to upgrade.  The performance difference can be pretty dramatic.  Not quite as drastic as replacing a hard drive with an SSD, but still quite noticeable.

So how do you know if your computer can be upgraded with an SSD? If it’s less than about 4 years old, the chances are very high.  The computer requires an SATA interface for the hard disk drive, which most computers made in the last 4 years are likely to have.  If you’re working with a desktop computer, you can probably buy a relatively small SSD for your operating system and programs, and use your existing hard drive as a secondary drive for storing your personal data.  That’s the route I’ve gone with the last two computers I’ve built, and I’ve been thrilled with the results.  As far as which model to get, the drives based on the SandForce controller chips currently yield the best performance (the OCZ Vertex 2 series give the best bang-for-the-buck and is available in 60GB, 120GB, and 240GB sizes.  For better performance at a higher cost, step up to the OCZ Vertex 3 series.)

So, long story short, if you’ve got an old computer that is just slower than you’d like and you don’t want to shell out a pile of money to buy a newer model, chances are you can swap out your hard drive with an SSD, and upgrade the RAM, not have it cost you that much, and you’ll end up with a computer that feels better than it did when you first pulled it out of the box.  It will actually feel much faster than a new computer unless the newer one happens to come with an SSD.

Installation of either the SSD or memory is pretty easy, but if you’ve got a hungry computer-savvy buddy, bake him or her a pie or plate of cookies to install yours for you.  You’ll be SO glad you upgraded.

Tip: SSDs perform best under Windows 7 (or the most recent versions of Linux).  Windows Vista, XP, and Mac OS X will run on SSDs, but they do not fully take advantage of the extra performance that SSDs offer.  These operating systems also suffer from a problem which causes writes to the disk to become incredibly slow after a period of time because they do not support a feature called TRIM.  This happens once the total amount of data written to the drive exceeds the total capacity of the drive.  This doesn’t mean you’ll see performance decrease when the drive is full, but after that much data has been written to the drive in total, whether you’re overwriting or deleting files or not.  Since the operating system itself writes to the disk a lot just as part of its normal operation (especially if you don’t have enough memory), you’ll probably hit this limitation a lot faster than you’d think you might.  Windows 7 knows how to properly communicate with the drive to let it know what parts of the drive are no longer being used, so it does not suffer from this problem.  If you’re running Vista or XP, you should also upgrade to Windows 7 if you’re going to run an SSD for the best results.  Mac users, you’re kind of out of luck... you’ll see amazing performance on your SSD for a while, then it will slow down drastically.  And there isn’t anything that can be done about it; it looks like not even the forthcoming OS X Lion upgrade is going to support TRIM unless you buy the computer with an SSD pre-installed by Apple.

TOTW #5: Why So Slow? & 50 Cent Tripod Substitute

Computer Tip: Why So Slow?

The biggest problem I see with computers these days is that they are just too darn slow. Even new computers out of the box suffer sometimes. The common misconception is that computers are usually slow because their processor isn't fast enough, but that isn't the case most of the time. The real reason that most of our computers are too slow is because they don't have enough memory.

Computers use two primary types of storage. Temporary storage, in the form of RAM (Random Access Memory), and non-volatile storage in the form of a hard disk drive. When you start a program on your computer a copy is made from permanent storage to temporary storage (hard disk drive to RAM) and the program is run from RAM. Many programs, including Windows, OS X, and Linux themselves, usually require more RAM than is actually available in the computer so they use virtual memory to temporarily store data from RAM to the hard disk drive whenever isn't needed immediately. Then when the time comes that it is needed, data from another program is moved out of RAM to the hard disk drive to make space to pull the required data back into RAM. The problem with this scenario is that hard disk drives are literally thousands of times slower than RAM, so it is a very slow and painstaking process to move data back and forth. Every time you see your hard disk light flashing when you aren't loading a program your computer is swapping data back and forth.

The more programs you have running on your computer (and remember that your operating system is really one very big program) the slower it is going to be if there isn't enough RAM to store all of the data required. Upgrading the RAM in your computer cuts down on the amount of swapping going on, thus improving computer performance dramatically. In many cases you can double, triple, or quadruple the time it takes to start, switch, or use programs just by upgrading your RAM.

How much do you need? If you are running Windows XP or OS X Tiger, 512MB is a decent starting place, but all three are happier with 1GB or more. Windows Vista and OS X Leopard require much more RAM to be happy, so 1GB is the minimum recommended, with 2GB or more being ideal. To find out how much you have, in Windows right-click your My Computer icon and select Properties. In OS X, look under the Apple menu, About This Mac.

If you need more RAM, I recommend shopping at www.crucial.com; they have a really easy to use wizard to tell you what type of memory your computer needs, and they have great prices. Installing memory is very easy, and is usually done by unscrewing a single cover or panel, and snapping the memory board into place. In most cases you can upgrade to 2GB for less than $50. It's a cheap fix for an aging, slowing machine.

Upgrading your RAM will give you a very noticeable improvement in performance for not a lot of money, especially if you have a 'budget' computer that didn't have a lot to start with.

Multimedia Tip: 50 Cent Tripod Substitute

So imagine you're hiking in the mountains with your camera one evening and you spot a bird 25 yards away that you'd like to get a picture (or video) of. No problem, right? Except that you're in the shade under cover of trees, so there isn't much light. Holding the camera with just your hands will then cause the picture to blur, and the bird is far enough away that you'll have to zoom in, making your shaky hand that more detrimental to the picture. So you need a way to steady the camera, but you don't want to carry a tripod. Enter the 50 cent tripod substitute.

You'll need:

• You'll need a piece of string just longer than you are tall.
• A short 1/4-20 screw or bolt, about 3/4" long.
• Maybe a large metal washer if you want to get fancy.

Get a 1/4-20 screw or bolt from your local hardware store. They'll know what 1/4-20 means (1/4" diameter, 20 threads per inch). But get something short, like 3/4" or so. Some instructions I've read recommend getting an eye bolt with 1/4-20 threads, but that makes the project more expensive without getting any better results.

Take one end of the string and tie it tightly around the threads of the screw at the base of the head. If you purchased a large washer, cut the string at the same length as your height, and tie the washer on the other end of the string. If you didn't buy a washer, cut your string about a foot longer than you are tall, and make a loop large enough for your shoe to fit inside with a little room to spare, and tie the loop tight.

The idea is that you step on the washer (or into the loop), screw the screw into the tripod mount on your camera, and pull upwards on your camera to keep the string taut, with your foot pulling downward on the other end. The downward force on the camera will greatly improve the steadiness of the camera especially compared to holding it just by hand.

It isn't a total substitute for a real tripod, but it does fit in your pocket or camera bag, only weighs a few ounces max, and is super cheap. It does produce great results, though, and is even more useful for video cameras.