RAM:- Commonly referred to as Memory

Hard Disk Drive (HDD) which is  form of long term storage (normally a hard drive or a Solid state disk (see the article on SSD's))

 

To keep it simple we will discuss the RAM and the HDD which are the two items on a computer or laptop that in the main can be upgraded.

 

At this point, we would point out that adding extra RAM to your desktop, laptop or notebook, is the single biggest & quickest performance gain.

 

Personally I use like to equate the HDD with a filing cabinet:

that’s where you put stuff when you aren't using it, it has lots of space and it takes a 2 minutes to find anything.

 

The RAM however is a piece of paper, it doesn't have a lot of space - but it takes 1 second to find anything.

 

Now imagine the scenario, you've taken a note of someone’s phone number on your scrap of paper and you go to phone them back.

 

You look at the scrap of paper and dial the number written there - total time 1 second.

 

But now someone else calls, and you want to take a note of their number, but the scrap of paper can only hold one number at a time.

So, you copy the scrap of paper into the filing cabinet - and replace the old number on the scrap of paper with the new one - total time taken 2 minutes 1 sec
 

Then you realise that you need to phone back the first person again, so you copy the new number into the filing cabinet,  retrieve the old number and copy it to the scrap of paper - total time taken 4 mins 2 secs!
 

Obviously this is just a simplified example and it has more holes than the Perth roads, but you can get the idea - if the scrap of paper was bigger, then you'd not have to refer to the filing cabinet as often and you'd save yourself time.
 

In a computer, this is magnified significantly.  The difference in speed between accessing the RAM or something stored on the HDD is not 120 times faster like the above example but closer to 1000 times faster!
 

This wonderful speed gain applies to EVERYTHING your computer, laptop or notebook does:
 

From loading Windows

Typing a search into Google has to be loaded into RAM.

Document editing

iTunes and in fact nearly every operation of task that you ask your computer to perform

 

 When the RAM fills up, then something has to get copied to the HDD which slows everything down, this process is called 'Paging' and you will hear the dish churning away and the hard disk access light flashing away furiously.

So the bottom line is

 

More RAM = Less Paging = Much More Speed!

At PC Solutions,  we offer three main types of laptop: New,Nearly New and Refurbished.

 

Unless otherwise stated all of our New, Nearly New & Refurbished laptops come with a battery. However the condition of each battery will vary.

As with all rechargeable batteries, laptop batteries have a limited usable life.

Batteries are consumable parts which are not covered by warranties provided by PC Solutions or indeed any other supplier except in the case of New Laptops.

 

The New laptops we have for sale are brand new, and as you'd expect come with brand new batteries with the normal warranties as supplied by the laptop manufacturer.

 

The Nearly New laptops in most circumstances have batteries with little or no use and therefor have very good life left.

 

The Refurbished laptops have had more use and their batteries can vary dramatically. 

 

The batteries will  functional, but we can only give an indication as to the possible expected performance

. 

If using your refurbished laptop on the battery is important to you then you should take into account the possibility of needing to replace the battery.

 

Sometimes replacement batteries can be more expensive than the laptop itself especially in the refurbished range.

 

PC Solutions are hoping to provide more detailed indications of battery performance in the near future, look out for this information to be added to product information pages.

• Latest Windows and Driver updates (at time of preparation)
• iTunes
• Adobe Flash
• Adobe Reader
• Java
• Free  60 day trial of Bullguard Internet Security
• Free Optional laptop anti-theft software

PC Solutions Performance Rating System

 

Our aim is to help you make an informed choice when purchasing a new or refurbished, laptop, notebook, netbook or desktop computer.

 

The computer industry is notorious for using gobbledegook, numbers and phrases that most folk don’t have a clue about. Most computer buyers just want to make an informed buying decision, without have to have an IT degree just to understand and comprehend the marketing material! 

 

At PC Solutions, we felt that the complex nature of PC hardware often led to confusion for end users, questions like 'is a Pentium 4 better than a Pentium 7' and 'is this laptop better because it has a bigger hard drive?' were often leading to complex answers (there have been at least seven different processor architectures with the Pentium brand - and three of them are just called 'Pentium') we felt that developing an easily comparable Performance Rating would allow the users to check and differentiate between different devices.

 

The Performance Rating Score is shown on every laptop, desktop, notebook or netbook that we sell both in our retail & web shops (fully searchable).

 

The Performance Rating only takes into account the core components that can greatest influence on system performance. The system Performance Rating calculation it outputs a number greater than 1, the higher the number the greater the system performance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mathematics behind the rating are simple, but more to the point they are consistent - every device, laptop, desk top, netbook or notebook  are rated according to the same formula, so a Performance Rating of 7 is always better than a Performance Rating of 5.

 

The calculation starts with Amount of Processor Cores + Amount of RAM (in GB's) + The Basic Core Frequency of the Processor

 

For instance my laptop has 2 Cores running at 1.6Ghz with 8GB of RAM = 11.6

A standard netbook will have 1 core running at 1.6Ghz with 1GB of RAM = 3.6

 

A chip bonus is added based on the processor type:

  a single core processor gets no bonus 

  a core2duo gets 3 

  a Sandy Bridge i5 gets 5.

 

My laptop has a core 2 duo processor so it get an additional 3 = 14.6

 

Our example netbook has an atom processor with gets a penalty of - 0.5 bringing the score to 3.1

 

Finally additional bonuses are awarded for specific hardware that boosts performance. 

Solid State Disks which are super-fast hard drive replacements get an extra 3 and Hyper Threading processors gets an extra 0.5, per core.

 

The laptop that I use is fitted with an SSD so my laptop is awarded an additional 3 bringing my final score to 17.6

 

The netbook however has no addition performance boosting hardware, leaving its score at 3.1

 

We hope this has helped you understand a part of the technical aspect of our Performance Rating and will make the selection of your new or refurbished laptop a little bit easier.

If ordering online is not for you, you can give one of our computer engineers a call and they'll guide you through your purchase to make sure you get something suited to your needs.

 

 

Want to purchase your computer face to face, then pop into our show room. Enjoy a fresh cup of coffee while you browse our extensive ran

ge of new and refurbished computers that are all connected to the internet. Our engineers will be delighted to assist you or leave you in peace to decided. The choice is yours.

Our online payment gateway is provided by SagePay in conjunction with a leading UK bank so you can be sure that your credit card details and indeed the whole transaction is fully protected.

After you've placed your order you'll receive an order confirmation with the details to track the status of your order. We even offer a text messaging service; just fill in your mobile details when you order,