Something You'd Like To See Improved

[Aujuba]

What do you think would make your computer better?

For me I just can't stand the slow startup and shutdown when turning my computer on and when shutting it down.

In addition, the slow reaction of CD/DVD drives when opening and closing including those on dvd players for TVs just wastes time again. Finally the giant CPUs for home computers take up too much space. I would like to see the CPUs brought down to the size of a small book. So Microsoft and Apple get to it. have you got any ideas?

I'm sure things will get better; it is only a matter of time.

[sabajja]

Ahummm, the CPU isn't much larger than a stamp.

With it's cooling plate it's about half the size of an diskette.

IF it were the size of a small book, how do you think laptops would look today ?

Regarding CD/DVD door speed, if you can't wait for the slider door to open, I guess you must be in a BIG hurry, lol

Is Thailand the right country for you ?

Examining the startup items on your computer, and only keeping the neccessary ones, will undoubtedly speed up your boot/shut down time.

[Master of the court]

What do you think would make your computer better?

For me I just can't stand the slow startup and shutdown when turning my computer on and when shutting it down.

In addition, the slow reaction of CD/DVD drives when opening and closing including those on dvd players for TVs just wastes time again. Finally the giant CPUs for home computers take up too much space. I would like to see the CPUs brought down to the size of a small book. So Microsoft and Apple get to it. have you got any ideas?

I'm sure things will get better; it is only a matter of time.

Im just waiting for a pc I can tell to fix problems when they happends...........same idea as NO HAND RESTAURANT

[Aujuba]

Maybe CPU isn't the right word for the box and all its junk inside. If PCs couldn't be improved you wouldn't be on the net right now. Like the 57 Chevy some people liked the TRS80. I asked for things you'd like to see improved. If you like everything about your computer please don't upgrade anything as it would be a sign of insanity. As for examining the startup times on my comp that's been done. I just would like my computer to turn on and off like a lightbulb (not a flourescent one!). It really is the future. It may be hard to imagine for some. There was a the time when people used to burn a piece of wood for light.

I can see that day coming, Master.

[lingling]

Maybe CPU isn't the right word for the box and all its junk inside. If PCs couldn't be improved you wouldn't be on the net right now. Like the 57 Chevy some people liked the TRS80. I asked for things you'd like to see improved. If you like everything about your computer please don't upgrade anything as it would be a sign of insanity. As for examining the startup times on my comp that's been done. I just would like my computer to turn on and off like a lightbulb (not a flourescent one!). It really is the future. It may be hard to imagine for some. There was a the time when people used to burn a piece of wood for light.

Take a look at nano-ITX or mini-ITX if you want a smaller PC. You can get that hardware from a bunch of manufacturers, but here's one to start with:

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainboards/

As for the startup times, use standby or hibernation instead of switching off... ...or just leave it on and just switch off the monitor...

[bino]

I would like to see the CPUs brought down to the size of a small book.

This one is here already....

Acer Power 1000

About the size of a new edition hardcover book. Compare it to the 17 inch LCD in the picture.

Saw it about a week ago in the Acer shop at Central Lad Prao.

[cdnvic]

I can see a point five years or less in the future when slow, power consuming hard disks are replaced with flash memory. Hard disks being used mostly as backups.

[gharknes]

What do you think would make your computer better?

For me I just can't stand the slow startup and shutdown when turning my computer on and when shutting it down.

In addition, the slow reaction of CD/DVD drives when opening and closing including those on dvd players for TVs just wastes time again. Finally the giant CPUs for home computers take up too much space. I would like to see the CPUs brought down to the size of a small book. So Microsoft and Apple get to it. have you got any ideas?

I'm sure things will get better; it is only a matter of time.

I don't think things will get that much smaller but if you compare size versus performance - they do a lot more per cubic inch than they did 5 10 20 30 years ago, 30 years ago you'd have needed something the size of an apartment block to manage the same workload as a modern cpu...............in fact it may not have been possible regardless of size, it is quite amazing what they can cram into such a small space, I remember my first Hardrive was 10mb and it was the size of a shoe box, even with todays technology there are sacrifices when you start to reduce in size, power consumption and cooling probably being the main ones, if you introduced some kind off nitrogen cooling integrated onto the chips then they could probably be reduced significantly in size but would also cost a fortune, did you know that if you removed the heatsink and fan assembly from a CPU it would shut down in a few seconds due to overheating even from a cold start

[lingling]

I can see a point five years or less in the future when slow, power consuming hard disks are replaced with flash memory. Hard disks being used mostly as backups.

Already this year there will be hybrid HDDs from Seagate and Samsung on the market - a HDD with a flash based cache.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/...5400_psd_hybrid

http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/index.htm

[gharknes]

I can see a point five years or less in the future when slow, power consuming hard disks are replaced with flash memory. Hard disks being used mostly as backups.

Already this year there will be hybrid HDDs from Seagate and Samsung on the market - a HDD with a flash based cache.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/...5400_psd_hybrid

http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/index.htm

well not sure there would be an improvemnt in size as the memory would have to be cooled if driven hard, only advantage would maybe be reliabilty.....no moving parts

[lingling]

well not sure there would be an improvemnt in size as the memory would have to be cooled if driven hard, only advantage would maybe be reliabilty.....no moving parts

Benefit: speed - flash is a lot faster than a HDD.

Drawback: lifetime - flash has a limited number of write cycles, currently much less than a HDD.

[sniffdog]

The main culprits for slow startup and shutdown are probably all those programs in the taskbar.

You can help yourself a lot in minimizing the amount of these apps.

