[Stealth]

I conducted a social experiment last week, and thought i'd share the results with you all...

I took 20 computers at the office.  All computers are the same specs - P4s, with 1GB RAM, 60GB hard drive, etc.  Their primary responsibility is to run a Microsoft business application, and then misc. office suite products (Word, Outlook, Excel, etc.), perhaps a mozilla window here and there, etc.

On all 20 computers I installed a variable fan controller in all ten of them, right under the CD drive


On 10 of the computers -
I also installed two older case fans inside, connected to knob #1 and 2.  I instructed the employees to make sure they turned their dials to the furthest clockwise position before using the computer, to ensure optimum performance.  You could hear the fans spinning louder as you turned the dials up.

On the other 10 comuters - the variable fan control was connected to nothing. at all.  however i still instructed them to turn the dials all the way up before using

All 20 employees were under the impression that their computers received an upgrade.


Results -
I followed up today.  I asked employees if they noticed a noticeable difference in computer speed since the upgrade.
Of the 10 that had the fan controller hooked up to case fans inside their box
- 8 of them reported experiencing a noticeable difference in speed.
-- 5 of the above 8 asked why this upgrade wasn't performed months ago
- 1 of them reported noticing a difference in speed only on some days (??)
- 1 reported no difference whatsoever
Of the 10 that had the fan controller, but didn't have it hooked up to anything
- 4 of them reported an increase in speed
- 6 of them reported no increase in speed (and ALL SIX OF THEM said they suspect it wasn't hooked up properly, as their coworkers that received the same upgrade could notice an increase in performance (i.e. an increase in noise) as they turned their dials, while they were unable to

thought that was pretty interesting.  that so much weight is placed on how 'loud' a computer is, or the position of bogus dials.

[Flipside]

I am, to be honest, surprised as many noticed no difference as there was, but then, as you say, that could be because they received no audio 'award' as they turned up the dial.

Many people see computers as something like jet fighters, the more thrust, the more speed.

[jdjtcagle]

My boss's computer sounds like a jet fighter and there's no doubt in her mind that it's just trying everything it's got just to run.

[JGZinv]

My HAF 932 case moves enough air to be considered a small air conditioner,
but on the other hand it's not at all in a high pitch... so it's very easy to ignore.

[Galemp]

Heh. Reminds me of when the first passenger jet planes came into service, people were terrified of them because they couldn't see the propellors turning and didn't feel safe.

[Liberator]

My boss's computer sounds like a jet fighter and there's no doubt in her mind that it's just trying everything it's got just to run.

/edmcmahon YES! YOU ARE CORRECT SIR!

[Mika]

  Kudos for the interesting and fun social experiment!

I myself would not have expected to see any kind of performance difference by installing fans. If I did, then I would seriously question the continuation of using the provider's computers as they clearly are running overheated.

Second interesting thing is that they have noted the difference by using Microsoft Word. I'm hard pressed to notice a difference in ray-tracing speeds between my Dell Old-Something Xeon dual-core massive tabletop and the Lenovo T500 laptop. T500 is supposed to be faster (by being 4 years younger), but I haven't seen that much of a difference yet.

By the way, the amount of RAM that my old Dell laptop computer reserved when it was freshly booted to Windows XP was of order 420 Megabytes. My current computer (T500) takes about 900 Megabytes, which I find to be ridiculous amount of RAM for operating system. The Xeon tabletop consumes about 420 Mb also. I wonder what kind of **** they have put in my computer? Obviously I need to purge start up.

By the way, could I get some of those fans of yours too?  

Sounds like a same kind of stuff we had with our lawnmower when I was a kid. Father took out the doofer that limits the amount of RPMs that small single cylinder engine could pull. The resulting noise was awesome. I would have never believed you could make a lawnmower sound like an aircraft engine, but obviously you can.

But did it really improve the cutting power?

Not much.

[redsniper]

My desktop sounds like a snowspeeder.

[Stealth]

i should clarify - there was no performance difference period - the fans that were attached to the controller were side case-fans, and these computers weren't overclocked or anything - i'd be surprised if the ambient internal temperature of the case changed by even 1 degree farenheit (seriously)... they were all running super-cool in the first place

I myself would not have expected to see any kind of performance difference by installing fans. If I did, then I would seriously question the continuation of using the provider's computers as they clearly are running overheated.

there was no performance difference by installing them the only reasons i used fans, was because they made noise, and i wanted to see if employees associated 'noise' with 'performance'

[jdjtcagle]

So are you going to tell them?  How are you going to explain why you put fans on the computer to your superiors are you going to say it was a social experiment?

[Stealth]

So are you going to tell them?  How are you going to explain why you put fans on the computer to your superiors are you going to say it was a social experiment?

lol i run the IT department - i don't have to explain my actions to anyone (unless it's something major)

[karajorma]

Given the way most companies work I suspect the only complaint you'll get from the management is one complaining about why they don't have fancy fans on their machines.

[jdjtcagle]

So are you going to tell them?  How are you going to explain why you put fans on the computer to your superiors are you going to say it was a social experiment?

lol i run the IT department - i don't have to explain my actions to anyone (unless it's something major)

 

Given the way most companies work I suspect the only complaint you'll get from the management is one complaining about why they don't have fancy fans on their machines.

[Flipside]

Given the way most companies work I suspect the only complaint you'll get from the management is one complaining about why they don't have fancy fans on their machines.

So, so true...

[Mongoose]

My boss's computer sounds like a jet fighter and there's no doubt in her mind that it's just trying everything it's got just to run.

Mine sounds much the same on a frequent basis...such as right now, when it's driven the ambient temperature in my room to over 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  Apparently, P4s weren't the most energy-efficient processors in the world, and unsurprisingly, Dell's case design from five years ago isn't conducive to proper cooling in the least.

[S-99]

Employees equating a colder processor as having an increase in performance is just flabberghasting. A colder processor only equates to more stable performance not faster.

[StarSlayer]

Hardware placebo

[portej05]

Apparently, P4s weren't the most energy-efficient processors in the world

This is the reason for all that fanfare about something called 'high-k dielectrics'.
Before HfO2 became a common gate dielectric, they'd managed to get the SiO2 gate down to about 5atoms thick.
Electrons just sorta tunnelled through. One article refers to it as a 'hail of electrons'.
This is one of the reasons why the Core2 was such a big step forward.

[Ghostavo]

Knowing that at least one of Stealth's former colleague knows about this forum (see Stealth's death debacle), how long until one of the lab rats finds out what's truly going on?

[Kosh]

I think this is the digital placebo effect.