Computers & Hardware > PC Hardware
Computer performance
Terry74:
Hi all,
I've recently had BT/Openreach install 500 Mb/s FTTP to my home.
The Openreach guy that fitted it got something like 530Mb/s on his iphone no trouble.
I struggle to see that speed with my computers which are mainly Intel Celeron processors of varying ages. eg 2957U @ 1.4GHz an HP mini desktop achieves approx 230Mb/s down 70 Mb/s up, using Firefox and 350 Mb/s down and 70Mb/s up using Chrome. A 2955U modified chromebox achieves much the same. The processors max out with both, running Ubuntu Linux connected via ethernet.
If I try speedtest-cli via the terminal I can get 440 - 450Mb/s down and 73Mb/s up.
If I run iperf3 between these 2 computers on my network I get 944 Mb/s either way.
A chromebook with N3160 (Celeron with 4 cores) processor manages 430Mb/s down and 70Mb/s up using Chrome browser on wifi(5G),as it has no ethernet port.
My question for you knowledgable guys is what spec computer do I need to see the full download speed that my circuit is capable of?
Would an Intel i3 be OK? Would an i5 manage it? If so, of what generation?
Also, what is needed for Gigabit (900Mb/s) FTTP like my neighbour has?
Just what is the minimum computer spec necessary to download at these speeds?
Do you all run i7 or i9 top of the range computers? Surely not?
My computers suited me just fine when I had 30Mb/s FTTC, but now I just wonder what I'm missing.
Just interested.
Terry
Alex Atkin UK:
Getting full speed from a web browser should never be expected (without a download manager add-on/extension) even on a top-spec PC as its single-threaded (one download vs speedtests which do multiple concurrent downloads) and often the servers you are downloading from are speed limited or contended in some way.
So the real question is WHAT are you wanting to download at full speed? What software are you using for it?
If you have the url to something you want to download, you can try using the command line downloader axel which allows multi-threaded downloads. It basically starts the download multiple times from a different position in the file then combines them all at the end. Or try to find an add on for the browser, but I'm not fond of how those work personally.
craigski:
Just for kicks I tried something, I ran 2 speed tests at same time in 2 different browsers on my PC at exactly same time, if I add the speed together its roughly my FTTP speed.
So if you want to prove your connection, try running speed test on 2 different devices at same time, add the numbers, and should be around your 500.
Alex Atkin UK:
That has the added benefit that it will multi-thread the CPU process too, so if it IS CPU bound you're likely spreading that load across multiple CPU cores.
Weaver:
TCP-based speed tests are often problematic in my opinion. They are measuring the speed of the particular protocol and it’s implementation, not the speed of the link.
If you must use TCP, then consider downloading a large file using say ftp and time it. See https://www.thinkbroadband.com/download
However a much better result is obtained by performing a large number of downloads at the same time as this will thoroughly thrash the link. I suggest that the number of downloads should be max( 4, npipes × 2 ) where npipes is the number of internet connections that you have bonded together, if you do have any such bonded connections.
Remember that other processes may be using your own internet connection at the time of the test, either on your own machine or on other machines on your LAN. This includes background processes such as doing backups to the cloud.
Also a server at the remote end or the link coming from it may be overloaded. Do several tests and at least two in the middle of the night.
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