[sierra01]

I use a couple of small programs called Superfast shutdown and Slawdog smart shutdown, superfast really is superfast but Slawdog is more controllable.

http://www.soft20.com/download-11-25020.html

http://www.slawdog.com/products/smartsd/index.aspx

[Naam]

The main culprits for slow startup and shutdown

is impatience. i switch on my computers in the morning, go for a pee, brush my teeth and.... SURPRISE XP has started up on all of them (most of the time). in the evening i shut them down, leave my study and don't worry how long it takes till they shut down.

[lingling]

I can see a point five years or less in the future when slow, power consuming hard disks are replaced with flash memory. Hard disks being used mostly as backups.

If you have some leftover RAM you can always get a couple of these:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Storag...Name=GC-RAMDISK

[sabajja]

One sure way of obtaining almost instant shutdown/startup, is to install

windows 98 onto a top of the line computer of today.

I run win98 on a virtual machine inside XP, and that baby is just flying !!

Alot like putting a small jockey onto a big horse

[peter991]

A sure-fire method of getting you computer to start faster is to find our exactly what it loads when you start it up.

Go to Start -> Run and type MSCONFIG

Click on the Startup tab and you will see a list of programmes which start up when you start your computer. Untick the boxes you don't want to run then restart your box.

You will amazed how much faster it will start up with the unnecessary items not running. It's a bit like emptying the back of a pick-up. Better performance.

Likewise - use HIBERNATE instead of Shut Down.

Peter

[cdnvic]

I bought this XP machine on Dec 22. I has been turned off once to install a TV tuner, and rebooted once in that time. I forget how long the startup time is.

I've had linux and freebsd desktops go months without a shutdown.

[Remo]

Just find me a battery that actually lasts as long as its supposed to and I will be happy

[nikster]

I can see a point five years or less in the future when slow, power consuming hard disks are replaced with flash memory. Hard disks being used mostly as backups.

Hmm... with HD movies about 25G a pop, and perhaps even 50 and the fact that I would think it sufficient if my HD can store 1000 of them that's a 50TB disk, preferrably in a laptop. This year we have 300G that point is about 8 - 9 years away if HD capacity doubled every year.

I am in for a long wait besides, by that time I am sure there's tons of new crap to fill our HDs.

So yes if I could improve anything about the PC definitely the hard disk - it needs to be a lot faster, and I think flash will dramatically improve things there. It also needs to be much bigger and here I don't see any hopeful new technologies arise... flash currently is even worse than traditional HDs. It might improve faster though...

[OM3N]

I would REALLY like to be able to upgrade to a high quality video card on my laptop to play the new generation of games (Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion). But currently this is impossible. It seems to me that they could make some sort of external device, but I really have no idea.

[astral]

For me I just can't stand the slow startup and shutdown when turning my computer on and when shutting it down.

I wonder how old your machine is?

Newer faster processors, memory and disks do speed up startup and shutdown a great deal.

You may just have to live with it, until you upgrade your machine.

[backflip]

In the next few months, you will be Blu-ray ODD drives, and unlocked Merom processors that will allow the user to tweak their computer to 3-4GHz. Woohoo!

You will also see hybrid HDDs with on-board flash memory that will allow much quicker boot-ups (15-20 seconds for professional-level Vista) and shut-downs.

[LivinLOS]

I still have a toshiba libretto from yars and years back.. AS small as a hardback book.. check !!

Learn how to configure hibernate and suspend and XP can startup in a couple of seconds.. Though my main desktop simply stays on 24/7..

[sensei]

I would like to see the CPUs brought down to the size of a small book.

This one is here already....

Acer Power 1000

About the size of a new edition hardcover book. Compare it to the 17 inch LCD in the picture.

Saw it about a week ago in the Acer shop at Central Lad Prao.

sorry mate,

acer sucks big time...

[nikster]

A sure-fire method of getting you computer to start faster is to find our exactly what it loads when you start it up.

Go to Start -> Run and type MSCONFIG

Click on the Startup tab and you will see a list of programmes which start up when you start your computer. Untick the boxes you don't want to run then restart your box.

You will amazed how much faster it will start up with the unnecessary items not running. It's a bit like emptying the back of a pick-up. Better performance.

Likewise - use HIBERNATE instead of Shut Down.

Peter

I agree with cleaning out the startup - a lot of programs think themselves so important that they install themselves there, so you need to clear it out every once in a while. I use the (free) program CodeStuff starter for that, because it has a nicer interface and tells me what exactly all those programs are that want to start up.

I don't agree on hibernate, I find that A) Windows is dead slow after coming out of hibernate and wastes lots of time to "get going" again, and nothing like a restart to keep windows running smoothly. I either go to suspend mode or shut down. Also the hibernate file uses as much disk space as you have RAM... I have 2GB which is a disadvantage here

[nikster]

I would REALLY like to be able to upgrade to a high quality video card on my laptop to play the new generation of games (Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion). But currently this is impossible. It seems to me that they could make some sort of external device, but I really have no idea.

Asus showed an external video card for laptops at the CES recently.

http://tech.yahoo.com/ces/null/11883

[sensei]

run advanced windows care version 2 at least once a week,

You'll be amazed how this simple tool could free up so much space

and clean up tons of gunk from your machine...

its a one-click solution that performs 7 critical checks on your machine...

Iobit generously offers this product for free at

http://www.iobit.com/AdvancedWindowsCarePersonal/

[cdnvic]

sorry mate,

acer sucks big time...

Well that very technical review certainly added a qualified opinion to the mix.

I've never had a problem with Acer and just added a new Desktop. Have to be some of the best PC machines out there, and extremely easy to work on. All the hardware is top quality, and fits together flawlessly. It's design awards are well deserved.

Their LCDs are ok, but they lack the contrast of the Samsungs.