What Are The Factors On Which The Speed Of A Computer Depends?

In my opinion the factors that determine the speed of the computer and make the computer become faster or slower are the following

 

RAM

 

I think ram plays the most important role in determining how well your computer performs. I say this because I have a PC having two RAM card of 256mb each. Once for the experiment I removed one of them and the result was more than twice slower computer on each and every aspect no matter whether it was loading of windows or running of applications etc.

 

Softwares and applications

 

The second big contender is the softwares and applications. Those softwares like the antivirus softwares that actively use a large share of computer memory make computer work slower. Also I must mention that the softwares that tend to load on system startup also effect the loading speed of the computer and make a considerable addition to it.

 

Processor

 

Processor speed does not matter as much as the RAM but still it does have an effect on certain processes. When the processor capabilities are less and the requirements are high then you will find your computer extremely lazy and filthy

 

Accessory Hardware

 

Loading a lot of hardware components also make the computer work slower because the more the number of hardware you have installed to your computer the more drivers will be there and the more will be the number of hardware wizards and utilities and since most of them actively use the computer memory therefore the system speed considerably reduces.

 

External temperature

 

Another factor that I found to effect the speed of the computer considerably is the external temperature. Computers tend to perform faster and efficiently in winters and in summers when temperature in regions like mine become over 50 degrees celsius then the computers become very very slow. I must share with you that because of this problem I have installed three small but fast fans just above the heat sink of my processor to keep it cool and working.

Please avoid double-posting, especially with topics which express your own opinion, on subjects where you personally did no real measurement.All of us know that overheating can can cause cpu slow down, that does not mean that cpu speed is not important, simply look how six-core computers are faster than single-core computers on image processing.

But as I know, 6 CPU with 2 GHz frequency is slower than 1 CPU with 12 GHz frequency and that will always be like that, CPU is needed if you need to do a lot of operations.. :)Also I think that RAM is one of the most important things too, a lot of servers and data-centers have lots and lots of RAM ;]

Please avoid double-posting, especially with topics which express your own opinion, on subjects where you personally did no real measurement.All of us know that overheating can can cause cpu slow down, that does not mean that cpu speed is not important, simply look how six-core computers are faster than single-core computers on image processing.

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But as I know, 6 CPU with 2 GHz frequency is slower than 1 CPU with 12 GHz frequency and that will always be like that, CPU is needed if you need to do a lot of operations..
Also I think that RAM is one of the most important things too, a lot of servers and data-centers have lots and lots of RAM ;]

6 CPU's with 2GHz frequency are currently available for private use, you can buy one in a shop. One cpu with 12 GHz frequency does not exist yet. The higher frequency reached today is around 5 GHz, far below the 12 you mention.
And, of course, image handling is one of the case where there are several simultaneous operations, reading the video date, compressing them, writing them to disk, displaying the result and showing the work compression, if you simply want to surf on the web and read your mails you easily reach six simultaneous heavy processes!

Well, by saying 6 CPU is slower than 1 CPU with the same frequency, I meant that a quad core will never be faster than one core CPU with the same frequency summed up.But yes, you're right, that Today 6 CPU's with 2GHz frequency are currently available for private use and if the application supports multi-threading than it's really faster to do such operations or if it doesn't support multi-threading, still different operations can run on different CPU

Hey guys,I can confirm that a 12-core system is pretty darn fast.12-core mac pro: 20gb ram, 2.66ghz intel Xeon "Westmere".its like 50 times faster than my macbook pro, which isn't bad either.Macbook Pro: 8gb ram, 3.06ghz intel core 2 duo.ram matters a lot, because when I first purchased my macpro, it had only 6gb of ram, which made it a lot slower. it was 6x1gb ram, which i think is slower than having 3x2gb ram because it was slower than my macbook pro, which was 2x4gb ram.After the upgrade, 4x4gb ram + 4x1gb ram = 20gb ram, and a sped up system a by a lot.conclusion:If you have a really fast processor, you will need a large amount of ram to go with it, otherwise the processor is wasted.personal experience, not professionally proven in any way.

Okay, seriously, there's a lot of crap in this thread .

RAM

The amount of RAM you have must be adapted to your needs. If you have sufficient RAM in your pc, it won't become faster because you add more. If you have less than needed, your computer will become slower because it has to swap more often.

 

Softwares and applications

There's a truth in this, however, most computer nowadays are fast enough that you won't even notice that there are a lot of background programs running, tough it can slow down your computer if it's a bit older.

 

Processor

1) Okay, first of all, the highest clock in consumer CPU's is above 8Ghz .

2) your 12 core Mac is fast because it's a SERVER. It has disks running at 15.000rpm and forgive me to say, your MacBook Pro beat that server in single-core benches. You guys are totally missing the point when it comes to multi-core cpu's. They are slower in single-core applications because they usually run at a lower frequency than they single-core counterparts (that's why Intel introduced it's Turbo Boost to it's multi-core processors).

3) You're also forgetting the underlying architecture and the tasks it's going to do. A GPU for example has a few hundred, rather slow and simple processors, but they're completely optimized to handle multi-threading and stuff like that and that's what makes them much faster than the more complex CPU's which are sold nowadays.

 

Accessory Hardware

Well, that just depends on the device you use and the applications it installs (and launches a boot time), for example an HP multifunctional, it installs a lot of crap which launches a boot-time, which you don't even need at all.

 

External temperature

That's very personal imho. I've never had a CPU throttling before here in Belgium. It's btw not the outside temperature that matters, it's the inside temperature that matters . An Intel cooler for example is specified to keep your CPU at temperature as long as the temperature inside the computer is 38°C or lower (which wasn't true for the hot prescotts ).

 

And just to add my 2c:

you've forgotten to mention:

- the GPU (not only for gaming, also for HD playback)

- the HDD (there's a big difference between SSD and HDD)

- technology and up to date-ness (12Gb of EDO-ram isn't exactly going to give you a fast pc)

You know, my Mac pro isn't a server... It says "12-core WORKSTATION" just saying, it's not the newest models, when apple didn't realease the Mac pro server. It was the model before that...Just correcting your mistakes

Money would be an important factor on which the speed of a computer depends. The more money you have and are willing to invest in a new computer, the better computer components you will be able to buy.On a serious note, the factors change depending on how you use your computer. For gaming, the graphics card, GPU, memory and hard disk would be more important factors, whereas for word processing and office productivity use, the CPU and memory would be the important factors. Also, it also depends on how well the applications you run on your computer is able to utilise the resources e.g. if a application is unable to use multi-cores, then some of the processing power of the CPU would be wasted. Fortunately, there are technologies available now that alter CPU core performance to match the application's requirements.

don't forget internal temperture affects a computer because the cooloer the components are at the faster they can run. computer componenets speed is usually temperture related. they will run slower when they need to keep cool as they have to adapt to the temperatures other wise they will have to shutdown the computer. you have to make sure that you control the airflow as well since at the bottom of the case fans should be bringing air in and at the top they should be sending air out. don't forget heat rises and thats why top fans should send air out. you do this and then you have a constant and balanced air flow. it needs to be balanced since if you allowed the cold air to be blown out then heat will build up but by getting cold air into your case and hot air out then it keeps it cool. even just having one fan sending the hot air out is good enough since the effect of air going out the top has a tendacy to pull more air in to fill the void.

Another good educational post, but does the speed really make too much difference if you only use the pc for daily work like webbrowsing, MS office stuff, not really high end PC games?