Question about responsiveness

[mythos]

After having done my homework on the forums, I think I have a pretty good idea of which components the majority here are recommending for the best bang-for-the buck.

The basic problem I have, though, is that I don't care much about benchmarks. It's nice to do video editing and the like a little faster (or a lot), but I don't use the pc for any one thing predominantly so what I'm really interested in is responsiveness

Can someone give me some ideas as to how to achieve this goal?

I understand the general consensus for games is to spend the most on the video card..everything else is secondary, more or less.

What about the average tasking/multitasking? If I want my OS to boot up as fast as possible, programs to open / switch between as quickly as possible.. which components are most important to achieve this?

Some specific questions:

1) Raptor drives - people seem to say they're not really that much faster - but in terms of responsiveness, will they give a real noticeable boost overall? That I can't get some other way?

2) What sort of differences will I see between 1GB and 2GB of RAM? Will it be pronounced, or only in very specific situations? How about 667 vs 800MHz?

3) Aside from benchmark scores for encoding or whatnot, will going from an E6300 (my choice atm) to an E6600 give me a real boost in overall system responsiveness?

4) If I want to moderately overclock only, does the MOBO matter (as long as I don't get absolute bottom end)?

4) And finally.. ( a little ot..) are there any tuner cards that will let me tune OTA HD and record it in all its splendor to my HD? Any recommendations?

I'm not looking so much to cut corners as to focus spending.. funds are there if it's warranted but aren't unlimited. Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[GSTe]

Hello. I don't know the answer to many of your questions, but as I posted a list a few days ago and only one person replied (as several questions at once are obviously too tasking for most), I will share what I do know....

Windows boot time can not be improved much.

The speed at which programs open/install seems to depend more on the program than anything else. If you watch task manager when you are opening/installing them, you will notice that they rarely use all of your CPU's power.

I recently upgraded from 1 to 2 Gigs of ram. It has made a big difference in my computer's speed and ability to swith between programs using alt + tab.

Hard drives are the biggest bottlenecks on most systems, so a Raptor should speed up some tasks noticeably.

The chipset the motherboard uses can make a big difference, but amongst mobos that use the same chipset, as far as I can tell the only difference is the features they have, and the amount you can use it to overclock.

Hope some of this was useful.

 

[jaguarskx]

1) Raptor drives - people seem to say they're not really that much faster - but in terms of responsiveness, will they give a real noticeable boost overall? That I can't get some other way?

Never had any experience with them, but there are people who say that boot time is less than 30 seconds compared to about 45 seconds for the average PC.

As far as openning programs/files. It would be marginally faster depending on the size of the file or the program.

I've read reviews about Gigabyte's I-RAM storage solution that can boot your PC as fast as 16 seconds. However, this is an expensive and unorthedox method. I-RAM is basically a solid state module that allows you to add RAM. I acts like a hard drive, and since everything is stored in memory, the OS will load faster.

There are limitations however. The first version only allows you to add 4GB of RAM. Good enough for the OS and a few programs. I think a newer version will allow you to add up to 16GB of RAM. However, are you willing to pay $$$ for 4GB or 16GB of DDR2 RAM?

2) What sort of differences will I see between 1GB and 2GB of RAM? Will it be pronounced, or only in very specific situations? How about 667 vs 800MHz?

Having more RAM will improve responsiveness because when the OS runs out of RAM then the excess data is written to the swap file on your hard drive. It takes time to read and write.

It is recommended that you place the swap file (or page file) on a separate physical hard drive, not merely a partition of the same drive that has the OS.

DDR2 RAM speeds of 533MHz, 667MHz, and 800MHz is dependant on the CPU used. Intel's C2D CPU is designed to us 533MHz. Anything faster would be for overclocking. However, AMD's AM2 Athlon 64 needs DDR2 800MHz RAM to begin with just to keep up with the older S939 Athlon 64 using DDR 400 RAM.

3) Aside from benchmark scores for encoding or whatnot, will going from an E6300 (my choice atm) to an E6600 give me a real boost in overall system responsiveness?

Aside from benchmarks, you won't see a difference in responsiveness.

4) If I want to moderately overclock only, does the MOBO matter (as long as I don't get absolute bottom end)?

If moderate overclocking is your goal then you can simply buy an "average" motherboard.

4) And finally.. ( a little ot..) are there any tuner cards that will let me tune OTA HD and record it in all its splendor to my HD? Any recommendations?

Sorry, can't help here.