- the chipset on the motherboard
- the rotation speed, access time and cache of the hard disk
- the transfer speed of the hard disk (SATA, EIDE, SCSI); also RAID may be an issue
- if the files you use are defragged
- speed, latency and quantity of RAM memory (that are three different aspects)
- some BIOS-settings (the safer, the slower) including but not limited to overclocking
- some driver settings (like DMA)
- some other settings in Control Panel>System>Performance
- very important for games: the videocard and its settings
- of course, but a little bit off topic: background programs running
Kees
I was reading the discussion of Celeron vs. P4, and now want to expand the scope of the disucussion. Could you help me list all of the components of a PC that affect its speed? For starters, here I go ...
- the chip (amd/intel celeron/p4/athlon etc)
- the FSB (533/800 mhz etc.)
- the cache (L2/?? etc.)
- the RAM
- the pagesys file (or what else do you call it officially?)
Could someone also explain what each of the above components affects, i.e., on a given budget, which would I need to upgrade the most for the best bang for my buck if I a) just need to speed up my program, b) wish to multi-thread several programs c) run a game application etc.?
Thanks,
s b

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