Orion Law Management Systems, Inc. has successfully tested and verified that Orion 4.x software products run on the Windows 7 and Server 2008 32-bit platform and 64-bit Software. This software was tested on a variety of industry leading hardware manufacturers with different configurations. During these tests, we timed several processes using the exact same hardware, database size and database configuration. We found several differences and much slower speeds on a few of our testing machines. In conjunction with the vendors we discovered that issue can depend significantly on the exact configuration of your software and hardware settings. Most notably, the Power Settings from the Control Panel.

BACKGROUND

Windows differs from previous versions with its unique approach to Power Settings. It came up with the concept of a
power plan. A power plan is a collection of hardware and system settings that manages how your computer uses and conserves power.  Power plans can save energy, maximize system performance, or balance energy conservation with performance. The default power plans— Balanced, Power Saver, and High Performance—meet most people’s needs. But you can modify settings for existing plans or create your own plan. Many manufacturers ship systems with a default power plan
designed to conserve and reduce energy. This can be done to promote “Green Energy” and other marketing projects. Often, this can come at the price of performance. Some companies claim that performance can be increased instantly to 100%; however, we are finding that this is not the case. Virtual Servers are not immune to this issue.  

Modify Your Performance within OS 

Windows 7 and Server 2008 power plan can be modified quickly and easily. It can also be modified and pushed out through Group Policy on your network.  The Power Plan can be found in the Control Panel of your computer.  Orion recommends that High Performance Power plan should be used for all workstations and servers.  For Advanced users, try playing around with the Advanced Power Settings. You can fine-tune any of the settings for a custom approach.  Be aware that by changing these settings, your computer may increase the fan speeds and make more noise to coincide with the increase in power. This is typically very minor, but you should consult with your hardware vendor before changing anything.

Modify Your Performance within the BIOS

You also should check the BIOS settings within your computer. This is especially true on older computers.  You should always check with your hardware vendor before making any change in the BIOS. Our testing confirmed by reputable sources has claimed significant improvement speeds simply by modifying the BIOS. You should review each setting and make sure it’s optimized for your system. As an example, some machines have a setting called “Power Profile”, and it should be set to Maximum Performance. On another machine, we discovered disabling ESIT (Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology) provided huge gains.

CONCLUSIONS

Be cautious of anything advertising itself as energy saving. Typically those savings come at a price. When users purchase new computers and servers, they expect new to be faster. This sometimes is not the case. Even in situations where you purchase faster processors and memory, there may be other settings limiting the total gain. It’s possible that with these limitations a new computer can have the same processing power of a much older model. Orion certainly recommends conservation, but make sure that is a setting you decide, as only you can be the best judge when balancing the environment and performance.