What is the Biggest Hinderance in the T4215's Performance ?

I have a fujitsu that has been running depressingly slow on startup, loading & just all around and I was wondering what would make a bigger difference in performance ...

Upgrading the Hard Drive for a 5400rpm Fujitsu to a 7200rpm Hitach Travelstar $100
(Current Windows Experiance Score is 4.5 on the Drive)

or

Upgrading Memory from 2gb to 4gb of Cas 4 latency $72
(Current Windows Experiance Score is 4.7 on the Memory)


BTW - I am running Vista Business 32bit w/ a T7400 2.16 ghz CPU

Thanks in advance

 

You can upgrade your RAM and the HDD. Both parts will increase performance, but I think you should start with RAM first.

Other options to increase the performance are software optimizations, like cleaning your hard disk (do you have enough free space?). Run CCleaner to remove some garbage. Then run Checkdisk to check the HDD. And then run a defrag tool. Remove unnessecary programs form autostart, only use good and fast AV scanners, and not slow ones, like Symantec or McAffee.

 

Get the hard drive for booting and loading. I can't see how memory would help for either of those, but it would help for almost everything else.

 

That really depends. Some manufacturers offer 1 stick of ram for easy upgrading. 1 stick of 2gb would clearly not be running dual channel.

Edit: Keep in mind you are only as fast as your slowest component. By reading your index scores it does say your hard drive is the slowest component, thus meaning it will make a larger impact.

I dont know how it could be depressingly slow, as with my 4200rpm hdd is surprisingly quick and snappy (I get a 3.7 index score).

 

My tablet is running 2 sticks of 1gb so by upgrading it I was refering to swapping out the 2x1gb sticks in favor of 2x 2gb sticks for a 4gb total.

 

Depends? Sure, and in this case, loading the OS and applications from the hard drive depends on the speed of the hard drive, not the memory because the memory is more than fast enough to accept the information from the hard drive. Memory almost always provides the best all around bang for the buck performance, but the poster wanted faster boot and loading times, and that clearly calls for an upgraded hard drive.

Anyway, as far as boot times go, I don't think you can boot to the desktop in less than 59 seconds using Vista and the fingerprint reader. I have the Hitachi 200 gig 7200 rpm drive, and 4 gigs of G.Skill 4-4-4-12 memory, and a highly optimized installation of Vista, but it still takes me 59-61 seconds to get to the desktop. I'm hoping a fast SSD will get my boot times below 45 seconds.

 

Yes, you are right, a better HDD should improve loading times, but more RAM should improve overall system speed.
However, I didn't knew how to interpret the Vista Experience index, so if the HDD is really slow, according to this values, then better start with the HDD, but a good one. I don't know what HDD you want to buy, but not every 7200RPM HDD is better than a 5400 version. So first look for some benchmarks of the HDDs. Look at Tomshardwareguide, which has some benchmarks, but also at NotebookhardwareReview, where almost every 7200 RPM HDD is noted by at least one forum member.

 

I would have to say from my research that this Hitachi Travelstar 7200rpm takes the top spot in that speed class, and is what I will probably go with being that I have been very happy with its performance in my 17" Sony. The memory is just the area more then any that I am naive in, as I have never upgraded the memory for vista or a laptop which tend to be 2 very unique experiences in and of themselves.