New
#1
What Hardware Affects Performance On A Windows 7 PC?
I have an older system. I have about $500 to spend right now and was thinking of replacing the motherboard, cpu, and ram. Everything else is still up to snuff. I built a cutting edge gaming PC about 8 years ago so I still have all the other stuff I can use for now. I figure I'll build another cutting edge one in another year or two.
Gaming is no longer what I use my computer for. I use it to work and need to have several resource heavy programs open. I don't need a PC specialized for a specific task, but rather a general high performance experience when working with various types of software. MS Word, Firefox with lots of open tabs, sometimes Photoshop or video/audio editing, watching videos, etc.. Just general use. I need to use it for my new job and the current build isn't cutting it.
So I'm curious, as I'm about to start researching hardware, what hardware features are important for high performance in Windows 7 64-bit? What will give me the best bang for my buck in terms of responsiveness and overall performance with what I have described?
I'm curious about things like CPU Cache, number of cores, specific CPU architectures, etc... What features matter when selecting these new components? Thanks so much!