Why do some systems start up so quickly?

[lexidobe]

I am just wondering why some systems start up so quickly compared to other systems with much better specs. One example of this is an old HP desktop that a friend gave me years ago. It had a Core 2 Duo E6300, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, and an Intel X25-M SATA gen 2 SSD and that system started up in 10 seconds from the Windows logo to the desktop with no special tweaks other than disabling some unneeded services. It was so fast it couldn't even finish the Windows startup animation! And it was usable the second it loaded the desktop. Here's a video of it that I recorded back in 2014.

My main system has a Core i7-6850K, 16GB RAM, and a Samsung 960 Pro NVME SSD takes nearly 20 seconds to boot Windows 7 from the Windows logo to the desktop. Not bad, but about twice as long as the much older and slower system! This isn't the first time I have seen something like this either, it seems that you just can't accurately predict a system's boot time by it's specs. Why is this? 

[The Torrent]

background software. always background software.

 

go buy any shitty laptop for under 200 quid from your local hardware store with an ssd in (or even often a hdd) and watch the speeds.

 

the slightest software starts slowing down start time.

 

then stuff like bios profiles and rgb controllers take out their portion.

[nick name]

During the Power On Self Test it's doing exactly what it sounds like so simple systems will POST faster than more complex systems.  

[lexidobe]

1 minute ago, The Torrent said:

background software. always background software.

 

go buy any shitty laptop for under 200 quid from your local hardware store with an ssd in (or even often a hdd) and watch the speeds.

 

the slightest software starts slowing down start time.

 

then stuff like bios profiles and rgb controllers take out their portion.

True, but that's not what's going on here since both systems had no startup items enabled, the same unneeded services disabled, and pretty much no 3rd party software on either system. I don't think the BIOS profile has any effect of the boot time after Windows starts booting?

[lexidobe]

1 minute ago, nick name said:

During the Power On Self Test it's doing exactly what it sounds like so simple systems will POST faster than more complex systems.  

Good point. Doesn't the power on self test only last until Windows starts booting though? Or does it continue testing things during the entire Windows boot process? 

[nick name]

Just now, lexidobe said:

Good point. Doesn't the power on self test only last until Windows starts booting though? Or does it continue testing things during the entire Windows boot process? 

No.  Once you have a successful POST it will display the splash screen for the manufacturer.

[lexidobe]

6 minutes ago, nick name said:

No.  Once you have a successful POST it will display the splash screen for the manufacturer.

That's what I thought. So after the manufacturer's BIOS screen shows up the BIOS no longer affects boot times. Is that correct? 

[nick name]

Just now, lexidobe said:

That's what I thought. So after the manufacturer's BIOS screen shows up the BIOS no longer affects boot times. Is that correct? 

Well I couldn't say whether that's 100% true or not.  

[lexidobe]

56 minutes ago, nick name said:

Well I couldn't say whether that's 100% true or not.  

Once the system is running the BIOS chip can be removed and the system will still continue to run fine until it is rebooted, but I haven't tried pulling the BIOS chip during the Windows boot process. 

[Roswell]

Because BIOS posting is now rolled into your boot times with secure boot.

 

Nevermind, I didn't notice you were still running 7. You should really update.

[mr moose]

I've had many different systems with either 7 or ten and the load times vary quite a bit depending on many factors,  I have a cheap acer laptop with WD green ssd and it cold boots in about 10sec (haven't removed the bloatware yet), while I have a reasonably spec'd desktop that takes 10 sec just to get passed posting.   But only 3 sec to load in windows and have me browsing the net.