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What the the best Hardware changes/upgrades that can be performed on Any Computer that will give the Best Performance Increase?

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I'm hoping to bring out some discussion on this topic, and even learn some things along the way. – Chris Pietschmann Aug 10 at 20:08
I'm also hoping we can document the different changes that can be made so anyone (especially the not so experienced users) can make an informed decision as to what hardware changes/upgrades will benefit them the most. – Chris Pietschmann Aug 10 at 20:17
I swear this has been asked in a similar fashion, but not sure which site. – Troggy♦ Aug 10 at 20:25
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Should be CW. What you're doing with your computer obviously means different things will mean a different increase in performance. I produce music so a better sound card and processor are king over RAM – Ciaran Aug 10 at 22:35
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Avoid asking questions that are subjective, argumentative, or require extended discussion. This is not a discussion board, this is a place for questions that can be answered! – Diago♦ Nov 16 at 14:19
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closed as subjective and argumentative by Diago♦ Nov 16 at 14:19
It's impossible to objectively answer this question; questions of this type are too open ended and usually lead to confrontation and argument.

7 Answers

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Add RAM/Memory - Generally, if your computer has more RAM in it then the Operating System doesn't have to use the Page File as much and can keep your programs in memory. This allows for faster performance since RAM accesses much faster than a Hard Drive.

Most often this is considered the most significant upgrade someone can perform on their computer to increase it's overall performance.

The amount of RAM/Memory that will give you the best performance benefit before you don't get any gain will be different for every Operating System. Below are a couple perceived "sweet spots" for some operating systems. Once you add more memory that this (unless you need it for a particular application) your system wont really get any "faster".

OS Memory Sweet Spots:

  • Windows XP - 4GB
  • Windows Vistsa x86 - 4GB (The OS actually doesn't support any more memory)
  • Windows Vista x64 - 8GB
  • Windows 7 x64 - 8GB
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According to Paul Thurrott (winsupersite.com/win7/win7_skus_compare.asp) x64 Win7 is 16GB (Home Premium) and 192GB (Enterprise and Ultimate) – Nate Aug 10 at 20:30
I'm referring to the "Sweet Spot", not the "Max Ram Supported" – Chris Pietschmann Aug 10 at 20:39
Another sweet spot might be 6gb with triple channel DDR3 memory with a 64 bit OS. 8gb is ideal with dual and quad channel memory setups. – Troggy♦ Aug 10 at 23:10
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The sweet spot is enough to keep from using the swap file. If you're running XP and just doing web type stuff 1 GB is probably plenty. Vista will benefit from 2 or 3GB in lighter use scenarios because of its better caching. Win7 does much better on old hardware but I haven't played around with it enough on low spec systems to get a good idea on what it needs for good results under light use. – Dan Neely Nov 16 at 14:14
If you're doing something more system intensive, eg gaming, programming, large image editing, video editing, running a database, running a bunch of VMs then you'll need alot more ram; but how much depends on how hard you push your system. Once you no longer are running close to having to swap more won't do any good. – Dan Neely Nov 16 at 14:16
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The correct answer is (almost) always Widening the bottleneck.

If your computer is going slow because it's paging all the time, then you need more RAM and a faster CPU won't do you much good.

If your computer stutters over a game that's CPU-bound (Source engine games, for instance, are notorious for eating CPU) then a new graphics card is just going to sit idle.

The much more important question in my mind is How the hell do I tell what's slowing me down?

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Solid State Drive - SSD's access much faster than a standard Hard Drive since they are chip based, instead of having a spinning disk inside. At the time of this posting they are still pretty expensive, but will definitely make your system boot up faster and will allow your computer to bring up your programs faster when you run them.

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But don't these SSD's have limited lifetimes compared to normal hard drives? – Isxek Aug 10 at 20:14
I'm not sure about the lifetime of SSD's, but that may be a trade off depending on your preferences. Anyone have any links to verify this one way or the other? – Chris Pietschmann Aug 10 at 20:18
I'd say faster disk drives in general gives a huge boost - but if it's 2 velociraptors in RAID0 or a $600 80GB SSD doesn't really matter much right now... cheaper SSDs can actually be much slower in practice due to crappy electronics - though it's getting better each quarter. Anyhow, go for any faster disk system, so +1... – Oskar Duveborn Aug 10 at 20:58
Apparently the technology has been improving over the years. This link is for servers, but it should also apply to PCs as well: storagesearch.com/ssdmyths-endurance.html – Isxek Aug 10 at 21:00
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Also both SSDs and hard disks degrade over time when it comes to performance (more errors = more time spent relocating sectors/cells and waiting for time-outs) - without actually failing. Replacing drives with new ones regularly sometimes does wonders for performance in its own. – Oskar Duveborn Aug 10 at 21:02
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Faster or Multi-Core CPU / Processor - Upgrading to a faster CPU / Processor can help increase the performance of you computer, but you'll need to give it a decent upgrade. For example: You may never notice a difference upgrading from a 2.4Ghz CPU to a 2.6Ghz CPU. However, you will probably notice the difference between a 2.4Ghz and a 3.6Ghz CPU. Also, if you currently have a Single-Core CPU and you upgrade to a Dual-Core with a similar or higher operating frequency (Ghz) you will probably notice a difference in performance.

The performance increase is also relative to the amount of your CPU that you utilize at any given time. If your CPU utilization is at about 75% or higher alot of time you will benefit the most from a CPU upgrade. However, if your CPU is normally at about 50% or lower utilization, then you probably do not need a CPU upgrade since you wont notice much difference.

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+1 The old "cpu speed doesn't matter because all the other components are slower" myth is definitely just that, a myth, at least mostly... ^^ – Oskar Duveborn Aug 10 at 20:59
Can you edit your answer to include the fact that many apps don't actually take full advantage of having a multi-core processor? – Ciaran Aug 10 at 23:05
You consider 50% CPU usage normal? You must be using vista. – PiPeep Aug 11 at 3:50
50% utilization isn't normal, but from what I've seen if you upgrade to a faster cpu if it never gets above 50% you probably wont notice a difference after the upgrade. – Chris Pietschmann Aug 11 at 16:40
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Upgrade to at least 2GB RAM then, if the HDD is relatively old - get a new one. Disk I/O is the main bottleneck after RAM, IMHO

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ProcessExplorer, FileMon and the other (IMHO) great tools from sysinternals can help diagnose where the botleneck lies. Just keep an eye on strained processor, very frequent access to the page file, etc.

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Windows Vista and Windows 7 provide a brilliant rating system. The system gets an overall performance rating, and the rating is divided into components that are also rated.

This may tell you that RAM or your graphics card is the biggest bottleneck in your system, and you can upgrade the weakest component to get the performance boost you're looking for.

One caveat:
Take into consideration if the bottleneck is related to what you want. The rating may indicate that your graphics card is the bottleneck. However, if you want more performance for, say, an intensive database application calculation, or massive Internet traffic, then 3-D graphics won't help at all.

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