Hard drive or CPU

[handrawn]

always happier backstage rather than front - when I was at uni sheffield [long time ago] we had the who play in the student union building, the whole place bounced, suprised it didn't slide halfway down western bank...

[behzad]

Chris thank you for the offer and the info, thanks to everyone else too. Will eventually decide on one of those options or even better invest in a new computer. I hope it is okay to run by you guys the laptop I want to get in the near future?

[behzad]

Guys something does not add up, when xara is processing the website for output , see attached, the system is hardly using any Disk or memory or cpu. Am I missing something, maybe it is xara that is slow.

[Chris M]

How big is the xar file? If it's too big to upload here, use your hosting or one of the cloud services so we can test how long it takes to publish to a dummy site.

[xtom]

Not sure how it works but it could be one core is doing the heavy lifting at 100% while the rest are idle-ish. So CPU0@100% CPU1@0% CPU2@0% CPU3@0% would give an overall CPU of 25% but could still take time to finish the export process while that one core is still busy. If you open the Resource Monitor at the bottom of that task manager it will give readout for each core. It looks pretty balanced when I test it just now on a small 5 page site but if you have a bigger site with big images it might show a more noticeable difference.

[behzad]

The file is clients work so I can not upload it. But the stats are below.


I am attaching the Resource Monitor screen shot here too.

[xtom]

Yeah even though overall CPU is at 35% it looks like CPU3 core is busy at 100%. My guess is it's exporting a big image or multiple images on that core. Even though the program is multi-core it might still use just one core for the heavy lifting in the export process. If this is the bottleneck then a better CPU would speed things up, of course along with an SSD to write the files out quicker. Best bet is to get a new computer with a faster CPU and an SSD drive imo.

[behzad]

Yes I agree xtom. Would you say the Xara programmers did not utilize their code?

[handrawn]

xara claim multicore support

they also claim .PSD support - but you try importing a PSD file with clipping layers and see where it gets you

clipping layers are almost universal in the work I do, and I am not alone in this; so when xara claim in their feature list [my emphasis]:

Xara Designer Pro has full support for importing and exporting Adobe Photoshop® PSD files including layer support.

I know it was written by a marketing bull****er who wants to make what is only a halfway house look good [which I know is what marketeers are paid to do ]

xara multicore support is probably only a halfway house - they are very good at halfway houses; in fact you could say quite a few of their features fall short of what you would expect in a' pro' program but at the end of the day it is down to cash I would imagine

for example in animation :

harmony premium costs 1500 GBP to buy permanent license; 975 GBP to upgrade that, alternatively 230 GBP per annum to get support and continual access to the latest version[s] but you revert back if you stop this [but you do still get the fixes for the version you originally bought] - there is also a rolling monthly/annual plan same as adobe

at this sort of pricing you an expect service - xara is an inexpensive program; yes such things are relative, but it is.. you only get so much for your money....

[lex]

Hello,

An SSD is the best upgrade you can opt for, and if you want a new computer, I would suggest an HP Z series workstation (e.g. https://www8.hp.com/us/en/workstations/z4.html). I am still using an old HP Z400 with an SSD which runs everything I throw at it perfectly (e.g. I use many virtual machines). New Z workstations are expensive, but used ones can be had at reasonable priices, and offer the best price/performance ratios around (e.g. check eBay for "HP Z420 workstation"). Their reliability is top-notch, so buying a used one is not a big risk.

Chris thank you for the offer and the info, thanks to everyone else too. Will eventually decide on one of those options or even better invest in a new computer. I hope it is okay to run by you guys the laptop I want to get in the near future?