#1. What is RAID? I know it deals with the hard drive but what does it actually mean and what does it do? What are the pros and cons of different RAID settings?
#2. What do different rails do in a power supply? What would you need any other voltage but 12V for? Does this make the power supply more stable and does it pull more power from the wall? Pros and cons of a single 12V rail versus a power supply with multiple 12V rails or multiple rails of different voltage?
#3. How does bottlenecking occur? What parts of the computer can create a bottle neck and how badly will this impact performance? Would there be any noticeable bottlenecking on my system if I have an i7 930, ATI 5850, and 6GB Triple Channel DDR3 RAM?
#4. This is not exactly related to hardware but if I set AA in game and also set it through Catalyst Control Center which setting takes priority or do they both work at the same time? Should I leave my card on the default settings and set the settings in-game or both?
#5. How necessary is a after market CPU cooler? I know that the stock cooler that comes with the i7 930 is quite basic but will it perform well enough? How big should the temperature drop be if I move to an after market cooler? Current idling/browsing temperature is usually around 30 degrees C.
#6. Will I notice a large increase in transfer and start up speeds if I switch from a HDD to an SSD? Is there any way to only transfer the operating system and not games/programs/files?
#7. If I completely replace my hard drive and reinstall the OS will the computer be back to full speed? Are there any other factors in the eventual slow down of a computer?
Sorry for the many questions but these are things that I have been wondering. Nothing is currently of major concern but knowledge is power and with great power comes great responsibility (Uncle Ben). Thanks for your time.
#1. What is RAID? Using more than one hard drive as a team, to increase speed. The different settings just regulate how the drives are configured. This is one of those things that if you have to ask, you probably don't need it.
#2. What do different rails do in a power supply? It used to be that the 3v and 5v rails were most important, with 12v less so. Things have changed, so you want most of your power coming from the 12v for today's computers and videocards. That's why you'll see "ATX v2.2" or "ATX v1.3" marked on power supply specs. Depending on the generation of computer you have, you'll want to match it to the right type of power supply. How many 12v rails a psu has is mostly irrelevant if you choose a quality psu. If you're running SLI or Crossfire, split rails may come in handy(not overloading one rail by dumping the full load on it).
#3. How does bottlenecking occur? Think of how a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A computer is only as fast as its slowest component. in gaming, the relevant components being the CPU and videocard. The AMOUNT of memory, not speed, is usually the what you worry about with system ram. There are too many factors in bottlenecking to give general "yes" or "no" answers. The specific game you play, the resolution, the graphic settings, the framerate you are looking to hit- these all affect the answer.
#4. This is not exactly related to hardware but if I set AA in game and also set it through Catalyst Control Center which setting takes priority or do they both work at the same time? Use the game settings if possible, otherwise you can force it through the driver(CCC). Some games are quirky and you'll have to experiment to see what works best.
#5. How necessary is a after market CPU cooler? Unnecessary if you aren't overclocking. Intel and AMD provide their retail CPUs will adequate heatsink/fan cooling. If you intend to unlock cores or overclock though you'll need something better.
#6. Will I notice a large increase in transfer and start up speeds if I switch from a HDD to an SSD? OS boot up times will benefit enormously, other transfers maybe not so much. That's because the one time your computers performance is mostly limited by drive speed is when booting up.
#7. If I completely replace my hard drive and reinstall the OS will the computer be back to full speed? Depends what you consider 'full speed'. I tweak my OS for my needs after installing it, to me that is full speed. But a simple, clean install is about as close to full speed as you're going to get without tweaking it. Other factors in slow downs are mainly having more and more programs and files loading when you boot up your computer.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
