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    General performance: What matters most?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by halperin, May 5, 2006.

  1. halperin

    halperin Notebook Consultant

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    Im asking, what makes the most noticeable difference in performance and speed in general. I am buying a new laptop soon and wanted to know what features I should be concentrating on to get the best performance for my money. I was thinking processor speed but I keep hearing other wise. Do I go for video card, memory, processor, hard drive, what? Any info would help :) thanks.
     
    halperin, May 5, 2006
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  2. Vlad_I

    Vlad_I Notebook Evangelist

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    Your question really has no answer. There isnt one specific hardware component that will make your computer perform astonishingly. It is a combination of hardware components. For example: having the top of the line CPU and GPU will not make any difference if your hard drive is REALLY SLOW. Having a 1.66Ghz pentium M will ruin your GeForce 7900GTX and 4GB of 667Mhz RAM... Having one slow part working in a group of really fast hardware pieces will bog your system down because that one weak spot will be the bottle neck.
    The main goal is to have a setup that will work well when put together. Another example of this is having different frequencies for the FSB and the RAM. If both are 667Mhz, they work much faster together. If they mis-match, there is a performance decrease.
    What you need to do, is find out what it is that you will be doing most of on your computer. If its playing games, you need the top of the line stuff. Everything must be top notch. (AMD CPU, GeForce GPU, 2GB of RAM, 7,200RPM HDD....)
    If its Word processing, you will be set with a Celeron CPU, intergraded graphics and 512mb of 533Mhz RAM...
    Video editing and gaming is very demanding. Typing and internet surfing is VERY easy-going on the specs.
     
    Vlad_I, May 5, 2006
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  3. qwester

    qwester Notebook Virtuoso

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    It all depends on your needs. But usually this is how it goes:
    1- 1GB of RAM. If you use heavy RAM apps then get more
    2- At least 5400RPM HDD, 7200RPM is a good plus.
    3- CPU comes in third. At normal usage all CPUs of the same line run at the minimal speed to conserve power and produce less heat. Only at max usage do they throttle up and the speed difference starts to matter.

    *** IF YOU ARE A GAMER. Then a good graphic card should probably be your 1st or second priority. Otherwise just get a built-in because it will consume less power and heat up less
     
    qwester, May 5, 2006
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