what is "bottlenecking" ?

This may sound confusing at first. For some games that is true. Some games require little CPU usage and do not put high demands in a GPU either. Games that require little demands in the CPU/GPU that would be a true statement. Other games are very CPU and GPU dependent. There are some games that will run decent settings on an on board graphics and do fairly well. Other games demand a great deal out of the CPU/GPU combo. Those games that are less demanding, the CPU, and to a large extent, GPU don't matter too much. Others it matters very much. A dual core CPU with on board graphics will run many games at moderate settings, and give you decent frame rates. I can't speak to AC4, as I don't play it. But, that same rig with on board graphics, I would not suggest even trying to play BF4. Most likely it will not run it at all. That game is demanding on the whole system. But, once you get any competent CPU, the rest is determined by the GPU. The GPU is the most determining factor in most modern games, just as long as you have a CPU that will not bottleneck it. It can get complicated in some cases. The best solution is build a balanced system. Get a CPU and a GPU that will not bottleneck each other and you will do fine. In more demanding games, you may need to turn the settings down a little, but they will play it fine. But, the Graphics card is the most determining factor in almost all games. CPU does matter though.

The same way with hard drives! The Windows Experience Index score is only determined by the lowest subscore based on tests run on the Processor, Memory, Graphics (Aero and Games), and Disk performance. Some systems, including low-budget PC's rest at the low-end of the Aero score (between 2.0 and 4.5), while stuff we build score all the way up to 7.9!

Mine can only get all the way up to 5.9 for some reason, even though it's SATA 6.0 Gbps.

HoneycombAG said:

The same way with hard drives! The Windows Experience Index score is only determined by the lowest subscore based on tests run on the Processor, Memory, Graphics (Aero and Games), and Disk performance. Some systems, including low-budget PC's rest at the low-end of the Aero score (between 2.0 and 4.5), while stuff we build score all the way up to 7.9!

Mine can only get all the way up to 5.9 for some reason, even though it's SATA 6.0 Gbps.

Install an SSD and your score will go up to 7.9. 5.9 is pretty much as high as you will get with a mechanical hard drive. In this discussion, I guess you would say your hard drive is the 'bottleneck' of your system.

you could just plug it into a sata 3 port on your mobo using the current sata cable. you dont need a special "wire"

zap9x said:

..... oh ..... .... i thought there was a manual on the mobo saying there should be 2 kind of cable , one 3gb/s and one 6gb/s , so the different was just about its being rotated 90* ? .... sorry for my bad english i cannot describe it with my poor mind ....

I know of which you speak, It just means that you can identify the 6gps port by the fact that it is aligned differently on the motherboard. Some are actually Colour coded. But the wire itself doesn't actually matter.

It's the same with USB2 / 3.. The wire is the same, just the controller is different.

As to the 5.9 score on a mech drive. If you tried using a WD Black edition your score would probably reach about 6.5 i believe.