2 same pcs different h/drives- speed

[tali122]

hypothecical question :assume 2 identical pcs 900mhz processor/256 mb ram - but hard drives are different

1) 20gb with 18gb full and only 2gb free

2) 40gb with 30gb full and 10gb free

so 1 is running to almost full capacity, whereas 2 has more free space - but has to run 12gb more- the question i want to know is which pc will run quicker/slower?

[vehelpfulguy]

I think you misunderstand how computers work.

The amount of data on the hard disk does not affect how fast the computer runs. Data stored on hard disk just sits there till it is required, so uses no computer processing.

With these two computers the main thing that will affect it is how many programs you have actually running.

Each program you start (including Windows) goes into computer memory.

Then the data needs to be passed from memory to the CPU (processor) for action.

So what will slow the computer down is having lots of programs loaded in memory, and data continually being passed to the CPU.

Try it, start Windows media player and start playing a video clip, then keep starting media player 9 more times playing more video clips and see the computer slow down.

What will REALLY slow it down is if you load so many programs you run out of real memory. Then data needs to be swapped OUT of real memory and stored in special area on hard disk.

When it is needed it is then swapped back in to memory again. This swapping is a slow process (in computer terms) so will really slow the computer down.

[fo3nix]

they will both run same speed initially.

if RAM becomes full, 2) wll be better as you can have a larger swap file.

[rojash]

Having a larger swop file won't make it perform better. If there is adequate swop space, they will perform the same. If one of them runs out of swop space, it will pretty much cease to function until you close some programs.

[fo3nix]

yes but the one with more swap space will be able to run for longer.

[OBonio]

My thoughts on this are to do with swap files. The 1st computer has less space to play about with regard to using a swap file and will have to jig things about a lot more causing the HDD to thrash more than the 2nd. This will degrade performance. But only if you have a large swap file.

Other than that, seek times of the HDDs may be different but I would doubt you'd notice much performance differences.

Depends what you're using the systems for I suppose.