How fast is your computer?

[cheko]

I'm doing my project of how fast is your computer. https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... ?from=Home. K i think im starting to get it now. I just have a question on the applet timing right now. Let me get this straight. Does the applet timing tell me how fast my computer is running? how fully? and where would I find the applet timing on a windows 95, 98, and xp? answer asap and thanks a lot.

[raytrent]

This particular applet uses a very primitive notion of how fast a computer is, which is how fast it performs certain mathematical computations such as addition.

This is fine as far as it goes, but it doesn't tell you how "fast" your machine is because that depends on a lot of other variables besides the raw speed of the processor (e.g. if you don't have enough memory, your machine will spend a lot of time reading and writing stuff to the disk... known as "paging"). Search for "benchmarks" in Google for more information on measures of computer speed.

Do you have any ideas about the scope of your project? Just doing this on your computer, of course, wouldn't be very interesting. Perhaps some kind of correlation between someone's computer speed and some other characteristic they have (parents own their own home, GPA, brand of computer, etc., etc.) would be an interesting thing to test.

[ChrisG]

Others here may know more about this than me, but here's my take:
Yes, the applet tells you how fast your computer can process certain types of commands. However, it does not measure all the capabilities of your computer, because it does not test all the components (e.g. your graphics card). Your computer could be very fast at running that Java program, but very slow at displaying graphics. For more info try a google search for "computer bottleneck."

That applet should run in any operating system that has a Java enabled browser. Just go back to that link that you included and click on the buttons.

[cheko]

K i get ya i think. lol I pretty much wanna test the tipical speed of all actions done in your brower but ill look into what you are saying.

[thetrans1ent]

1. You may want to pick a specific computer component for benchmarking.
2. Note that browsers are not exactly calculation-intensive processes and thus the "typical speed" would not be all that much different on different platforms. Also, as previously mentioned, there are many variables that determine performance. A computer may be faster than another at data compression but slower at running Java. Etc. Try to narrow down what process you're testing to something that is computation-intensive and widely used on modern machines.

Hope that helps.

[cheko]

all good input but did you all check out the link? make sure you read my post fully before we reply please. It seems as if your posts are drifting away from what i found on science buddies or is science buddies just an unreliable source? Check the link out please! https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... ?from=Home

[thetrans1ent]

K i get ya i think. lol I pretty much wanna test the tipical speed of all actions done in your brower but ill look into what you are saying.

You specifically stated--as quoted above--that you want to "test the tipical speed of all actions done in your brower"--which is not what the timing applet project is about. As stated on the site: "The goal of this project is to compare how long it takes to perform various mathematical operations with different variable types."

As Ray stated already, the applet does not tell you how "fast" your machine is. I'd add this the applet does not tell you how "fast" your browser is either.

Hope that helps.

[ChrisG]

all good input but did you all check out the link? make sure you read my post fully before we reply please. . .

Hi Cheko,
Sorry that you aren't getting the responses that you expected. The internet can be a tricky mode of communication. I expect that, like me, the other experts actually did check the link and did read your post. More likely, there has been some misunderstanding about the questions or the responses. No worries. We'll figure it out.

Are you planning to closely follow the project outline that's shown on the page "How fast is your computer?"

[cheko]

woah eh! this project is like woah! thetrans1ent thanks a lot that makes a lot more sence then all other shizzle dizzle. ya'll have stupid ol me confuzeled! Yes I am planning to closely follow the project outline that's shown on the page "How fast is your computer?" now that was a smart and simple understanding question but yeah I better figure it out cuz it's due on Feb. 13 and they didn't give us as much time as last year (lol I would of just put it off anyway ). Anywho keep posting please eh!

[robertreavis]

You may get more help if you used standard English. Could you translate what you are asking for?

I have been using computers since 1969, so I can tell you about speed measurements, but only if I can understand the questions.

Robert Reavis

[davidkallman]

Hi cheko!

There are standard benchmarks to use, millions of instructions per second, floating point operations per second, Whetstone (spelling?) operations per second - which is a scientific benchmark. You might want to try one of these, or you can develop your own benchmark if you know your application.

[cheko]

ok my posts are hard to understand. I am just trying to understand my topic. I hope this experiment is short cuz it's due next week and im screwed. Im posting a new topic on understand my science fair topic if any1 can help me here.