Unexplained performance extremes - two notebooks

[swbruce21]

I couldn't find the perfect place to ask so I posted this question under CPUs.

Please explain the extreme contrast in system performance between my 5 year old T42 ThinkPad and a new HP Pavillian G7 Notebook. The HP has twice the memory at 4Gig and a new Intel Mid-Range processor.

Performance Comparison for certain tasks:
The Thinkpad can restore a Windows 7 disk image from D: to C: in 15 minutes. Restoring the same size image on the HP takes 15 hours( actual true time)

I have a stock chart backtesting program. A specific backtest on the Thinkpad take 10 seconds. The same backtest on the HP takes about 8 minutes.

Both computers are clean new installs of Windows 7 though the ThinkPad is Win7 Pro and the HP is Win 7 home.

Just navigating the interface of the HP is slooow. We actually have two of these for some kids and they both act the same way.

Some people have told me that consumer computers are just crap, whereas the ThinkPad T series has always been a business product. But the differences are so extreme.

The HP's show better with the Passmark Performance Test in every catagory . . Disk, Processor, Video, Memory but they are painfully slow in actual use.

 

[phyco126]

Hmmm. Spec wise, the HP should be toasting the thinkpad. Perhaps it is a HDD problem. Some 5400 RPM laptop drives are rather slow, others are faster. Otherwise, I would blame HP for having either too much bloatware on their PC, or having a crappy motherboard that bottlenecks the crap out of it.

 

[87ninefiveone]

The motherboard shouldn't be an issue as they're all standard fare based pretty tightly around a set of specs for a given chipset. I'd say this can be traced right back to the hard drive in the newer HP unit. OEM's basically shove whatver they can into their units to cut costs, if Hitachi drivers are available one week and Samsungs the next then it's luck of the draw what you get. Same with memory units, my HP ENVY 17 has memory modules from two manufacturers in it. They do whatever they can to keep prices down.

As noted by the OP the Thinkpad is a business class unit and as such they're probably a lot more consistant about what goes into them as well as the quality of what goes into them. Maybe you can post the model numbers of the HDD's in each unit as obtained from Windows Device Manager, or if you have passmark on both PC's how's the scores compare between the two?

Also, are they both 32-bit or 64-bit installs? Or is one 32 and the other 64?

 

[amuffin]

Lol passmark. Don't trust passmark.

 

[swbruce21]

The motherboard shouldn't be an issue as they're all standard fare based pretty tightly around a set of specs for a given chipset. I'd say this can be traced right back to the hard drive in the newer HP unit. OEM's basically shove whatver they can into their units to cut costs, if Hitachi drivers are available one week and Samsungs the next then it's luck of the draw what you get. Same with memory units, my HP ENVY 17 has memory modules from two manufacturers in it. They do whatever they can to keep prices down.

As noted by the OP the Thinkpad is a business class unit and as such they're probably a lot more consistant about what goes into them as well as the quality of what goes into them. Maybe you can post the model numbers of the HDD's in each unit as obtained from Windows Device Manager, or if you have passmark on both PC's how's the scores compare between the two?

Also, are they both 32-bit or 64-bit installs? Or is one 32 and the other 64?

My T42 Thinkpad is 32 bit, the HP's are 64. The HP's are back at my neice and nephews house now so I can't run more tests. My question was sort of general. I set up new Dell Latitudes for a local business every few weeks too and they navigate slowly. It seems all OEM factory installations are bogged down even when ordering for a business with minimal crapware installed.

Fresh installations of Windows 7 done by self seem to work better than OEM installaitons, but that wouldn't account for the slow Disk Image restore because that is done by booting into a DVD, not the installed operating system.

Thanks for everyones reply

 

[tomhrxbfg]

hp is crap... i ll never buy hp, all 3 of my hp laptop/pc broke down in 1-2 years...In all of my cases, either the mobo fried or the HDD fails.