You Tube and Heavy Internet Flash Gaming Use - What Hardware

[dwilsonfl]

My wife complains that her R51 is "slow". Since all she does is Google Reader, Outlook Express, You Tube Videos, and flash games like Winster, I'm not sure why she's experiencing this "slowness."

We don't buy new, or newish, which is why we have the R51 and I have an X40 (and an X31 on the way).

Does anyone know if there are ways to "speed up" the R51 to be quicker in those tasks she does?
Is there an older - oldish TP that would be better for her?

Thanks

[RealBlackStuff]

R51 is close to T42 (similar to R50/T41 and R52/T43).
I'd say there is no going back, only forward to a T60/T61 or Z60/Z61.

Does it have the integrated Intel or discrete ATI graphics?
Have you maxed out the RAM (2GB)?
How fast is the hard disk, a good 5400rpm with 8MB cache, or a 7200rpm may also improve things.
If she runs XP, change it to run in Classic mode.

[beGi]

Also you can reduce number of programs (and services) that you don't need but are working in background to free up load on processor, RAM and page file...

If you have maxed you RAM and it still doesn't run those tasks smoothly then processor can't take the load...

[sjthinkpader]

Generally speaking the disk should be less than 50% full, cleaned and defrag'ed as frequently as possible. Made sure there are no spyware lurking in the background.

I am using a T42p with a 1.7Ghz Dothan, should be equal computational power as a R51. But it has a 160GB HDD and 2GB RAM. This is really the optimal package, good computational power and low power consumption.

[aaa]

You need to figure out exactly what she's talking about, then you'll know if it's a software issue or ram issue or what.

Plus what are the specs on the R51?

Anyhow, flash is very cpu dependent, but I would think that an R51 should be enough (dunno what the cpu speed is though).

[dwilsonfl]

It's a Banias chip, 1.6 I think. 5400 HD 25% full and defragged often. No spyware. 2 gig of RAM.

I'll have to grab it tomorrow and see what I can find out.

[ajkula66]

That's the "original TPF project" R51 that Harry was in charge of, correct?

[dwilsonfl]

correct, with a different HD (Seagate Momentus ST980815A 80GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache I believe) that's bigger and faster, and maxed out on RAM.

[ajkula66]

That machine should be plenty for what your better half is doing...however:

a) Let' see how many processes there are running on a freshly booted unit...

b) Maybe these drivers will help the performance of Radeon 9000 on that R51:

http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~schmitzr/ATIPOWPL.zip

[sjthinkpader]

and pick up a Dothan 1.7Ghz CPU for cheap.

[virge]

The R51 should be plenty fast for flash video. My junky Toshiba with a Celeron 750mhz CPU and 128MB RAM can run flash video smoothly, albeit not at full screen. You might want to look at the Task Manager and check the CPU and memory loads.