Eliminate Bottlenecks To Increase Performance

A chain is only as strong as the weakest link. The components of a computer function as one, similar to the way all the organs of a organism function together as one. To obtain the best performance out of your system, you need to make sure that one component isn't slowing down all the other components. For example, a extreme gaming rig with a Core i7, 3-way SLI, and 4GB of RAM will be sluggish if it is running an IDE hard disk. When I upgraded from a 40GB IDE hard disk to a 320GB SATA hard disk, it boosted my FPS by up to 25FPS. This is astonishing considering the drive at the time only cost $65 on NewEgg. Another critical, yet inexpensive pipeline is your RAM. Most RAM modules won't cost you over $50, yet is one of the most vital components in the entire system. The CPU needs RAM to store data to reference and without enough RAM, or RAM that is too slow, the CPU literally has to wait for the RAM to deliver the data, hence slowing down your system drastically. Finally, one last central component I will cover is the motherboard. This is the component that can slow down the most components. It can limit your RAM speeds, your front bus speeds, your overclocking ability, and the speed you hard disks can communicate with the CPU, amongst other things. Although it is not the cheapest componenet to replace, a decent motherboard that won't slow down your components will run around $80.