Getting more performance out of your computer:

 

Most CPU speeds are more than ample to keep up with the software apps. It's other bottlenecks in systems that slow things down. Lack of available memory is the biggest culprit, along with hard drive transfer rate, and shared video memory. Knowing where your bottlenecks are allows you to manage the problem, or at least understand why things may be slow.

 

Nowadays, one should have at least 512MB of ram for Windows XP. I would go higher, either 768MB or 1GB. RAM is very inexpensive. I run 1.2GB of ram on my laptop.

 

7200RPM drives have faster transfer rates than 5400RPM or 4200RPM drives. That’s because the drive is spinning faster, and therefore reading data faster. Simple choice.

 

Separate video memory has been a huge factor in computing speed, but is lesser so now (if your machine is a core duo). I always use a freeway analogy:

 

Let's say you have a 4-lane freeway and you are moving data between the RAM and the CPU. That'll be just fine. There may be a bit of congestion now and then, but for the most part it's fine. But now, let's add the traffic between the graphics card and the CPU on the same 4-lane freeway. Now, any time you are doing graphics (any change to the display such as switching windows, or even typing), that data has to compete on the same freeway.

 

So, if you get a machine that has it's own dedicated video memory, it's like adding a separate 4-lane freeway just for the graphics card. You can see that this would have a huge impact on overall system performance with this seemingly small change. This is true on both desktops and laptops. Unfortunately not many laptops have dedicated video memory.

 

That being said, nowadays, with core duo processors, the bus speeds have increased enough so that there isn't as much of a performance hit. It's like the freeways are now 8-lane freeways. It still does help to have 2 separate 8 lane freeways, but not as much as before.