help with School Research Project

[Justinw]

For a school research project I am required to ask a few different people questions about the topic I choose. I choose to do my topic on “what effects computer performance?” I would really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes of your time to answer some questions. The answers can be very short. Thank you, and have a good day.

1. What is your name? (make it up if you want)

2. What are your credentials/experience working with computers?

3. What is the one thing that has the most effect on computer performance?

4. What are some other main things that effect computer performance?

5. How fast of a processor would you recommend for the average user?

6. How much RAM would your recommend for the average user?

7. Does hard drive speed have much effect on the overall computer speed?

8. In your opinion is an AMD Athlon processor better or and Intel Pentium and which would you recommend?

9. What is the difference between an Intel Pentium 4 and an Intel Pentium 4 with Hyperthreading technology?

10. What is the difference between a 32-bit processor and a 64-bit processor, like the Athlon 64?

11. Some computers come with integrated graphics and others come with a video card. What is the advantage of having a separate video card, and is it needed?

12. Does the brand name of a computer affect its performance?

 

[office politics]

1. c. samuels

2. 2 years vocational high school in Computer Systems Tech, graduated Top Ten Student & National Vocational Honor Society. Currently enrolled, one class left, at del tech college for associates degree in computer network engineering. Completed Cisco CCNA 1-4 classes. Completed 2 yr apprenticeship as a computer equiptment operator. Worked Part Time for 2 yrs as a computer tech for a local insurance company. Currently working Full Time, almost another yr, at the company. A+ certified.

3. really broad question. I'm going to say the cpu because it's what does most of the work.

4. Front Side Bus, Amount & clockspeed of RAM, Amount & Speed of Hard Drive(s), Environment Conditions (temp, humidity, etc), Configuration of Software

5. 800mhz-1ghz, define avg

6. once again define avg. 98-256 2k-256 xp-512

7. yes, but you will prolly only notice this when reading/writing large amounts of data.

8. I haven't done much research. IMO, I try to always use Intel Pents. However, it is just personal preference and in my mind both should be equal.

9. http://www.intel.com/technology/hyperthread/

10. i havent done my research, but i think the difference is in the size of the registers, 32-bit registers & 64-bit registers. This means that the 64 bit processor can move more data per cpu clocktick.

11. Are you using a graphic intensive pc? Like for Gaming or playing movies? If so, you want the best video card money can buy along with other top notch componets. But if you're not going to be using your machine for graphic intesive applications then the integrated video should be fine

12. No, the designers and componets do.

 

[Justinw]

Thank you very much. This will really help me out. I, myself knew most of these anwers, but it is a requirement that i have responses from 3 people. Thanks again

If anyone else would like to reply it would really be appreciated. the computer will be running windows xp.

 

[Icedragon]

1. Corey

2. none really except for my dad teaching me stuff and having relatives bring their computers to me to fix.

3. I would have to say the processor

4. Basicly everything that csamuels said lol

5. depend on what you are doing, if you are stricting word processing, web surfing, and stuff like that I would recommend a 1.2 ghz +

6. 512kb

7. Yes like when you are loading WinXP, installing programs, opening programs, that indeed increases overall performance.

8. I can't really say except that ive used Intel all of my life and I find nothing wrong with it, it is still blazing fast. AMD may be statisticly better for gaming and stuff but who really cares, you cant even compare the performance difference out of the 2 when playing games, and if you can it's very slight.

9. http://www.intel.com/technology/hyperthread/ hehe

10. Im not that smart

11. If you game than yes, get a seperate Gfx card because a Onboard Gfx card shares memory with your system memory and thats not cool when you are gaming. For everything else Onboard is just fine.

12. no the people who make it do.

 

[TheMajor]

TheMajor

1. [removed by request]

2. Very unexperienced

3. Depends on type of application:
For gaming: RAM & graphics card
For video editing etc: CPU!!! and RAM

4. Bus speeds, HD speeds, independant soundcards, running processes

5.
500Mhz for normal use; min. Intel 2.0 or AMD2000+ for gaming

6. 256-512 MB

7. depends...if u have a small amount of RAM u need faster drives for swap

8. AMD!

9. A HT proc is some kind of virtual dual proc technology...it processes 2 threads at the same time, but only at 50% of the available speed; its only one single CPU though

10.
It processes twice the amount of data per clock cycle..but only if the app is 64bits

11.
It doesn't use as many recources from your comp, seperate card mostly have their own PU and memory..onboards don't

12. not the name, the manufacturers of the mobo and BIOS do

 

[Apokalipse]

1. Chris

2. not much yet appart from these forums, I have put in computer parts, installed a few OS's, played around with my current comp. I know a lot, but I haven't been able to do much with what I know

3. the video card, CPU or RAM

4. RAM, motherboard, cooling system

5. New: 2.8GHZ (Intel) or 2.0GHZ (AMD)
second hand: 1-1.5GHZ

6. 256-512MB

7. sometimes it does, it affects boot time, but not usually anything else unless you're using it heavily

8. AMD, they are trying things Intel haven't, like getting more performance with lower frequencies

9. the Pentium 4's with HT act like there is 2 CPU's for multitasking. the performance difference is not much unless you're using apps that take advantage of it

10. the amount of RAM you can use, and the amount of possible instructions you can get from a byte

11. a seperate video card doesn't take up CPU time, and you can replace it with another. a seperate video card is usually made much better and gives a lot better performance. although this performance is not needed by some users

12. sometimes it does. some brands don't make their parts well, and others do. although there are a lot of cases where there is little difference between components of different brands