What pc spec gives fastest excel data processing? 1

[astrikor]

I am running excel 2000 with windows xp for data processing using cell formulas and visual basic algorithms.

My pc uses a 1.40 ghz AMD Athlon processor with 256mb ram, MSI MS-6380E 1.0 main board, 133 mhz bus clock. The process cycle takes 110 minutes to complete - this is far too long.

Windows task manager tells me the cpu is running at only 35% capacity - why is it not 100%?

As I am thinking of upgrading, can anyone advise me which pc features are critical to achieve fastest processing performance?

Thanks

 

[franklin97355]

The hardware does not control how much of the processor headroom is used. That task belongs to software.

 

[micker377]

The process cycle takes 110 minutes"
"cpu is running at only 35% capacity"

What "process"? Where are you getting this "35%" reading? My CPU usually runs at around 2 - 4 %. You want as large of an "idle" time as possible for efficiency.

 

[baltman]

RAM- to be sure look at how much memory is available in task manager.

What really kills Excel is linking to a formula that relies on a lot of other formulas. For example, if you are summing a formula result it'll take forever. Add that sort of behavior using VB and use a button to invoke it so it doesn't continually try to update itself.

Excel isn't really designed to be a really complex modeling application and does have limits. Also, Excel XP supposedly has a better data engine than Excel 2000.

Brian

 

[monsky]

Yup, it really depends on the software. A faster processor may speed things up but will not really utilize 100% of the processor.

I don't know if it will help but you can try adjusting the priority of excel by right clicking on it in the processes tab in Task Manager.

 

[ceh4702]

I suggest really fast hard drives, fastest processor, and lots of memory. If you had a WD 10,000 RPM Raptor HD that would speed up any drive access. Microsoft Office suite programs really use a lot of Memory. Try 1 gig of RAM and see if that helps. A fast processor would really help also. The 1.4 Gig AMD Processor runs at 266Mhz FSB and prohibits the big advantage of faster RAM. I would recommend at least a Barton Core processor because it has a larger Cache Size wich makes the processor run faster. However, a P4 might actually run faster. Processor speed is probably extremely important.

MS Excel is lousy at handling large files and lots of processing. Straight VB and a comma separated file might be faster for processing. I dont understand this love of MS Excel. There may be some things you can redesign in the way you process the data to make it faster.

The computer is fairly slow and you cant utilize faster memory with a 266Mhz FSB Processor. If the program is constantly rewriting a file, then Drive access will slow it down. When this happens the CPU waits on the drive access. 256MB of memory is not enough for todays tasks. I would not attempt to evern run Word with less than 512Megs of RAM.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[astrikor]

Thanks ceh4702
I have now written a short excel program as a personal benchmark. It takes 12 seconds on mny pc (1.4gig Athlon as above). I have tried it on a friends Pentium 4, 2.8GHz 256kB RAM, 533MHz bus and it takes 10 seconds. I should point out that it does not access the hard drive, and is run with the spreadsheet already open.

Considering that the processor is twice the speed and the bus is three times the speed, it seems odd that my benchmark program is only rumming about 20% faster. Noting your comments about RAM size (same on both these machines) do you think this is blocking the performance?

Does anyone have other ideas?

Thanks - Astrikor

 

[dhulbert]

astrikor

It's going to depend on what your doing but Excel gets really slowed down if it's accessing data from other spreadsheets that are not open. I would always recomend you open any related sheets and make sure your PC has loads of fast RAM.