Win7 rating scores

[Motopsychojdn]

Ok, So I was exploring my pc (system info) and found this Windows Rating thing, I hadnt been rated apparently
Ran it and my pc scores an average of 7.4 with only a 3.2Ghz overclock, my hard drive drags the overall score down to 5.3
ok, so a new pair of hard drives in order obviously, but what is this rating, who says its good or not?
am I better using some other benchmarking tool? if so what is a 'good' score?
Not a major thing tbh, My Rig runs, I'm happy, just curious as to how much credence this number deserves.....
Moto

 

[MadAdmiral]

They mean nothing at all. Use some real benchmarking software if you actually want to know what your build can do. There's a huge list of them in one of the links from the stickies at the top of the forum. I think it's in the Step-By-Step Guide to Building a PC.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Thanks Mad,
It has pointed out what I suspected/knew,
I.E my drives need replacing and I really should look into learning how to set raid up to get a better performance but I'll check out of the posted stickies sometime tomorrow, cheers man
Moto

 

[Motopsychojdn]

3DMark gave me 45120, any good?
I noticed it was set for 1024x768 res tho, I couldn't alter that but my monitor runs 1680x1050 normally,
Moto
*Edit, erm, 3dmark 03, ahem /coughs slightly and shuffles off,
A more recent vantage gave me 6159

 

[Guest]

What size are your drives? My old Sata I Raptor 74GB gives me a score of 5.3, since it is, as stated, Sata I. Most of the Sata II drives I've used (WD Black edition, Green Edition, Hitatchi Desk Star and Samsung Spin Right's) get the score up to 5.9. If you want higher scores you'll need to upgrade to Sata III (via a Sata III PCI Express X1 card) or upgrade your board. Or pull out all the stops and run a SSD, but I have zero knowledge of such things.

 

[MadAdmiral]

I'll say again, scores don't matter. You can't get above the 5ish mark with a standard HDD (including Raptors, since the newer 500 GB platter drives are faster). Even SATA III won't make a difference.

I don't know if that scores any good or not. You can compare it to other benchmarks, but it doesn't really matter since it's an artificial benchmark. If you're able to play the games you want ann do the tasks you need it to do, the build is doing just fine.

 

[Guest]

I'll say again, scores don't matter. You can't get above the 5ish mark with a standard HDD (including Raptors, since the newer 500 GB platter drives are faster). Even SATA III won't make a difference.

I don't know if that scores any good or not. You can compare it to other benchmarks, but it doesn't really matter since it's an artificial benchmark. If you're able to play the games you want ann do the tasks you need it to do, the build is doing just fine.

Mad is correct the scores don't make any difference. They are just a "dummy" way to rate a PC for your average consumer. Most folks I know who buy computers from a store don't know enough to even check specs beforehand and just buy what they see on the showroom floor. They just see "Ooh, this is rated 5.3 and this other one is rated 4.7! Lets get the 5.3!"

So yeah, don't stress it much.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Oh Dont get me wrong Greeneman,
I put zero faith in numbers like some people do, it was just cause win7 had that rating thing and it kinda followed on from there, my criteria for a 'good' pc is I turn it on, it plays wow and surfs, Jobs a Good Un

But my drives are an old 80Gb samsung and a 160Gb Wd, I dont bother too much about them cause I dont need masses of space, The 160 is onl yin there as a backup with Xp32 bit on it, just in case
I'll probably end up getting two 160Gb 7200's for raid, but like I say, I have to learn about raid to start with hehe I just hear it make things faster so worth a look I guess
Moto

 

[MadAdmiral]

I should point out that getting a single, larger drive (like the Samsung Spinpoint F3 500 GB) would be cheaper, larger and faster than using two smaller, older drives in RAID 0. Just make sure you're getting a drive with the largest platter size available at that point. Right now, that means your choices are the Segate 7200.12 500 GB (or 1 TB), Samsung Spinpoint F3 500 GB (or 1 TB) or the Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB (the FAEX version only).

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Thanks Mad,
If I do go down the red raid road, it would be 2 new drives, But I would prefer just one drive in there for tidiness sake hehe, as I say, the only reason I have 2 in atm is ones a emergency O/s till I iron out my Win7 glitches
I'd never even half use a 320Gb drive to be honest, My other half could fill 3 Tb drives and still need more but I dont have a lot on my pc, is it still worth getting a larger capacity disk?
Moto

 

[MadAdmiral]

Probably not anything over 500 GB (the current platter size), but I certainly wouldn't buy anything smaller than that. Smaller drives are pretty expensive, and yet, slower.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Cool, I'll start planning how to divert some funds then hehe
500Gb disk to me is a massive thing I'll never half use, but if it performs better than a 320 say, then I'd go for it,
/strange feeling of getting sucked into pc performance mania
Thanks for the help Mad,
Moto