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General discussion

PC Performance

Jan 23, 2005 12:11PM PST

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

Discussion is locked

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And ...
Jan 23, 2005 10:08PM PST

- 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

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Check list
Jan 23, 2005 11:30PM PST

Let me analogize here: A pick-up truck is a multi-task vehcile, it can pick-up the kids from school, haul your lumber to worksite, get the groceries, go fishing with all the stuff back there, even camp, but really it just does one job very well, haul stuff in the back. Once you multi-task with any OS and those tasks become intensive doesn't expect it to do well in speed and excution as when doing single or fewer tasks. You want a gaming system, build a gaming system, you want a CAD system build a CAD system, want a Excel pgm. system, build a MS bundle system, build it for what you really plan to use it for at least 70% of the time.

The best upgrade anyone can do on a XP system is to add more "RAM". 512mb is very good, but 1gb and more is darn better. I exclude any tweeks and perks that one can find by googling for it. Try this link to get you started:
http://www.tomshardware.com read the reviews, etc.

good luck Happy -----Willy

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Great Link, Willie
Jan 24, 2005 12:58AM PST

The link in your reply ( http://www.tomshardware.com ) is a winner. A must for anyone buying or upgrading. The material is well presented and understandable by even this Newbie.
Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

DC