Difference in loading time on desktop and laptop

Chris J · Post by **Chris J** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:10 pm

Do you know why loading a big set on my desktop whose main difference with the laptop is + 512Mb RAM takes 15 seconds, while it takes over 3 minutes on the laptop ?

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:30 pm

my guess would be hard drive speed

Chris J · Post by **Chris J** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:42 pm

I use an external drive @7200 same as on the desktop. In any case I don't think that a 4200rpm would take 10 x more time than a 7200rpm

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:08 pm

i don't know it was just a guess. your laptop looks like it has a 1.6Ghz athlon vs either 1.8 or 2.0 on your desktop. 333 memory on your laptop vs 400 on your desktop.

maybe there's some kind of speed stepping on your laptop system.

also 512 Ram isn't all that much with windows XP.

it just doesn't surprise me as much as it does you

someone will come along who knows more

Chris J · Post by **Chris J** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:22 pm

thanks longjohn,
they have both the same 3000+, speed stepping is disabled, Ram is the main difference, I have 380Mb free on laptop before loading my set, even with smaller sets it takes ages ...

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:31 pm

Another factor could be the folders that are opened or closed when starting Live.
If you have a folder open with 1000 samples, it could take a minute longer to load, then when all folders are closed.

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:34 pm

ah, sorry. i had just found some site that listed the processor as 1.6G 32 bit athlon

Chris J · Post by **Chris J** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:27 pm

longjohns wrote:ah, sorry. i had just found some site that listed the processor as 1.6G 32 bit athlon

when I bought the laptop it said 3000+ and when I set up my desktop I bought a 64b Athlon 3000+ and I thought they were the same, that is 1.6Gh which is (i think) the speed of the 3000+.
But you're right, I checked too and it says 1.6 for the laptop.

Hoffman2k :
Thanks, that's a good tip, I have to check that out !

While on the subject, you guys may know :
I want to upgrade my Ram, but there are 2 x 256 , but only one is accessible, I've tried to open the laptop to access the other invisible slot after communicating with the support, but I can't get the lid off, it's stuck near the DVD and feel I'll break something if I force.
Do you think I can put a 512 while leaving the other 256 ?
The tech support said yes, but I'm not so sure.
What do you think ?

Chris J · Post by **Chris J** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:56 pm

hoffman2k wrote:Another factor could be the folders that are opened or closed when starting Live.
If you have a folder open with 1000 samples, it could take a minute longer to load, then when all folders are closed.

in fact a huge folder is opened on the desktop, and it takes 15 sec to load, whereas it's closed on the laptop,

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 11:30 pm

my understanding of DDR is that you really want to be running two identical sticks, so that it can operate in dual channel mode. Where the performance x-over would be in running 2x256 dual channel vs 1280? 768? single channel... you'd have to do some research on that i guess

after you said 3000 on your laptop processor, i googled again and there are plenty of mentions of such a chip in that laptop. it's confusing, maybe there were different versions of it.

Chris J · Post by **Chris J** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 9:47 am

regarding RAM, yes I searched too and that's the conclusion, you can only have dual channel enabled with 2 identical sticks or just one.
I'm not sure if it's enabled right now though, don't know how to tell.

regarding the CPUs, when looking at the properties, on the desktop it says 1.8 Ghz but 1.6 on the laptop. So there's definitely a difference in speed, although not enough to multiply by 12 the loading time