How to make everything a bit faster

[BlackSnowflake]

Hey guys! I'm sort of a newbie (I've been using Mint now for a month or two) and I was wondering how I could make it faster? Not that it's not fast enough, but I always want to get every last bit of speed out of my computer.

result of inxi -F:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: linuxmint Kernel: 3.5.0-17-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: N/A Distro: Linux Mint 14 Nadia
Machine:   Mobo: ASUSTeK model: V-P8H67E version: Rev 1.xx Bios: American Megatrends version: 0702 date: 02/11/2011
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i3-2100 CPU (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1600.00 MHz 2: 1600.00 MHz 3: 1600.00 MHz 4: 1700.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GF108 [GeForce GT 440] 
           X.Org: 1.13.0 drivers: (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) FAILED: nouveau Resolution: 1920x1080@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on NVC1 GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 9.0
Audio:     Card-1: NVIDIA GF108 High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel Sound: ALSA ver: 1.0.25
           Card-2: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Card-3: Midiman driver: USB Audio
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller driver: r8169 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: f4:6d:04:e0:cc:e2
           Card-2: Atheros AR922X Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath9k 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 6c:fd:b9:32:b3:81
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 2008.2GB (13.6% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: SAMSUNG_HD204UI size: 2000.4GB 
           2: id: /dev/sdb model: Name n/a size: 7.8GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 24G used: 5.4G (24%) fs: ext4 
RAID:      No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 42.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 43.0 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes: 166 Uptime: 3 min Memory: 667.3/16032.2MB Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4 

EDIT: The CPU is actually a quad-core by the way, but my BIOS parks two of my cores and they get unparked when they are really needed (Like, when rendering videos for example)

[eanfrid]

You can start by updating your kernel to the current 3.5.0-23 to squash bugs and security issues BTW, the Intel i3 are dual-cores with hyperthreading not quad-cores

[sofasufi]

Hi there.

Correct me if I am wrong but as far as I can tell from your post, you are using a standard hard drive. If so, I would strongly encourage you to first invest in a solid state drive - I put one into my ThinkPad recently & it now feels like a new machine. After that, if you find you are maxing out your RAM on tasks & using swap, bump up your RAM as much as your system allows/you can afford. Also, check your start-up programmes & deselect any that are not necessary. Finally, consider moving to a lighter desktop as well.

I hope some of this helps.

Cheers,

SofaSufi.

[nomko]

There's not much to gain but what you can do is take a good look at your start-up applications. Uncheck every applications you don't need. Doing so makes your machine boot a bit faster although it is negligible.

Maybe this can help you:
http://www.upubuntu.com/2012/06/11-tips ... nning.html
http://www.upubuntu.com/2011/04/how-to- ... e-and.html

Else there are some tricks to speed up the speed of your browser/internet. Which browser are you using?

[eanfrid]

Since you already have 16GB of RAM, if you are not talking only about software optimizations, a SSD+HDD hardware setup is the best combination you can make for speed and reliability. You can also mount your /tmp in RAM (it will be the standard setup on Debian-based distribs) as tipped above. After that there are many file-system tweaks which can speed-up SSD/HDD read/write operations, mainly the "noatime" and "data=writeback" (for non-system partitions) mount options which will yield the most obvious benefits.